WOMEN ICONS

FRIDA KAHLO

GERTRUDE STEIN

VIRGINIA WOOLF

These are 3 of my portraits of women artists and writers whom I admire. I had done 2 more which unfortunately came out of the kiln with awful blistered glazes looking rather like a skin disease! Aaah ceramics....not for the faint-hearted!
The plates are currently on show at Kalk Bay Modern in Kalk Bay, Cape Town

MORE 'AFTER IRMA' PLATES

These are the side plates of a dinner service commissioned by a client after seeing the one I made for my exhibition at the Irma Stern Museum at the end of 2010

VICTORIOUS DRUMS AT GALLERY 88

My most recent panel 'I hear victorious drums' (inspired by Walt Whitman's Faces)
on show at Gallery 88 in Paarl.

CERAMIC WEDDING THREADS

Commemorative wedding plate commissioned by a client as a special gift for Johnny and Beatrice for their summer June wedding in the UK

Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years. ~Simone Signoret

SOUTH AFRICAN CRAFTS AT BLUECOAT DISPLAY CENTRE

My brooches which will be on show at the Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool, UK
Wednesday 6th July 5.30-8pm in the Bluecoat Garden, Liverpool, L1
A celebration of South African crafts and culture.
Included in this event is 'Ekapa' - Thirteen contemporary jewellers from Cape Town which will be presented at the Display Centre from 10 September - 22 October this year. Exhibition curated by Linda Jeanne Jones.

DANCING COFFEE MUGS

History of Coffee

Ethiopian shepherds
discovered coffee
when they realized
their goats began
to dance.

-Michelle Ramadan

I'm excited about these new coffee mugs where I have changed the handle(from the old design) to give a more contemporary look.

NEW SOUP BOWLS

Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), Japanese poet and haiku artist:

From all these trees--
in salads, soups, everywhere--
cherry blossoms fall

Not exactly spring here in Cape Town (in fact we have just passed through the winter solstice!) but I feel this haiku is an appropriate text for my new dessert and soup bowls

Cowboy soup

VISI editor Jacquie Myburgh Chemaly regularly serves her sister Danny’s cowboy soup to three appreciative men between the ages of 3 and 49.

“We’re always at the table in our kitchen for dinner,” she says. “My husband and I are still in the phase of teaching our children good manners.”

Jacquie loves her multi-coloured collection of antique bowls at home, but this soup would work beautifully in a soup bowl by Clementina van der Walt (R450).

For the recipe check out the Visi newsletter

WINTER CERAMICS AND SCULPTURE SHOW

Kalk Bay Modern presents a winter Sculpture & Ceramics Exhibition 15 June - 15 July 2011 Opening Wed. 15 June 6 pm

I have made a series of plates with portraits of women artists and writers whom I consider to be icons of the early 20th Century(The Frida Kahlo plate on this invite is mine)...also have some other pieces all of which I will post in the next day or so...

CAULIFLOWER SOUP

Roche Dry from Egg Designs, one of the creative brains behind the interiors at Durban restaurant Craft, loves using cauliflower as an ingredient, as it’s a “quiet, old-fashioned, unpretentious” vegetable.

Check out the Visi link for a wonderful cauliflower soup recipe ...to be served in one of my bowls (above!)

SWEET STAND AT 6 SPIN STREET

Last year my friend Robert Mulders commissioned me to make plates to fit a brass sweet stand. A bit of a struggle trying to get the size right with all the shrinkages and so on...but FINALLY got it together and here they are looking rather dandy in his restaurant , 6 Spin Street.
This is situated in the exquisite Herbert Baker building together with Idasa and Lobby Books. As well as good food there are lots of different activities, lectures, book launches and meetings going on at this venue.Check it out!

COFFEE AND STRELITZIAS

Homebakes

Yesterday morning my friend Wendy McLachlan from Homebakes (no not edible, ceramic ones, check out her website!) came to the studio for coffee and a chat and brought me these magnificent strelitzias from her garden which I think look rather super in my upside-down-man vase. We discussed the hurdles and perils of making ceramics today from a small studio and competing (or not) with the Chinese imports which have flooded the market here in homeware stores...an ongoing conversation...