Marcy & Bob Katz, Hawaii
The Ceramics tour was an amazing trip and a fantastic opportunity to meet the best of the best of South African potters.
Cape Insights and Marion Ellis knows just about everybody in the the Western Cape working in culture and art.
We were taken to artist’s homes and studios like Andile Dyalvane at Imizo, and David Walters in Franschhoek, did hands on work, were honored guests at openings, given tours of museum shows by their curators, danced at parties and ate like royalty.
We visited studios where ceramics is a tool for social regeneration and fair trade practice like Toni Burton’s Zizamele …We learned about Cape Craft & Design Institute (CCDI) which was set up in 2001 to promote and grow craft as an economic sector in the Western Cape province of South Africa. A not-for-profit company, the CCDI is a joint initiative of the Provincial Government of the Western Cape and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. The CCDI has also been adopted by the Department of Trade and Industry as a model craft hub, to serve as a template for the establishment of similar craft institutes in other provinces of South Africa.
Cape Town is spectacularly beautiful and we were even privileged to accompany Magdalene Odundo to Robben Island for a private tour of Hennie Meyer’s ceramic installation with a film crew, and were privy to stories of Nelson Mandela by his guard and subsequent friend.
I thought Magdalene’s all day workshop would be the highlight of the trip, but the entire experience was the highlight of my travel experience.November is to be Ceramics Month from here on going forward. Come and experience this for yourselves. My husband is not a potter and he chose to be a participant and had a fantastic time.
Google the people I mentioned, especially Marion Ellis at Cape Insights, and encourage the Potter’s Council to add Cape Town’s “November Ceramics in Cape Town” to their sponsored tours. Or, just treat yourselves to an unforgettable experience and come on your own.In a letter to the US Potter’s Council, Marcy says:
”I would like to share this information with the Potter’s Council … I am a new member of the Potters Council. I have attended a few NCECA’s since 2006. I recently took a trip to Cape Town South Africa in 2014 that was ceramic-centric.
My husband of 49 years and I have traveled extensively throughout the world, and this trip was one of the best of our lives.
I am interested in sharing it with others members of the Potter’s Council Board and members and also to help promote this trip for ceramic lovers in the future. Would there be folks on the Board who would take a look at trip as a future trip under the auspices of the Potters Council offered trips? I would be very happy to volunteer my time to help make this a possibility’.