It looks like great things are happening in Linden folks. First there was Whippet, (after some teething problems they’ve finally hit their stride) and now there’s the lovely Ceramic Factory.
The owner, Rial Visagie, has designed a wide selection of quirky and retro ceramics and it’s the perfect place to shop for presents. Apart from the retail store they’re also a wholesale supplier to lodges, hotels, restaurants, interior designers etc.
Go check it out: 59 4th Avenue, Linden.
I recently spotted these lovely, fresh geometric bowls on the House and Leisure site. They’re by Carla da Cruz a ceramic artist based in Durban, South Africa. Along with making ceramic artworks, she also makes Token, a range of ceramic jewellery, accessories and decor items.
e-mail: tokenceramics@gmail.com
http://tokenceramics.blogspot.com/
You can also follow her on Pinterest.
I’ve featured the talented Elise Wessels here before, but since she has a brand new website up and she’s currently having an exhibition at Wolves I thought I’d show some of her fantastic ceramics.
Check out her website http://blackfan.co.za/
Cats by Gillian Greer
I just love all these beautiful handmade tiles by Southern Art Ceramics. Gerrit Oosthuizen heads up the company situated in Hermanus and they’re known for designing and producing beautiful, customizable handmade tiles. I can spend the whole day trawling through their lovely tiles.
Some of the artists they work with include Gillian Greer, Sim Cqushuza, Gerrit Oosthuizen and Hele Oosthuizen.
http://www.handmadetiles.co.za/
Or join their Facebook Page.
Katherine Jollye is an architect who’s always busy making new things. I’ve featured her lovely Christmas cards here before and this time I chatted to her about her cool new range of ceramics.
When did you start venturing into ceramics?
Ceramics is a new endeavour for me, and so far I’m loving every moment of making them. An architect by trade, these are a way for me to express my creativity and focus on some of the details that fill the spaces I create. These are the first in the range, with a few more design that will be ready to go in a few weeks. New pieces will be added regularly, and I’m already planning to extend the range to include other items of tableware.
Where did you get the inspiration for this range?
I have always loved ceramics, especially old dinner services and tea sets. This love comes from my mum and grandmother who passed on the habit of turning things over to see what make they are. It was inevitable that at some stage I would want to make my own. The faceted cups are a current day take on nostalgic shapes that we all grew up with. The textures are influenced by daily objects that I come across. Their familiarity is what endears them to me.
Where can we buy it?
The range is so new that I have not finalised stockists yet. However they are available from me directly, and I can ship to anywhere. Email kate@ka-ad.com to order.
Maureen Visage, a talented ceramic artist living and working in Cape Town tells us a bit more about her work:
“My work is hand built and therefore each piece is unique and made with love. Love and fun are overriding themes: Love of my surroundings, my city, its people, the sea and land, its animals, flowers and trees and I depict these using vibrant colours and playful themes. My main focus is figurative pieces but I also have fun with vases, plates and tiles.
I currently work in Green Point at the Barbara Jackson Ceramic Studio. Work may be found at Africa Nova, Kalkbay Modern, The Potter shop and Dorp Straat Gallery in Stellenbosch, amongst others.”
I popped into the beautiful Anatomy Design store at 44 Stanley the other day. What a gorgeous little space packed with designs by Andrea Kleinloog and Mia Widlake.
Andrea is an accomplished South African interior designer known for her Lab light series which won the prestigious Most Beautiful Object in South Africa at Design Indaba 2010 and was Elle Décor International nominee 2011. I asked her how Anatomy Design got started.
“Anatomy Design started purely by luck. I was in the midst of building a chapel and wedding venue (www.netherwood.co.za), and needed a desk light. Started working on the Lab Light… with no intention to sell one. The success of the Lab Light meant we needed a place to literally sell them from… I never planned to open a shop – but here we are!”
Visit the store (next to Bean There) or check out Mia and Andrea’s websites for more designs.
Handsome Things chatted to Sarah Benjamin the lady behind Sessi Bee Ceramics.
Where are you from and how did you get started in ceramics?
I was born in Johannesburg but have lived in London most of my life. After graduating from Byam Shaw, Central Saint Martins WITH Fine Art in 2010 I moved to Cape Town with my Capetonian boyfriend. His mom, who is a ceramist, invited me to come along to the Barbara Jackson School of Ceramics with her and that’s where I learnt (and fell in love with) ceramics. I now work from the studio full-time.
Where do you get the inspiration for your quirky characters?
At first I concentrated on men with beards and hats, but now I look everywhere for inspiration and new ideas. I like making characters based on ‘regular’ people (doctors, photographers, swimmers, bakers), but my favourite characters are fictional and unconventional (vampires, Marie Antoinette, vikings, superheroes, people in animal suits), that’s when I really get to play.
I have also just made some South African rappers, Jack Parow and Die Antwoord and I’m working on London themed bowls namely Beefeaters and the Queen.
Where can we buy your ceramics?
You can find my work at:
The Fringe Arts (99B Kloof Street), The Fringe Arts Pop-Up (V&A Waterfront), Vamp (368 Albert Rd, Woodstock), Abode (The Biscuit Mill), The Pottershop (Kalk Bay), Monkeybiz (Rose Street, Bo Kaap) and in Hermanus at Pure South.
I also make customised bowls to order.
Join the Sessi Bee Facebook Page.
Hylton Nel is one of South Africa’s well-known ceramic artists or “artist-potter” as he describes himself. He was born in Zambia and went to school in Kimberly and later studied ceramics in Antwerp, Belgium. I’ve always admired the wonderful humour in his work, and to be quite honest, I’m not sure why I’m only featuring him now.
“Hylton Nel is a master of combining whimsy with satire and making pointed, albeit often humorous, references to his personal concerns as well as those of the world at large. In his work Nel seduces the eye with his sinuous line drawing and lush glazes, yet the mind is often taken aback when it comprehends the intensity of his imagery and inscriptions.
Nel describes himself as an ‘artist-potter’ which aptly refers to his interest in painted imagery as well as form and function. Over the past four decades he has developed a style of work that is rich in references to the decorative arts and literary and art historical sources. His plates, bowls, vases, plaques and figurative pieces are idiosyncratically decorated with witty – and sometimes poignant – line drawings and script.” - http://www.stevenson.info/artists/nel.html
Images via www.stevenson.info
I discovered Nico Masemula’s charming ceramics on the wonderful Wolf Eyebrows blog the other day. I’ve battled a bit to find out more about Nico, but what I have found, thanks to the Clementia Ceramics blog, is that he’s based in Calitzdorp in the Karoo and that his mentor is the well-known SA ceramicist Hylton Nel.
I’ve also found an Afrikaans article in Die Burger about how Nico, as a young Sotho lad, serendipitously landed up in Hylton’s household in Bethulie when he accompanied a man who worked in Hylton’s garden. Hylton took Nico under his wing and when he moved to Calizdorp, Nico went with. Hylton sent him to Môrester High School in Calitzdorp and when he finished matric Hylton built him a house in the yard and took him on as his apprentice.
What a success story, because today Nico Masemula sells his ceramics on the Anthropologie site where I found these images. His work is also available at the Old Biscuit Mill in Cape Town.
Mervyn Gers recently won the Best decorated Award at Ceramics South Africa’s Cape Regional with his beautiful Koi and Blue Willow Set. “A series of plates patterned in decals recalling the familiar Willow Pattern designs and the Koi fish of the East. The vibrant blue and red colours recall the well loved Imari ware from Japan.” – Ceramics Southern Africa
If you’re in Cape Town you can catch The Mervyn Gers Collective at the Design Indaba Expo.
If you’d like to know you more about Mervyn you can read my previous post on him here or you can visit his Facebook page.
Photos via the Mervyn Gers Facebook Page.
Lorrae Mehmel designer and owner of Tamarillo ceramics chats to Handsome Things about overcoming challenges, building a brand and capturing South Africa in silhouettes.
What’s your background and how did you get into ceramics?
As a child I struggled through school, continually battling to keep up and having to work harder than my school friends. I then underwent various academic testing not only in junior school but it was a month prior to my IEB Matric Examinations that the School body discovered that I was dyslexic in a number of areas. Never before had I felt so betrayed by academic institutions. I however passed my IEB Exams and excelled in Art.
Having vowed never to be drawn in by another institution I started working as a gallery assistant, surrounding myself, with the best South African artists had to offer. I absorbed so much energy and talent for those two years and will be eternally grateful for the opportunity.
I was then asked to move into retail, expanding an already existing décor outlet into a gallery environment, I was in my element, and it was here that I realized that I could start trying out different mediums, painting on plates and creating pieces that I loved. The pieces were such a success that I decided to go it alone.
Terrifying as it was, I doubted my ability to handle this on my own, I felt my only way to make a success of the situation was to create pieces that I liked, which I did and I have not looked back.
Where do you get the inspiration for your ceramics?
Using black and white, turning simple every day silhouettes like my ‘bird on a wire’, the ‘fynbos’ and ‘Karoo scenes’ into my personal interpretations which I depict in my art and shows my love for the outdoors. The creations are chic and functional, something unique and different.
Tamarillo is now three years old, had it not been my uphill battle at school and the determination to succeed, I would not have been able to take on the industry and compete with some of South Africa’s best. Having completed matric in 2006 I cannot believe my success in the short space of time and I am proud to have excelled on my own, in my own way and doing my own thing.
You can catch Tarmarillo at the Design Indaba expo or visit her blog for more handsome creations: http://www.tamarilloceramics.blogspot.com/
Thanks Lorrae!
Images via http://www.tamarilloceramics.blogspot.com/
I absolutely love these porcelain tree cups and mugs by Nicki Ellis from Love Milo. She’s also added the sweet hand carved birds that fit onto the rim of a cup, bowl or mug.
“Love Milo designs are inspired by the harmony between line and form found in nature. Designs are all original photographs I take of natural elements then merge them with functional objects to enjoy in your daily use. All products are made here in South Africa and materials locally sourced.“
or visit her Etsy Store
I first fell in love with Cath Price’s ceramics about 4 or 5 years ago when my husband and I bought three of her spiky bowls at David Bellamy’s Cape Francolin Art Hotel in Riebeek Kasteel. I remember David telling us that Cath, who was a student at the time, was going to go on to do great things. And he was absolutely right, besides, who wouldn’t want to have a bunny join you for lunch.
Cath tells us a bit more:
What does a typical work day look like?
Typical day? Hmmm. I tend to make stuff in ‘relays’ for eg. I will spend a couple of weeks casting, then sand (to finish off) and bisque fire for quite a few days and then glaze in a big batch. I have a small kiln so I can only do quite small lots in one go. I work out of my lounge and have a kiln in the garage. In between that is the sieving clay, mixing glaze and general work that goes with making ceramics.
Tell us a bit more about your background.
I have a MFA degree from Michaelis (grad in 2010), I started making ceramics in 3rd year of my undergrad degree and got hooked. I slip cast using porcelain and make all my own moulds.
Where can we buy your ceramics?
My ceramics are for sale in Haas and Fringe on Kloof mostly, a small selection in Imagenius and in Mythology in Kalk Bay, or directly from me (I live in Hout Bay). cathprice@cybersmart.co.za
Join her Facebook page to see all her new creations.
All images via Cath’s Facebook page.
Thanks Cath!
Ymke Hemminga is a Dutch illustrator who fell in love with South Africa and one of its inhabitants. She studied fine arts in SA and creative- and play writing in Amsterdam. She landed in South Africa permanently in 2003, where she found “an uninterrupted horizon on a smallholding in Boschkop east of Tshwane.”
I discovered Ymke’s illustrated crockery via the House & Leisure blog and contacted her to tell us more about her illustrations, her passions and how humans are different from Cocker Spaniels.
S C R A T C H T H E S U R F A C E
Ymke Hemminga (1974) born in Waddinxveen, a village of Benoni-esque boredom in the Netherlands, spent years thinking whilst cycling, drawing, dreaming of uninterrupted horizons, and writing, padded with a fair amount of faffing.
What inspires you?
“All absurd and beautiful aspects of being human. People and their ornaments and inventions. That there are people out there dedicating their lives to inventing ‘rubber-pet-brushing-gloves’ or saving whales or being Nelson Mandela or Paris Hilton. Human beings seem to be the kings and queens of distraction from the dazzling responsibility that we humans, as opposed to say a Cocker Spaniel, can think, feel, speak, laugh and choose.”
What are you passionate about?
“Trying to find the humour in mundane daily acts, like doing dishes and groceries etc. Collecting and creating moments or items that evoke a grin or a giggle I have to find humor in everything or else…no seriously I think its all we’ve got to rise above ourselves, to connect and evolve.”
What is your favourite item?
‘Bath your dishes’ and the ‘Light blue groceries’ illustration.
Have a look at her delightful illustrations on her website: www.scratchthesurface.co.za
Her plates start from R130, Platters R250, Teapots R300, Bowls R60, Cup & Saucer R120.
Cards and crockery are available at the Pottershop in Kalkbay, Clementina’s in the Biscuit Mill and at Dot in Stellenbosch. In Johannesburg at Life Unplugged in Parkhurst. Very soon you’ll be able to order directly from her site.
Thanks Ymke!
