Steve Stringer works his dream job out of a shed in Melrose Hill.
The five hundred-square-foot outbuilding wasn’t the place Stringer, an L.A.-based ceramicist, imagined organising store. The day he discovered it, he was touring a neighboring Western Avenue property. When that area turned out to be too huge for an artwork studio, the owner informed Stringer he was free to check out the shed out again.
On this sequence, we spotlight impartial makers and artists, from glassblowers to fiber artists, who’re creating unique merchandise in and round Los Angeles.
Upon first look, the place appeared a bit shoddy, Stringer mentioned. Nevertheless it had good bones and a secret treasure form of enchantment. He informed the owner he’d take it.
“However I’m calling it a backhouse,” he mentioned.
After a monthlong DIY renovation, Steve’s Backhouse opened its doorways in Could. Every month since, Stringer has hosted a slate of artistic workshops — most of them bought out — on the studio, together with his signature Tattoo a Mug class, throughout which members embellish mugs hand-spun by Stringer in a patchwork tattoo fashion.
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Stringer previously took his workshops to classic shops and occasional retailers throughout L.A. Again then, he lugged his provides across the metropolis and did his greatest to adapt to no matter seating association his host venue had out there.
At Backhouse, the ceramicist meticulously created a structure with one thing for everybody: bar seats for singles, a communal desk for socializers and smaller tables for teams and dates. There’s additionally a couple of outside spots, although these weren’t so intentionally deliberate.
“I’m fortunate that the workshops are widespread,” mentioned ceramicist Steve Stringer. “That’s how I used to be in a position to open this as a enterprise.”
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Instances)
“I by accident bought eight further tickets for a category,” he mentioned, chuckling at himself. So he improvised.
It took Stringer the higher a part of a day to arrange his Tattoo a Mug workshop in mid-September. When he was completed, Backhouse appeared as aesthetically curated as a Michelin-starred restaurant.
All through the room, matching mushroom lamps solid a heat glow over Stringer’s handcrafted wooden tables. Atop them lay 32 similar desk settings, every containing a No. 2 pencil, an underglaze pencil, an eraser, a paper towel, a crimson clay mug and a flash sheet — a printout of choose Stringer-signature designs, modeled after those created by tattoo artists.
It’s tougher than folks suppose to provide you with issues to attract on the spot, Stringer mentioned earlier than the September workshop, so he gives the flash sheets as inspiration for attendees. This specific sheet was summer-themed, that includes sketches of shrimp cocktail and a Spongebob Squarepants popsicle.
“I’m not valuable about my very own artwork,” he mentioned. “I don’t imply to undersell it, however I like that individuals are into it sufficient to wish to put it on their piece too.”
The facade of Steve’s Backhouse options an outsized model of a canine that often seems in Steve Stringer’s artwork, which was painted by Jenna Homen.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Instances)
Stringer mentioned he’s all the time had a deal with on his illustration fashion — quaint, witty and a bit kitschy — however the distinctive look that his ceramics share additionally developed out of necessity.
“It’s fairly difficult to attract on pottery and get it to, like, maintain up,” Stringer mentioned. “So anyway, as soon as I discovered the supplies that labored, that type of dictated my fashion. All of it appears just a little tough — form of like a child did it.”
Fiona Chen sketches her mug designs in pencil, step one of the Tattoo a Mug course of.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Instances)
Recurring motifs, together with a trio of nondescript canine that a number of workshop attendees adopted for their very own mugs, adorned numerous Stringer originals strewn about Backhouse.
Stringer constructed a lot of the studio’s inside himself, save for choose furnishings and an Ikea shelving unit he painted cobalt blue to match the room’s colourful aesthetic. Equal elements whimsical and curated, the area landed visually someplace between a kindergarten classroom and a museum gallery.
It was unmistakably the work of an artist.
“I undoubtedly was all the time into the artwork stuff, [but] I didn’t know what path it was gonna take,” Stringer mentioned. “It seems it simply took each path.”
Till not too long ago, Stringer’s biography was pretty customary for a Hollywood transplant.
He bought his grasp’s diploma in screenwriting in Texas, moved to L.A. and grinded at one assistant job after one other earlier than he lastly bought the dream gig in a author’s room, writing on reveals “Roswell, New Mexico” and “Inform Me a Story.” Then, because the story goes for a lot of in Hollywood, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, triggering an trade slowdown and leaving Stringer out of labor.
However then got here the plot twist: Stringer struck gold once more.
At first, ceramics was simply an escape from the monotonous copywriting work Stringer dreaded.
Steve Stringer, middle, instructs an occasion participant throughout his Tattoo a Mug workshop.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Instances)
“I undoubtedly didn’t envision it as a stream of revenue. It was therapeutic,” he mentioned. On prime of that, Stringer was on a tattoo kick however too risk-averse to ink anybody however himself. Ceramics had been an ideal substitute.
However Stringer by no means did something midway, mentioned John Bellina, his longtime pal and former roommate. The 2 moved collectively to L.A. after finishing the screenwriting grasp’s program on the College of Texas at Austin in 2013.
“Despite the fact that I’m not 100% nice with the artwork, I really like doing the artwork stuff and being round folks and simply doing one thing artistic,” mentioned Mary Anne Rose, who attended the Tattoo a Mug workshop together with her daughter, Jen Rose.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Instances)
“He would write a whole album in his room, and I wouldn’t even hear him file it. And it might be fantastically composed,” Bellina mentioned of his pal’s many skills. When Stringer sketched, he mentioned, “it wasn’t simply doodles. It was meticulously drawn. And his strains had been good.”
So when Stringer’s informal pastime grew to become a full-fledged enterprise, Bellina mentioned he wasn’t stunned. The ceramicist’s artwork observe built-in a lot of the work he did earlier than.
Elaine Chen attracts with a pencil on her mug.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Instances)
As a TV author, Bellina mentioned, Stringer had a robust voice and “all the time may discover a method to the joke so rapidly.”
It’s the identical means together with his ceramics, which frequently function puns or different quips, Bellina mentioned. “You could have such restricted area to make three phrases actually pop and also you get precisely what he’s going for,” he mentioned.
On prime of that, Bellina and Stringer, as graduate college students of their early 20s, collectively taught undergraduate screenwriting lessons, “and I suppose in an extended and roundabout means these terminal levels got here round,” Bellina mentioned.
Steve Stringer, middle, instructs throughout his Tattoo a Mug workshop.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Instances)
At his September workshop, Stringer shrugged on the artwork trainer archetype like an previous sweater. For the primary 5 minutes, he gave a monologue, working his means by a step-by-step clarification of the “tattoo” course of, which he mentioned jokingly, “will not be a factor — I simply made it up for TikTok.”
“The stakes are low. You may’t actually mess it up,” he mentioned, assuring his pupils. “And for those who neglect something, I’m glad to repeat myself. I do it on a regular basis.”
For the following two hours, Stringer roved the room, pausing to sharpen pencils or reward members’ designs. When Ellie Alfeld requested whether or not her underglaze pencil strains had been too thick, he assured her they had been good.
“Do you need to say that — that it’s good?” Alfeld’s girlfriend, Sofia Leimer, requested. Stringer rapidly answered, “No,” so earnestly it was unattainable to not imagine him.
Stringer’s favourite spot to linger was within the entrance doorway, the place he may watch over the indoor and outside crowds. When somebody known as for him mid-task, he informed them, “I’ll come again.”
However he by no means hovered, workshop attendee Celine Cormier mentioned. “He type of simply pops in if you want that help or route,” she mentioned.
Lucero Garcia reveals her “tattooed” mug that matches her arm tattoo.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Instances)
Cormier has attended a number of of Stringer’s workshops, together with his first Tattoo a Mug class. She mentioned she retains coming again as a result of, to her, there’s nothing fairly just like the ambiance Stringer creates.
“L.A. and the artwork scene, it may be just a little exclusionary,” Cormier mentioned.
At Backhouse, the place the door is huge open and contemporary flowers are on the desk, “you virtually really feel such as you’re going to somebody’s home,” she mentioned.
In different phrases, Stringer would possibly make his cash creating and instructing ceramics. However “Steve’s primary enterprise is the artwork of bringing folks collectively,” mentioned Josie Francis, co-founder of artistic arts observe Fuzz & Fuzz and a previous workshop co-host of Stringer’s.
Steve Stringer attracts a number of recurring characters on his ceramics, together with a trio of canine that right here sit at a dinner desk.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Instances)
Stringer’s ceramics observe additionally orchestrated probability conferences in his personal life.
Bridget Derraugh, Stringer’s girlfriend of almost two years, was casually scrolling on Hinge in spring 2024 when she stumbled throughout a ceramicist whose work appeared acquainted. Ultimately, she got here to comprehend she’d used one of many man’s mugs at a pal’s home a couple of days earlier than.
The mug was from the primary market Stringer ever bought at — Derraugh’s pal had been his first buyer.
The 2 messaged forwards and backwards in regards to the serendipity of all of it, and evidently, “the date went rather well,” Derraugh mentioned, smiling shyly.
When Stringer informed Derraugh about his concept for Backhouse, she wasn’t certain whether or not it was possible, financially or in any other case.
“However simply understanding his character,” Derraugh mentioned, “he has the artistic facet, however he is also a planner and really diligent and attentive to element — and generally is a perfectionist generally.
“I used to be simply type of like, ‘Yeah, if anybody’s gonna do it, it’s you,’” she mentioned.
Celine Cormier paints a cherry on her mug, which she deliberate to provide a pal as a birthday current.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Instances)
“In some methods,” Stringer mentioned, “I really feel way more like I used to be meant to be doing this. I cherished TV writing after I was doing it, however I like wanting again, perhaps I by no means absolutely slot in.”
Proper now, Stringer is ramping up on wholesale offers and seeking to check out a drop-in fashion mannequin at Backhouse. He’s undecided what’s subsequent for the place, however he’s glad that not like when he labored within the leisure trade, he’ll get to make that call when the time comes.
“For good purpose, TV has construction and guidelines,” he mentioned. “However I get to make up the principles right here.”
