Shaun, a Cape Town-based interior designer turned ceramicist, makes functional ceramic pieces such as Whispering Pine, Unstuck and Nude Awakening. The studio sells the pieces online and also offers pottery classes.
Best for Handmade functional ceramics and pottery classes
Clay Corner sells clay, glazes and tools at 194 Victoria Rd, Woodstock, stocking stoneware, earthenware and porcelain clay by the bag or pallet along with Cone 6 and Cone 10 glazes. It also runs the Clay Circle studio, a five-bay shared space with three kilns on site offering monthly session packages.
Best for Clay glazes tools and shared studio access
501 Tollgate Industrial Centre, 12 Ravenscraig Road, Woodstock, Cape Town, South Africa / Cape Town / South Africa
Production studio established 1989 by Clementina van der Walt and Albie Bailey; van der Walt has worked full-time in ceramics since 1988 (Design Indaba; House and Garden SA).
Best for Ceramics from a production studio established in 1989.
Kleipots is a ceramic studio run by Amelia Jacobs, with over 30 years' experience, at her home on the lower slopes of Devil's Peak in Cape Town. She makes ollas, translucent porcelain fired with indigenous Fynbos plants, and raku-fired planters and bowls, firing porcelain at temperatures up to 1,200 degrees Centigrade, and teaches weekly wheel-throwing and raku classes.
Mervyn Gers and his team throw and glaze tableware by hand at a Salt River studio, supplying the plates and bowls used by restaurants across South Africa and abroad. The range mixes speckled clay bodies with dozens of glaze colours, each piece showing the small variations of hand production.
Best for Hand-thrown tableware in speckled clay bodies and dozens of glaze colors
Mervyn Gers Ceramics is a Cape Town studio launched in 2011 that makes tableware by hand from raw clay to finished glaze under one roof. The studio developed its own clay body over five years with international ceramic specialists and the University of Cape Town. The body is formulated for the way its pieces are shaped and fired. Glazes are developed in house by adjusting minerals and oxides and the conditions of firing. Every recipe is refined until it gives the depth and movement the collections are known for. Each glaze answers the kiln in its own way, so no two pieces match exactly. The glazes are food safe and the finished ceramics are independently tested for strength and durability. Decorated collections begin as original artwork. Designs are silkscreen printed in house onto ceramic transfer paper colour by colour and applied by hand before a final firing bonds the design. Every piece is fettled to remove excess clay and smooth its seams, then bisque fired to strengthen the body. Pieces are stacked in the kiln by hand with attention to how heat will travel. The studio's tagline pairs function with soul and with style, and it states a commitment to local job creation. Mervyn Gers Ceramics sells online and shows the whole making process on its website, step by step.
Run by Rose Korber from a gallery attached to her home at 48 Sedgemoor Road, Camps Bay, Cape Town, the business sells paintings, mixed media works, limited-edition prints, photography, sculpture, ceramics, Rorkesdrift tapestries and beadwork by artists including Sam Nhlengethwa, William Kentridge and Deborah Bell. It also arranges packing, insuring and airfreighting of works worldwide.