The Ceramic art of making pots from clay is and age-old tradition that originated all over the world in different forms. Ceramics is a fine-arts exploration of forms produced from the physical elements of earth itself: Earth, water, fire, wind and ether. Ceramics lends itself to hours of meditative or creative fun. To feel and work with modest malleable clay has made us want to share the experience with those curious about pottery and ceramics. It is this principle that we embrace through our pottery classes.
Bella Odendaal
From as early as she can remember, Bella has had art on her mind and in her life. Even as a child she was making little clay pots from the turf ground on the farm on which she grew up. Later she started playing with air-dry clay, reading books about pottery, and developing her own techniques. She studied art at school, and kept exploring art history and participating in arts and crafts courses and workshops throughout her life. Later she started focusing on pottery, and frustrated by only being able to join weekly classes, she procured her own oven and pottery-wheel and began her little studio. The studio just kept growing!
Pottery is Bella’s biggest passion and pleasure. Contact with earth and clay takes her back to those formative years playing with the farm turf clay pots. It has become an unbridled channel for her creativity, and her hands that are always itching to make something interesting.
Le Roux Odendaal
Le Roux got into the clay play space after digging up clay from the Merry Rocks backyard garden in 2016, after which he refined it and brought into the studio to work with. Wanting to put something back into the garden, he started making ollas (special unglazed pots) for water-wise gardening and mushroom sculptures to mimic, invite, and learn more about the diverse and friendly fungi found in our environments. A drive to bring some practical and magical elements into urban gardening is at the heart of his development as a ceramicist and potter.
Experimenting on the wheel Le Roux works with another side of functional ceramics. Exploring different decorating styles led him to learn more about the excitement of glazes and the intrigue of slip-carving. There is something in exploring different cultures and ways of saying things and thinking that Le Roux tries to bring into some of his work, taking large amounts of inspiration from Japanese culture and pottery traditions.
Both Bella and Le Roux are mostly self-taught, having attended numerous workshops and extensively absorbing literature and videos from established ceramicists to learn more and develop their own unique techniques and practices. They both see learning and developing further as a continuous and joyous never-ending quest. For both of them it is important that everyone at Merry Rocks Clay Play studio can enjoy working, creating, being with one another, and learning from each other. Together we grow, play, and learn.
Our Pottery Philosophy
The central philosophy of our pottery studio is to honour the earth. To recycle where we can. To enjoy the versatility of the gifts we get from the ground. To play and experiment in the process of pottery making. To give back where we can. We learn our students to enjoy the process of creating their pottery and ceramic items and to remember that the creative process is more important than the outcome.
We recycle all the clay and glaze that we cannot use. We acknowledge the fact that we all think, work, and create differently. We encourage the enjoyment of each other’s pottery without prejudice, allowing us to always learn from one another rather than to just criticize. Always remember: playing with clay and natural materials is a privilege and a joy!
Like the earth itself, our studio is a set and rooted place where we practice, play, and get a bit of dirt on our hands.
Like water we flow, always changing and feel free to improvise, but always clean again.
Like fire we can give in to impulse and run with that spark of creativity without worrying about the risk of breaking a pot or two along the way.
Like wind we are always fresh and patient, learning with the ambient times and seasons that set our pace as clay dries and new ideas carry on into one another.
Like aether, we let empty spaces get filled up. Empty pots that make homes for plants. Cups that allows you to enjoy a comforting drink. Pottery and ceramic designs are made to fill your imagination with wonder for the Earth!
