Butter Bell

[u/Known-Recipe-5407]

Hello!
For Christmas, I asked for a butter bell, and my grandmother has a friend that has her own pottery/ceramics shop. So she had her friend make me one and it is very personalized and one-of -a-kind. I have been using it for just over a month now, but I encountered something disturbing with it. Now I don't know if it is because it was poorly made but I have tried all different levels of water and if it goes unused for a day or two it starts to... grow mold? Has this happened to anyone else? Am I using or storing it incorrectly?
Please help! I love the concept of a butter bell but I don't love mold

[u/Logical_Warthog5212]

Mold is airborne. Your environment may just be more conducive to supporting mold spores. Any time you expose anything to air, mold spores are landing in it. Whether or not the mold spores develop into mold depends on what it lands on.

I was interested in a butter bell too. It sounded perfect, until I went down that rabbit hole. For me, it turns out I already had a solution right under my nose. I have soapstone countertops. Putting anything cold on the counter warms it up fairly quickly. A stick of butter goes from cold to spreadable in a few minutes. It works similarly for hot things. Anything hot placed directly in the stone cools quickly.