Michelle Legg Ceramics

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20/11/2025

2025 Ndebele Mining - Ceramics Southern Africa Gauteng Region Exhibition on till the 22nd of November.

13/06/2022

"THERE IS NO ORDINARY " Ceramics exhibition on until the 17th.

11/06/2022

"THERE IS NO ORDINARY" opening this morning

22/04/2022

Excited and working hard towards a few exhibitions this year.
Never been this busy.

10/01/2022

"There is every reason to believe that in spite of the radical changes in the world today women's traditions of ceramic production and the associated techniques will arise phoenix-like, adapt and respond to the new social conditions. The techniques themselves become signifiers, bearers of old meaning and creators of new meanings."
(Vincentelli 2000:54)

10/07/2020

Students learning to throw plates 😍 all doing some amazing work! Love the energy in this studio!

07/05/2020

Nesta Mathom Nala, born in 1945 (died 1995), lived and worked in the Thukela valley at Oyaya, near Ndondondweni, in the Mamba area of Inkhanyezi. At the age of twelve, Nesta Nala learnt the craft of pottery from her mother Siphiwe, who had learnt the skills from the mother of her common-law husband (Nesta Nala’s paternal grandmother). As a single parent, Nesta Nala has raised and supported her family entirely from the production of pottery (Garrett, 1997:2). Nesta Nala has seven children (Greenberg)[i] and has taught five of her daughters to make pottery, Bongi Nala (eldest, age 40), Jabulani (Jabu) Nala (33), Thembi Nala (28), Nonhlanhla Nala (24), Zanele Nala (youngest, 21). Jabu Nala lives and works in Troyeville, Johannesburg and her two sisters, Thembi and Zanele, live and work in Milazi, Durban. Two of the seven children who are not potters are Zama (38), the only son and Thandani (36) (personal communication).

In 1983, Campbel Woolmore a farmer and store-owner in the Tugela Valley, discovered an Early Iron-Age pot and shards (AD 600-800) while ploughing his fields to plant potatoes (personal communication). Woolmore took his findings to the Natal University where after Leonard van Skalkwyk, an archaeologist, began working on the Ndondondweni sites at Mamba and Wozi in the Tugela valley (Garrett, 1997). Van Skalkwyk then visited Nesta Nala, who lives in the area close to where the Early Iron-Age pot and shards were discovered. After showing her shards excavated from the site, he had to convince Nesta Nala that they were part of her heritage before she would accept a commission to replicate the designs[ii]. Because of this meeting with Van Skalkwyk, new decorative themes appeared in Nesta Nala’s work. These include raised cords arranged in slanting lozenges, often combined with floral motifs or raised pellets and incised chevron patterns arranged in bands around the vessels (Garrett, 1997:44).

[i] Greenberg, S. 1996. National Ceramics Biennale: Nesta Nala. National Ceramics Quarterly, 37:15.

[ii] Personal communication with Campbel Woolmore: 1997.

29/04/2020

Beautiful strong women making beautiful pots!

A traditional potter Mamolatelo Sethibela and her sister were taught to make pottery by their grandmother, and she lives and works in Molototsi, Limpopo Province, approximately 10 kilometres from Mooketsi on the R81 towards Giyani. In a work room adjacent to her house Mamolatelo Sethibela makes various types and sizes of traditional pottery forms but most impressive are her very large vessels used for storing water or beer. If the vessel is used for water, it is called motsea and, for beer, called nkho. This vessel is decorated with four parallel-incised lines to create three bands just above the widest diameter; the lowest band is painted with ochre, the second band with graphite and the third, crosshatched with an additional parallel line about 5 mm above the crosshatched band. Between the bands and the rim is an arc design coloured with graphite and ochre (personal observation and communication).

Sethibela has to travel long distances to collect her clay from various deposits in the area. The firing takes place on the ground using cow dung and grass; this leaves strong firing/carbon marks on the pottery and it fires to a higher temperature, resulting in stronger ware. The cow dung patties fire hotter and keep heat for longer periods in comparison to dry twigs and grass. Her losses are fewer than those of many of the other potters visited in Venda (personal observation and communication 2000).

27/04/2020

Phophi Malingana is a member of the Lemba, she is a traditional potter having learnt the craft from her mother, who learnt it from her mother. Her exact birth date is unknown but she was born between the two world wars. She has taught her daughter, who works as a potter in the village of Mphego. Phophi Malingana lives and works in the village of Nthabalala.

Phophi Malingana makes her pottery using the traditional method of pulling up from the hump and firing on the ground, using dry twigs and grass (Cruise, 1991).

Phophi Malingana’s vessels are made for cooking or beer and display a wonderful sense of volume, which is a direct result of their traditional functionality. Various sized cooking vessels made in Venda are spherical, with generous inverted rims and a rounded base, decorated with a band of two lines approximately 1 cm apart situated 5 cm from the rim. Her cooking vessels are recognisable by two impressed dots on the band running around the shoulder, possibly made by finger impressions while the clay is still soft (personal observation.). Lawton stated that: these shallow depressions called mato a khali are made with thumb and forefinger on certain vessels only but he does not state which vessels. He further states that when Van der Lith questioned a number of women, he learnt that the impressions were a type of trademark whereby a potter could identify her ware (Lawton, 1967). Notably, the cooking vessels found in Venda seem to conform to standard measurements, differing only by a few centimetres (personal observation).

This research was done between 1996 - 2002
Photo of Phophi Malingana taken by Doreen H**p.

23/04/2020

SPECTACULAR SKILLS from well know traditional potter Rebecca Matibe!

Born in Venda in the village of Mabila and she was taught traditional pottery techniques by her husband’s first wife (Sellschop, 2002). She continues to produce traditional utilitarian vessels as well as expanding her repertoire to include sculpture and individual expressive vessels made by applying relief decorations using images of snakes, leaves, birds and hearts that reflect a unique style.

@ South Africa

22/04/2020

ENERGY PERSONIFIED! The most amazing woman!
Mavis Baloyi (nee Gazani) was born in Majosi, Mkhomi, in 1955 before moving to Magona and, in 1999, settled in Giyani in the Limpopo Province. The Baloyi families are from the Shangaan Tribe – Kalanga Community. Mavis Baloyi learnt to make pottery at the age of eleven from her mother, who was taught by Venda potters. Her three sisters, Sarah, Christina and Saliminah are learning the craft from her. She works and lives in an RDP (Reconstruction and Development Program) house, Section F (personal observation and communication 2002).

@ South Africa

20/04/2020

Mthavini Maswanganyi lives in the Maphuve Village on the outskirts of Giyani in the Limpopo Province. She was born in 1954 and, at the age of fifteen, was taught pottery by her mother who had in turn learnt the craft from her mother. Mthavini Maswanganyi gained further training from a neighbour who is a master craftsperson (personal observation and communication 2002).

@ South Africa

Address

Johannesburg
1872

Telephone

27837300250

Website

https://michelleleggceramics.carrd.co/

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