Take the Wheel: BellyFire owner David Rollins’ passion for pottery
Bounding past a tangle of black aprons colored with surreal splashes of clay, and a wavy river current mural painted on a grape purple wall by his own hand, David Rollins bypasses pottery wheels and shelves of supplies and stops at a machine that looks like a large Space Age instant pot.
“This is the best part, the part I’m always surprised by,” Rollins says, lifting the lid of the kiln to reveal a batch of freshly fired, painted pottery. “When I pull things from the kiln, every time, it reminds me how much creativity is in Baton Rouge. It’s just crazy the artwork I see here.”
Rollins owns BellyFire Studios, a clay-throwing and pottery-painting haven for crafty parties and dates or for artists needing a space to create. But pottery for him began with the same excitement he gets from pulling others’ work from the kiln.
“The school was probably a little annoyed with how many resources I was using,” he says of his time talking his way into two pottery classes and an independent study with clay in high school. “But that’s why I am where I am today, because Episcopal allowed me to explore so much with pottery.”
Now he’s firing up others to find their groove behind the pottery wheel. He employs five instructors for a variety of classes and is expanding his openings for artist members to use the wheels and studio space however and whenever they want.
One of BellyFire Studios’ members is Stacy Hunt, a software developer from Dallas. Feeling restless with her work-from-home schedule after a few months in Baton Rouge, she began searching for a “third place” separate from an office or her home to spend leisure time, learn something new, and get creative.
“I fell in love with [pottery],” Hunt says. “What I love about clay is that it is endless. There’s so much to try and to learn at BellyFire, and being a perfectionist, I appreciate clay because until you fire it, you can start over again. Just be humble and try again. That’s kind of a life lesson.”
Inspired equally by the bold expressions of abstract artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and the uncompromising experimentation of Tesla and X owner Elon Musk, Rollins is an entrepreneur, and his advice is to use creativity in an energetic but focused way to meet a worthwhile demand. “Strike a balance between what you want to make and what other people want to buy,” says the creative who also works in advertising and vending.
While he still sits at the wheel daily with his hands on clay—“I always feel better, if I have a hard day, after making something.”—his focus for now is creating a pottery boom in Baton Rouge.
“We are really trying to get the word out there and make it affordable and accessible,” Rollins says. “I’m excited to keep building this community around pottery.”
David Rollins
Hometown: Baton Rouge
Age: 27
Artistry: Owner/potter, BellyFire Studios
Online: bellyfirestudios.com, @bellyfirestudiosbr on Instagram
View this profile on Instagram
