Ceramic artist, teacher and musician

23 February 1973

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I was the kid who was not shy to play in the mud and luckily for me at secondary school pottery was an option. Years later when I moved to Cape Town after leaving Johannesburg, I rediscovered clay.

I have a studio at home that I call Kommetjie Ceramics and since 2010 I have patiently learnt to hand build and to teach.

I love the versatility of clay. That we can create with our hands bowls, platters, plates, cups, vases and boxes to hold food, liquid, plants and flowers is fantastic and that sometimes the presence of a piece is enough that it needs no obvious function.

We learn that from clay we can form infinite kinds of sculpture. That solid colour and washed rawness are both awesome. That clay is a body that can be smooth or textured, a body that can be carved with patterns or random marks, splashed with glaze or painted like Fine Art.  I love to build a piece and burnish it with a stone, then after a firing in the kiln cover it with combustibles and place it in a bin or a pit and make fire to create alchemy on the surface.  

It’s in the doing, in the mistakes and in the success. Full CV here