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Some articles
Click on the links or sunflowers
below to
open pdf versions of selected magazine articles.
We have tried to keep the size of
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with higher resolution, we can send it by e-mail. Transcripts of some of them
are included on these two pages for those with slower internet connections.
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Pottery Making Illustrated May/June 2009 -
David & Felicity, Throwing Big Pots
National Ceramics No 87, autumn 2009, article David & Felicity, 444
KB.pdf
Tim Morris Remembered, spring 2008,
538 KB.pdf
National Ceramics No 71, autumn 2005,
article David & Felicity, 380 KB.pdf
S A Country Life Nov 2004, article Not Just Pottering Around,
David Felicity, 306 KB.pdf
SA Garden & Home, Nov 1996, article A
Potter's Lunch - David & Felicity, 313 KB.pdf
National Ceramics Quarterly No 18 Dec 1991, article - David &
Felicity a Partnership that Works, 346 KB.pdf
Living Magazine 1984, article David & Felicity, 377 KB.pdf
Porcelain Platter
450mm diameter
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David
Schlapobersky, Felicity Potter and the Bukkenburg Pottery.
Johannesburg
to Swellendam – 8 years on
National
Ceramics, Number 71, Autumn (April / May) 2005
David
and Felicity have been making beautiful high-fired pots for more than 30 years.
In 1996 they decided to move from their lovely home and successful studio in
Johannesburg and relocate to Swellendam in the Southern Cape.
Recently
I have been communicating with them via email and asked them some questions
about the move, recent experiences, their work, aspirations and some technical
details.
Their
responses, reflections and experiences follow:
Gail
de Klerk.
What
were your reasons for relocating to Swellendam?
Our life together over the past 32
years has embraced the notion that life and work are indivisible. In connecting
that to the concept that art is life and the way you live it, then change and
development is not only necessary but also inevitable.
Imagination, timing and resources
became some of the critical components towards making a decision about moving
and taking action.
We had been
looking for many years at the possibility of moving to the country and had spent
a great deal of time looking at various locations.
Once we had seen
Swellendam and the property that we now live on, we knew where we wanted to be.
It is an area of immense beauty and an evident sense of history: a working
agricultural town in rural Southern Cape that seemed to us to offer potential
for life and growth.
The property
comprises a Cape Victorian town house and outbuildings (1860’s), proclaimed as
a National Monument during the 1980’s, as well as a cottage, all set on 6 000
sq meters of very fertile ground adjacent to the Drostdy Museum in the Historic
Heart of the town.
It was in this
setting that we saw the potential for developing our life and work as we then
pictured it. Extended and enhanced working space, a showroom, a cottage for
accommodating people who came to do workshops here (and also casual visitors)
and extensive grounds for growing a selection of fresh produce.
All of this in a
breathtaking environment halfway between Cape Town and the Garden Route on the
N2 National road. (220km either way)
It was at that
time (early nineties) an area that had not yet been ‘discovered’ as a refuge
for exiles from the cities and nor had it yet become a ‘tourist’ town.
Property was relatively affordable and it felt and seemed as if the town was on
the brink of growth and development.
As outsiders
these were some of the main factors that seduced us.
We made an offer
on the property that was accepted, took out a bond and rented it out for more
than a year.
We were able to
plan our move when we received a most favourable offer on our house and studio
in Johannesburg.
Setting
up a new home and studio in a different environment no doubt presented many
challenges. What were these and what was required to overcome them, and perhaps
also something dealing with your activities over the past eight years?
It
was only when we were here and beginning to get going that we started to
encounter some of the challenges of the move.
It’s worth noting at this
point that in August 1995, a full year before we moved, we embarked on a very
bold step by taking an extensive and prominent stand at Decorex in Midrand. This
was to give us a sense of a broader market than we had been used to and also to
give us an idea as to whether we could in fact live in the country and sell our
work at a trade exhibition such as this in the city.
The result of Decorex ’95
was quite astounding for us. Not only did we sell an enormous amount of work
during the exhibition, but also the customers and commissions that we attracted
sustained our work schedule for the whole of the next year. So much so that we
were still busy with work from that show when we moved, and it was that work
with which we began work in Swellendam.
In short the question became,
could we live and work in Swellendam and continue to sell our work in
Johannesburg by traveling up once or twice a year? The experience of 1995 and
1996 gave us the confidence that this was indeed possible.
Together with this question
were our plans of developing on the ideas of an “open working studio” in the
country.
We had plans to
turn the old barn into a studio and showroom and carrying out extensive
renovations and an extension to the old house, only to be met with the very
frustrating realisation that any work planned for such a building required the
approval not only from the Local Authority but also from the National Monuments
Council (now called South African Heritage Resources Agency).
Approval on our
planned work on the studio was relatively quick, as was the building work that
by May 1997 we were firing pots again and beginning to attend to some of the
backlog of work for Johannesburg. We were not yet working at our full capacity
as there was much else to adjust to here and it was taking us time.
We had bought a
second-hand 40 cu ft LPG (gas) fired kiln with which to get going and that would
also give us time to consider which way to go with regard to something bigger.
(We were firing a 90cu ft gas kiln when in Johannesburg – firing on town gas,
and we were keen to get back to that size of kiln again).
On
investigation, LPG seemed to be a very expensive fuel and so we set about
converting the kiln to fire with paraffin.
At the end of
’97 we held our first ‘open day’ in Swellendam. (The first of three over
the coming three years).
Also at the end
of 1997 we met Gawie and Gwen Fagan for the fist time. We had approached Gawie
due to his eminence in the field of conservation architecture and we were
becoming very frustrated at our inability to move ahead with regard to the work
we needed to do to the house. His grasp of what we were intending, his ability
to turn it into an achievable and affordable project, and his understanding of
the requirements of the National Monuments Council suddenly shot the process
forward. Our plans were approved, we had a commitment and budget from the same
builder who worked on the studio, and we were under way!
The building
work on the house was completed in mid-1998 and at the end of the year we held
another event, this time it was an ‘open weekend’.
It was during
this weekend, December 1998, that in conversation with other artists and crafts
people from Swellendam and the surrounding areas, many of whom brought their
work to sell in our environment, we began to develop ideas that could have some
impact on local development in the area.
During April
1999 we took a stand on the first Decorex Cape held at Spier Estate and again,
as with Decorex Johannesburg, we did very well.
August ’99 an
exhibition of our pots in Westcliff Johannesburg followed by our third open
weekend in Swellendam at the end of November. The discussions concerning plans
for a local development programme were turning into something achievable and by
early 2000 the process was beginning to move.
April 2000 a
shared stand at Decorex Cape at Spier and by midyear we had become involved and
very active in Swellendam’s local development.
During this
involvement we allowed our primary focus to become marginalised by concerns
beyond our immediate environment and work and it was to continue for more than
four years.
Our experiences
through this process have given us a keen insight into the workings of this
small rural town and the gruelling road that lies ahead as the country grapples
with the very urgent priorities of recovery, transformation and economic
development.
During November
2001 an exhibition at the Dorp Street Gallery in Stellenbosch and another show
in Johannesburg.
2003 and 2004:
building and fine-tuning the new kiln.
2004:
 | November
an exhibition of more than 300 pots, in celebration of 30-plus years working
together. This exhibition proved to be our most successful exhibition of
pots ever, surpassing our wildest expectations!
|
How
has the change of environment influenced your work?
Amongst
the most prominent factors to have influenced our life and work over these past
eight years:
| The
change from gas to oil as our fuel demonstrating the dramatic effects of
fire in this process. Effects that have taken us beyond our own limitations
and where the results begin to exceed our wildest dreams.
|
| The
privilege of being able to develop in an environment such as this, a greater
appreciation of reduction fired pots not only as far as we are concerned,
but to a much wider audience.
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| The
completely breathtaking landscape and environment in which we live and work.
|
| The
studio and showroom are open to the public daily requiring a regular stock
of fresh work and a great deal of attention to our presentation and
availability. (a more business-like and professional approach)
|
| Constant
revision and assessment of our creative impulse, goals and objectives.
Remaining mindful of the road travelled, those who have been and remain part
of the process, the journey ahead and the necessity for constant growth and
development in all areas of our joint pursuit.
|
| An
appreciation of the enormous resources at our disposal in this work and
environment and room to grow.
|
| The
opportunity of developing on our notions of what a professional ‘working
studio’ could be.
|
We have always been interested
in exploring the relationship between the food that we prepare and enjoy, the
pots that we serve the food in and the company with whom we share it all. The
environment in which we find ourselves and our present circumstances have
allowed us to take this aspect of our life and work into a broader and very
rewarding dimension.
Pots for people, food and
pleasure.
The garden and changing seasons
provide us with a continuous supply of fresh vegetables, fruit and herbs. When
served and presented in our handmade pots, the colour, texture, flavour, form
and function become some of the subtle ingredients in the changing tapestry of
life.
All of this is integral in our
communication with the world around us and food, together with the pots that we
make, has become central to our interaction with others.
Casseroles, serving platters
and dishes, bowls of all shapes and sizes, sushi dishes, mugs and jugs etc. Most
of the tableware being decorative as well as functional.
The crating and
shipping of our work nationally and abroad has become a very exciting aspect.
Recent shipments have gone off to Spain, Abu Dhabi and the UK.
Much of the
above has begun to gel into a rhythm of life and work where the pots emerging
from the kilns have a quality that we have not experienced before - colour,
texture, decoration, scale, form and volume.
The range of
work that we are busy with at present remains extensive and diverse:
Tableware, washbasins, lamp
bases and a wide variety of functional and decorative stoneware and porcelain.
Enormous floor jars, urns platters, fountains and garden and indoor containers.
Special commissions for interior and landscape designers, collectors and
corporate buyers.
Where an ‘open
studio’ means just that – people come and go, whether to buy pots, see the
work in progress, select their vegetables from the garden, spend a night or more
in the cottage or any combination of reasons. Friends, family and colleagues,
customers new and old as well as a wide range of travelling people from across
the country and abroad.
We are
constantly being approached for workshops, instruction and training, and the
interaction with those who come here for a period of work is proving to be very
rewarding.
As we begin the
New Year, and after having been making pots full time since 1973, we have never
been more productive.
The concept
mentioned earlier: ‘art is life and how you live it’, is playing itself out
in a uniquely enriching way, and the words of William Morris from more than 120
years ago have never been more relevant for us
“Have only those things
in your house that you know to be useful or consider to be beautiful”
This
concept was so effectively conveyed to us all those years ago by Tim Morris who
played such a prominent mentoring role in our early development and helped us to
understand in a very meaningful way, what the life and work of studio pottery
could be.
You
have built a new kiln, could you provide some technical information?
The new kiln that we’ve built is
a re-build out of an existing frame. During 1998 we acquired a disused 100 cu ft
electric rolling hood kiln. It was an old kiln made by Kiln Contracts in Cape
Town.
The original comprised two bases
and a hood that rolled over each one alternately, meaning that while one load
was firing, the next could be stacked etc. We immediately saw the potential for
a complete conversion into an oil-fired rolling hood kiln with just one base.
Our interest was primarily in the rolling system and the frame.
The idea that we worked on, perhaps a little extreme at the time,
and which is now in operation went like this:
To construct a kiln with a
fixed base at a convenient height onto which our huge pots could be loaded
relatively easily from their trolleys, with a fibre-lined hood rolling over the
stack up to and against a fixed wall which would include the flue and chimney.
The firing system would
comprise two oil burners firing lengthwise into the kiln, through very
substantial burner blocks, one on each side of the chimney.
We discussed
these ideas with a friend of ours here who is a retired farmer and technically
very skilled. He offered his advice and then introduced us to a young steel
worker who he suggested could work on the project.
The hood is
lined with high temperature ceramic fibre modules and at this early stage in its
life; we are so encouraged by the way that it’s working.
For a glaze
firing to cone 12, we are using about 140 liters of paraffin – this in a kiln
of about 100 cu ft!
A glaze firing can take up to about
10 hours.
What
clays, glazes and pigments are you using at present?
Our focus has
always been high-temperature; reduction fired stoneware and porcelain, and the
clay bodies and glaze components that we use reflect this.
The stoneware
clay is based on Western Province Ball Clay, blended with small amounts of
Feldspar and Silica, a little red clay for colour and a large percentage of grog
for strength and “tooth”. The grog is a critical factor in view of the
enormous size of a lot of our work.
The porcelain
body is based on Kaolin G1 with additions of Feldspar, Silica and Bentonite.
Although we keep
experimenting with other clay bodies, and often introduce them into our work
cycle, the above two clays have been constant for many years.
The glazes that
we use are mostly high in Feldspar and are also the result of years of trial and
error.
The decorating
oxides are primarily Red Iron, Cobalt Oxide and Carbonate, Copper Oxide and
Carbonate and Rutile, used as a wash, a pigment or slip as well as pouring and
layering. We are also using our existing glazes with increasingly interesting
results – poured, layered and brushed.
You recently published your
Website. What impact has it had on you and your work?
Our Website was
published in April 2004 and in the first nine months it received over 14 000
visits, averaging out at about 50 visits per day – with more than 58 000
images being downloaded from the site!
Having written
and published the site ourselves, we are able to maintain, update and market it
as well as monitor its progress.
Our Internet
presence is proving to be an effective complementary tool in the marketing of
our work.
It is an
extensive site with text and pictures covering all aspects of our life, work and
environment.
Earlier on you mentioned
your workshops. Can you tell us something about how they function?
Our preferred
method of running workshops at present is to respond to the requirements of
groups or individuals who approach us, and they are planned in a way that fits
into our work schedule (commissions, exhibitions etc).
The studio is
large and well equipped and we can accommodate up to eight people at a time.
We intend to
begin a more structured workshop programme in the future (time permitting).
What
are your immediate plans and what is your outlook for 2005 and beyond?
2005 is
certainly beginning to feel like another very busy year and we will be kept
fully occupied in a variety of ways.
| The
completion of orders and commissions from our Johannesburg Exhibition last
November. |
| Keeping
adequate stock in the showroom and maintaining an attractive and inviting
environment. (Swellendam’s tourist industry is largely seasonal giving us
time during the winter to build up stock)
|
| Additions
to the Website this year should include a page or two devoted to the recent
work of our studio assistant Flip Jacobs, as well as some pages showing
Felicity’s recent paintings.
|
| Two
exhibitions are planned for the second half of the year. Details will be
available after July on our Website, through the association, media and also
to those on our e-mail mailing list. (Anyone interested in receiving our
electronic updates and info can e-mail us).
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A final quote:
“The work I make now is based
upon historical precedent. It is functional even if only occasionally used as
such. Like Michael Cardew I believe that the understanding of the materials and
processes the potter uses are not separate from the expression made with them.
How and why are equally important and they move together as one”. Michael Casson
These pioneers
of the Studio Pottery movement of the 20th Century have so much to
teach us still!
After more than thirty years of
making and firing high temperature pots, our sense is that there is still a
great deal to learn and do.
Our life and
work as practicing studio potters has been varied, rich and rewarding. We’ve
had the distinct privilege of being able to work at home while at the same time
being able to care for James, and find ourselves through our work to be
connected to such an essential and timeless tradition.
Also of great
value to us over the years has been the creation and sustaining of long-standing
relationships both professional and personal. Many people who came initially to
look at or buy pots becoming close friends of lasting quality.
We still work
very hard and often think of perhaps slowing down a bit – but not just yet!
We remain
mindful of those whose efforts during the early 1970’s brought about the
beginnings of some organisation in the studio pottery environment. Much has
changed since those early days.
The
sophisticated global context into which we are all moving and the African
environment in which we live and work tell us that the door to the future is
wide open and that studio pottery, and ceramics in its broadest sense and
diversity, as a way of life and livelihood has much to offer, the challenge
being to remain productive in the face of the requirements of aesthetic
relevance and economic viability.
Congratulations David and
Felicity on reaching this milestone in your working lives and we wish you many
more years of productive and creative enterprise.
Gail de Klerk
February 2005
Anyone wishing to visit the
studio in Swellendam would be most welcome, otherwise visit their Website.
Our contact details:
DAVID SCHLAPOBERSKY &
FELICITY POTTER
BUKKENBURG POTTERY STUDIO & GUEST COTTAGE
8 Hermanus Steyn Street
Swellendam - 6740
Western Cape - South Africa
TEL/FAX:
+27 (0) 28 514 1644
Cell:
+27 (0) 82 342 5453
Website: www.pottery.co.za
E-Mail: Click
here
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Keep
your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It’s what the
sunflowers do.
Helen
Keller | 
