David Schlapobersky Felicity Potter - Studio Pottery & Ceramics

11/08/2026

Weekend Throwing Workshop at Bukkenburg Pottery Studio, Swellendam.
With David Schlapobersky.
Friday 4 September – Sunday 6 September 2026.
Please see the link in bio for all details: booking and accommodation options/suggestions.

11/08/2026

https://pottery.co.za/studio/workshop-and-classes/
Weekend Throwing Workshop at Bukkenburg Pottery Studio, Swellendam.
With David Schlapobersky Friday 4 September – Sunday 6 September 2026
Please see the link for all details: booking and accommodation options/suggestions.

27/07/2026

A farewell lunch on the veranda at Bukkenburg, lovingly prepared by Saskia, brought to a close a wonderfully full and fast-paced throwing workshop with five enthusiastic participants.

What a pleasure it has been to spend the weekend together, sharing ideas, solving problems, making pots, enjoying good conversation, and learning from the remarkable material that is clay.

To round it all off, we were treated to a glorious midwinter afternoon with the temperature reaching 26°C – a perfect ending to the first workshop in this new series.

There will be more photographs and reflections from the weekend over the coming days.

For now, it's time for a little rest this evening before returning to the studio tomorrow morning.

18/07/2026

Today we say goodbye to a truly remarkable woman.

Gwen Fagan died peacefully at home on 16 July, aged 101, just two months short of her 102nd birthday. She leaves behind an extraordinary legacy of scholarship, landscape design, and passionate commitment to South Africa's architectural and horticultural heritage.

For Felicity and me, Gwen was far more than an admired public figure. Together with her late husband, the renowned architect Gawie Fagan, helped us realise a dream when we moved to Swellendam in 1996, and we became long-standing friends. Their wisdom, imagination and meticulous care transformed Bukkenburg into the working heritage homestead that has been our home, studio and place of welcome for three decades.

The first photograph was taken at Gwen's 100th birthday celebration in September 2024, with her daughter Alida. The second, taken here at Bukkenburg in January 2024, shows Gwen, then 99, with Felicity. Just a few weeks later Felicity suffered the stroke that changed our lives forever. Looking at this photograph now, I am especially grateful that we shared that afternoon together.

Some people leave behind beautiful buildings or gardens. Gwen helped create both, but she also nurtured something less tangible: a deep respect for place, history, craftsmanship and the quiet importance of caring well for what we inherit.

Thank you, Gwen, for your friendship, your generosity, your knowledge and your enduring influence on our lives. You will be remembered with great affection and gratitude.

My heartfelt condolences to Alida and the entire Fagan family.

May her memory be for a blessing.

First picture: Gwen at 100 on 28 September 2024 with her daughter Alida
Second picture: left, Gwen at 99 with Felicity at 88 in the garden at Bukkenburg – 17 January 2024

21/06/2026

A little mid-winter delight outside the studio door...

When leaving the studio with James for lunch this afternoon, I came across this olive thrush having the best time splashing about in the glazed stoneware birdbath just outside.

The birds seem to love a bath on a muggy, overcast day like this — even in mid-winter.

It’s not often that I’m lucky enough to capture the moment on video, but today I managed to catch a little of the joy.

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04/06/2026

Sometimes the pot grows larger than the potter and demands a different kind of conversation.

A glimpse into the making of a very large pot on the wheel at Bukkenburg Studio.

This stoneware floor jar has reached a height of 1.2 metres, and the final stages require both a ladder and patience. The wheel turns, the clay rises, and slowly a vessel emerges through movement, touch, and time.

Even after decades of making pottery, there’s an ongoing quiet wonder at the way that the form takes shape beneath my hands.

Sound on for a little classical guitar accompaniment from the studio.

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04/06/2026

17/05/2026

In the aftermath of the recent storm, with so much chaos, destruction and uncertainty around us, it feels important to return to the studio and the discipline of making.

This short video shows me throwing the top onto a large stoneware planter — new work slowly emerging at a time when so much around us still feels broken and unsettled.

The need for focus, concentration and application in the studio has become urgent for me these past days. There is something steadying and restorative in the rhythm of the wheel, the feel of clay moving through the hands, and the quiet demands of the work itself.

Outside, in our damaged environment, the fallen oak trees still lie scattered across the garden while we wait for the insurance assessor to arrive. There is much damage to assess and repair even here at home.

And beyond us here in Swellendam, reports continue to come in describing extensive damage to homes, farms, roads, bridges and public infrastructure across large parts of the Western Cape.

Wishing strength, endurance and courage to all those facing similar circumstances — and especially to those whose losses and difficulties are far greater than our own.

Ceramics PotteryLife PotteryStudio ClayWork LargePlanter HandmadePottery FreshFromTheStudio SouthAfricanPottery WorkingWithClay LifeGoesOn AfterTheStorm Swellendam WesternCape Resilience MakingAsHealing

11/05/2026

Serious damage all around us this morning after the extreme winds that arrived with this cold front.

Our entrance is completely blocked by fallen oak trees — four great old trees that have stood here for well over a century.

It is difficult to take in the suddenness of it.

Trees that have sheltered this place for generations, through storms, summers, droughts and changing seasons, now lying across the road overnight.

All around the district there has been widespread damage, fallen trees and powerlines, and roofs lifted in the gale-force wind. We are safe, thankfully, but the landscape this morning feels changed in a very real way.

A sobering reminder of both the beauty and the force of nature.

It’s now past 11:00am and the wind continues to rage here this morning.

For now we are effectively cut off, trying to find someone with a chainsaw who can at least clear a path through the fallen branches and trunks so that we can get in and out again safely.

It is extraordinary to see these old oak trees — standing for more than a hundred years — brought down in a single event of violent weather.

The sound of the wind through the remaining trees is still deeply unsettling.