21 stores · curated ORBIS register
South African studio ceramics carry maker names as personal as the glazes themselves. Mervyn Gers Ceramics throws hand-thrown tableware in speckled clay bodies and dozens of glaze colors, each batch numbered and signed by the studio. Imiso Ceramics builds hand-built contemporary ceramics, founded in 2006 by Andile Dyalvane and Zizipho Poswa. Clementina Ceramics works locally made ceramics from a named workshop in Cape Town. Studio visits usually beat gallery prices when the makers are actually in residence.
V&A Waterfront, Cape Town
The store sits at The Alfred in Cape Town's V&A Waterfront, open daily from 9am to 8pm, and sells contemporary African fashion, homeware and gifts including jewelry, ceramics, basketware and stationery. Its collections carry names such as Zulu Beading, Mud Cloth and Raw Earth Ceramics, and it features work by Monkeybiz beadwork and Imiso Ceramics.
Best for African fashion homeware and gifts
Cape Town
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
De Waterkant, Cape Town
Located at Shop 34-35, Level 0, Cape Quarter Lifestyle Village, 27 Somerset Rd, Green Point, Cape Town, the store sells handcrafted home and decor items including cushions, kitchenware, wire baskets, ceramics and lamps, plus accessories such as hats, kikoys, belts and jewelry, art prints and leather journals.
Best for Handcrafted home decor and gifts
Cape Town
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
Milnerton, Cape Town
Clayheart is a porcelain ceramics studio based in Milnerton Business Park, Cape Town, making made-to-order homeware, decor and jewelry by hand and taking custom designs. It also offers pottery classes for adults and kids, workshops, and studio rental for independent artists.
Best for Handmade porcelain homeware and pottery classes
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.
Cape Town
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.
Best for Handmade porcelain and raku ceramics
Salt River
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.
Camps Bay, Cape Town
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.
Best for South african paintings and sculpture
42 Frere Street, Woodstock, Cape Town 7915, South Africa / Cape Town / South Africa
The Woodstock studio designs and makes ceramic tableware and objects.
Best for Ceramic tableware and objects made in a Woodstock studio.
Kloof, Durban
Run by potter Anne Schultz, working since 1974, Studio Three throws functional homeware in stoneware, porcelain and terracotta from a studio in Kloof. Pieces are sold at the Shongweni Farmers Market and the KZNSA Gallery, and the studio teaches pottery to all levels.
Best for Hand-thrown functional ceramics
Hyde Park Corner, Johannesburg
Founded in 2007 by designer Tiaan Nagel, the label's main studio is at 235A Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North, with a flagship store at Hyde Park Corner offering made-to-measure womenswear, styling consultation and bespoke tailoring, plus works by African artists and makers. The Summer 19/20 collection drew on South African studio pottery.
Best for Made-to-measure womenswear and tailoring
Market Street, Stellenbosch
iThemba Crafts was started in 2013 by Anna Kruger, a former Home Economics teacher with 15 years in tourism retail, and is now located at 1 Noordwal-Wes Rd, Stellenbosch Central. It sells high-quality, locally produced fine craft-art including paintings, ceramics, beadwork and wire work, and features artisans such as Nomfundo and Bukelua, embroiderers from the Eastern Cape.
Best for Locally produced South African fine craft
Stellenbosch / South Africa
Within one of Spier's oldest Werf buildings, the Cowshed Shop sells handcrafted homeware, farm produce, and Spier wines alongside an apothecary line of teas, tinctures, and skincare made from ingredients grown or harvested on the farm. The shop is open daily from 9am to 5pm at the Stellenbosch estate, where wine has been made since 1692.
Best for Wine, homeware, apothecary, ceramics
V&A Waterfront
Africa Nova curates contemporary African craft and art, from Zulu telephone-wire baskets and beadwork to ceramics, textiles and paintings by named makers. Long run as an independent gallery, it sells collectible pieces that trace the continent's craft traditions into modern design.
Best for Contemporary African craft
Church Street / Online
Chandler House is Michael Chandler’s shop-gallery in an 18th-century Cape Georgian house on Church Street, bringing together South African art, ceramics, textiles, antiques and homeware. The adjoining Voorkamer Gallery hosts exhibitions by Cape artists, while Chandler’s upstairs studio produces commissioned ceramics, murals and prints.
Best for Art, ceramics, textiles, antiques and selected maker goods
Franschhoek, South Africa
A three-century estate on Franschhoek's main road pairing its wines with a working art gallery and adjoining shop that show South African painters and ceramicists. Tastings, wine-blending sessions and the fine-dining Oak Restaurant sit within the manor grounds.
Best for Wine tasting with a working art gallery
Woodstock
Founded in 2006 by Andile Dyalvane and Zizipho Poswa, this Woodstock studio-gallery hand-builds and throws vessels marked with Dyalvane's incised scarification patterns drawn from Xhosa tradition. Alongside the sculptural collectible pieces, the shelves hold more everyday bowls, cups and platters made on site.
Best for Hand-built contemporary ceramics
Harbour Road, Hermanus
Lembu Gallery, run by resident artist Edward Bredenkamp, sells fine South African art and craft including original works, prints, masks, figurines, sculpture and ceramics at Shop 10, Warrington Place, Harbour Road, Hermanus. It takes part in the town's First Fridays ArtWalk, staying open until 8pm on the first Friday of each month.
Best for South African art masks and ceramics
Hermanus
Pure South, at Shop 5, 155 Main Road, Hermanus, features the art, ceramics and fine crafts of talented artists from around South Africa across categories including ceramics, craft, jewellery and paintings. It stays open until 8pm on the first Friday of each month from September to May.
Best for South African craft ceramics and jewellery
Silo District, V&A Waterfront
Southern Guild shows collectible furniture, ceramics and sculpture in a double-volume gallery in the Silo District, rotating through work by Andile Dyalvane, Zizipho Poswa and others. Functional design treated as fine art.
Best for Collectible African design
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