Today Ozzy Boxer and I visited the bi-annual Potters Market at Rondebosch Park, off Campground and Sandown Roads.
I was impressed by the array of extrodinary talent from around the Western Cape. Some potters come from as far as Bloemfontein for this event.
The person I found most fascinating was Harry Kapatika, a Malawian who creates large “braai-fired” African figures. I photographed him with my recently acquired Sony Ericsson cell phone and had a long chat to him about his methods and his life. He fetches his clay from near Blantyre in Malawi and then fashions the figures here in Cape Town. He told me that wouldn’t be able to bring finished products across the border without import difficulties. Here at home he makes a braai (barbecue) fire and places his finished figures onto the fire at various levels and bakes/fires them this way. This explains the varied and amazing skin colours he obtains.
I was keen to get the photos taken of Harry onto my computer and this forced me to install the software and synch my cell – a job I’ve been putting off for a while. Unfortunately I discovered that I had taken a very poor quality video by mistake but I’ve managed screen capture of Harry for your interest.
Looks like the kind of figures I would love for my place in Hogsback where I collect african art….
You can send photos directly from your cell to the ning network and it works very well. I also send photos from my cell to my flickr account.