Dylan Solomon is a traditional blacksmith who transforms salvaged metal into expressive, one‑of‑a‑kind artworks. Guided by the natural character of each piece of metal, his creations embody both strength and emotion. Using time‑honored forging techniques, he produces handcrafted items that are as unique as they are meaningful, blending craftsmanship with artistry.

Louisa van den Berg is a self-taught artist living in Bloemfontein who has been painting modern art and abstract pieces for more than 20 years. She uses acrylic paint on stretched canvas and has been exhibiting at many festivals for the last 22 years.

Karla van den Bergh, an artist based in South Africa’s Lowveld, began her creative journey in Clarens before exhibiting across the world — from Paris and Avignon to Germany, Japan, and Canada. Working in acrylics, inks, and collage, her layered compositions reflect movement, meaning, and cultural diversity. Influenced by her studies under Sally Ellis in the UK, Karla’s expressive use of colour and texture celebrates human connection and the beauty of life.

Gill Clark‘s creative journey with porcelain began over 30 years ago crafting dolls, which introduced her to the delicate art of slip casting and detailed hand painting. Over time, Clark’s curiosity led her to design and create her own forms and moulds, allowing her to slip cast and develop her own decorative style.

The discovery of paper porcelain opened exciting new possibilities, enabling Clark to manipulate slab-built work more freely and push the boundaries of form and surface.

Today, her practice continues to evolve through experimentation, blending traditional porcelain techniques with innovative approaches to shape and decoration. Endless inspiration is sourced from the botanical world, influencing the forms, textures, and surfaces that emerge in her work.

Part of HIGHVELD CERAMICS: CURATED.

Caroline Schulz Vieira‘s work expresses a dialogue with the vessel and its associations as container, a space defined by walls or boundaries, and the unapparent yet intimate relationship between the ceramic vessel and architecture – the enclosed spaces we eat out of and the enclosed spaces we inhabit.

In this context Schulz Vieira likes to give voice both to UTILITY and AESTHETICS, delighting in the exploration of forms as carriers of a personal narrative that encompasses both. 

Always the beauty of the forms stems from their simplicity and understatement, coupled with the tactility evoked by glazed surfaces that have undergone a trial by heat. She works in stoneware and porcelain, hand built or wheel thrown, fired to 1260 C.  Surface finishes are kept to the minimal, oxide slips and glazes intending to define the form rather than compete with it.​​

Part of HIGHVELD CERAMICS: CURATED.

Working with porcelain clay, Carolyn Heydenrych extrapolates her architectural knowledge into ceramic forms. Black ink on the white surface corresponds with her freehand drawing on paper.

Part of HIGHVELD CERAMICS: CURATED.

Deirdre Botha earned her National Diploma in Ceramic Design from Tshwane University of Technology in 1991, sparking a lifelong passion for clay. Over three decades she explored oil painting, décor design, and art education, yet ceramics remained her true calling.

Today, she celebrates vibrant hues, whimsical themes, and intricate surfaces through sculptures inspired by nature, fairy tales, and imagination. Blending ceramics with painting, mosaics, gilding, and mixed media, her dynamic compositions invite viewers into playful worlds of colour and form.

Her work is available in select galleries and décor shops, with custom ceramics offered through her social media, Muddoodles.

Part of HIGHVELD CERAMICS: CURATED.

Dale Lambert is a South African ceramic artist based in Gauteng, known for her refined hand-thrown vessels in porcelain and stoneware.

Her work is characterised by elegant forms, bold colour, and layered glazes that emphasise both surface and shape. Each piece is individually handcrafted, resulting in unique sculptural vessels that balance simplicity with strong visual presence.

Part of HIGHVELD CERAMICS: CURATED.

Eugene Hon is a ceramic artist that embraces ceramics and drawing, crafting digital solutions. Breaking new ground in contemporary ceramic’s development – a fusion of drawings as digitally printed transfers on self-glazing Parian clay bodies and or as animated digital projections onto ceramic installations.

Part of HIGHVELD CERAMICS: CURATED.

Eunice Botes is a South African ceramic artist working primarily in porcelain. After completing her B-Tech in Ceramics (Cum Laude) in 1998, she lectured and taught art in Botswana for seven years before establishing her full-time studio practice.

Botes’ vessels become canvases for finely incised drawings and applied elements, inspired by the flora of the South African bushveld. Working with porcelain — a material demanding precision and patience — she creates quiet narrative moments through layered processes of carving, sanding, glazing, and lustre firing.

Recently, she expanded her practice with a Diploma in Interior Design, exploring how objects and interiors interact.

Part of HIGHVELD CERAMICS: CURATED.

Gaby Snyman was born and raised in Paarl. In 1982 Snyman graduated with a Fine Arts degree from the University of Stellenbosch. In 2010 she started working in clay under the tutelage of Kim Sacks. Snyman has been mentored by John Shirley for the past 12 years.

Her work revolves around the exploration of balance between spontaneity and control.  Using coloured porcelain in the agateware style, she creates movement on a static vessel.

In the throwing process, the coloured patterns integrate becoming the form itself rather than a surface decoration. Snyman is intrigued by the infinite possibilities and transformative qualities of clay.

Part of HIGHVELD CERAMICS: CURATED.

Lauren Opia is a multidisciplinary visual artist, ceramicist, and filmmaker based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Her work finds significance in the transient states between sentimentality, personal lived experiences and the human psyche, exploring how each individual’s Umwelt shapes their way of living.

Opia primarily works with ceramics and mixed media animation — two mediums that often meander into each other’s worlds to create a dialogue between Opia’s personal experiences and her unique reality — expressed through her use of colour, figuration and constructed environments. 

Part of HIGHVELD CERAMICS: CURATED.

Monica van den Berg is a full-time sculptor working from her own studio. She began working with clay in 2007 and has been exhibiting her work since 2008, receiving several awards for her ceramics.

Monica primarily works with clay using handbuilding techniques, creating sculptural pieces and, more recently, focusing on hand-built vessels. At the leather-hard stage, she applies a slip to the surface of the vessel to create a canvas-like effect. She then paints the vessels with underglaze, often using her own botanical sketches as inspiration.

Each piece is finished through a firing process reaching 1160°C, resulting in distinctive ceramic works that combine sculptural form with delicate botanical imagery.

Part of HIGHVELD CERAMICS: CURATED.

Meriel May began her creative journey in Digby’s Studio, where she discovered a love for throwing and decorating dinnerware that led to her own studio.

More recently, her explorations into painting and charcoal inspired a focus on the “Undergrowth” — the weeds and textures of our natural habitat. This theme now shapes her ceramics, where glazes, oxides, slips, and brushwork reinterpret the undergrowth and wider landscape.

She delights in the unexpected effects of the firing process, which add depth and surprise to her work.

Part of HIGHVELD CERAMICS: CURATED.

John Shirley has been working in clay since the early 1970s. Known for developing his own translucent bone China from locally sourced materials, he creates luminous forms animated by fluid, watercolour-like surfaces using soluble salts. Shirley’s work explores fragility, movement, and quiet tension, and has been exhibited both nationally and internationally.

Fellow of Ceramics Southern Africa.
Member of International Academy of Ceramics.

Part of HIGHVELD CERAMICS: CURATED.

Sandy Godwin is a Johannesburg-based ceramic artist known for her delicate, wheel-thrown porcelain vessels. Originally beginning ceramics as a hobby in 1997, her passion for clay quickly evolved into a disciplined artistic practice focused on refining form, texture, and surface design.

Godwin’s work is distinguished by the use of lace impressions and carefully layered glazes, creating elegant pieces that combine lightness with intricate detail. A member of Ceramics Southern Africa, her work has been exhibited in regional and national exhibitions since 2009 and has received multiple awards, with pieces included in the permanent Corobrik Collection. 

Part of HIGHVELD CERAMICS: CURATED.

Kevin Collins studied under Stanley Pinker, Helmut Starke and Cecil Skotness at the Michaelis school, UCT in the late seventies with painting as his specialization; these teachers influenced the basis of how Kevin uses colour, composition and visual articulation of a narrative.

Collins’ imagery is a reflection from years of travelling (many miles from the age of three) and making small sketches and picking up little bits of visual imagery from packaging, transport tickets and sweet wrappers from Burma to Bangalore. Some imagery emerges from his childhood and early love of illustrated story books. The ‘storytelling’ aspect has transitioned into his later ceramic works.

His work can be found in private collections in Australia, America, Argentina and UK, as well as South Africa (one hangs above the desk of Constitutional Judge Edwin Cameron’s desk)  and among corporate collections both in South Africa and Argentina.

Part of HIGHVELD CERAMICS: CURATED.

With a lifelong background in dance as performer, teacher, choreographer, and Artistic Director of the Johannesburg Youth Ballet (1987–2017), Jean Beckly discovered ceramics later in life and quickly embraced the medium.

Since joining Digby Hoets’ studio in 1984, she has focused on wheel-thrown porcelain, creating mostly functional ware. Influenced by classical Greek forms and Oriental traditions, her style reflects a timeless elegance.

Recognized by Ceramics SA with awards and exhibitions, her work is held in collections locally and abroad, including the Corobrik collection, William Humphrey Gallery, and Fillingdon Fine Art in the UK.

Part of HIGHVELD CERAMICS: CURATED.

Drawn to the tactile nature of clay, Hendrien is an award-winning artist, author and curator. She moved into clay 3D printing in 2019 after sustaining an injury whilst creating a large vessel on her pottery wheel.

Working from her studio in Pretoria, she is the first contemporary clay 3D printing artist in South Africa. The creative activity of interlacing technology and art continually triggers her imagination as she experiments with cascading and warping clay forms.

Exhibiting all around the country, Hendrien also gives talks and workshops on this exciting topic. Her book “Let’s Clay 3D Print! A Guidebook” was released in July 2024, featuring industry experts and artists from around the world.

“My work is an amalgamation of earth, machine and potter fused together creating a coiled body that is perfect in its imperfections.” – Hendrien Horn.

Part of HIGHVELD CERAMICS: CURATED.

Louretta Marais’ love for clay began at an early age when she was first introduced to ceramics at school. She later had the privilege of studying ceramics for a year, and her connection to clay has remained ever since.

Marais works mainly with terracotta earthenware, hand-building and coiling her vessels. Each piece develops organically from the size and shape of its base, gradually forming as it grows, sometimes opening outward and sometimes closing inward. She enjoys using painted slip colours as a finish, often sanding back the surface to reveal layers of colour beneath.

Marais continues to explore new surface treatments and enjoy working on a larger scale, allowing her vessels to quietly occupy their space.

Part of HIGHVELD CERAMICS: CURATED.

The Tshireletsa Bana Foundation is a non‑profit based in and around Clarens, dedicated to discovering and nurturing the talents of local children, especially those with limited access to opportunities. Through education, upskilling, and creative projects — with a strong focus on the arts — the foundation helps children grow their abilities from grassroots level, while building confidence and opening doors to future possibilities. Their work not only benefits the children themselves but strengthens the community as a whole.

The department’s presence at the Clarens Art Festival underscores the impactful work it continues to do in developing the visual arts. By investing in initiatives that empower artists, encourage creativity, and stimulate local economies, the department contributes to the sustainability and growth of the arts sector.

Its efforts at the festival reflect a broader vision of fostering inclusive participation, preserving cultural heritage, and positioning the visual arts as a key driver of social and economic development.

Overall, the department’s participation at the Clarens Art Festival reaffirms its vital role in championing the arts and creating meaningful opportunities for artists to thrive.

The Department of Fine and Studio Arts at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) will present a pop-up shop at the Clarens Arts Festival. This debut participation marks the beginning of what promises to be a dynamic and ongoing collaboration.

The pop-up shop will showcase a curated selection of artworks available for purchase, created by both staff and students within the Department. Master’s degree students will manage the space, representing the Department while engaging with visitors and offering insight into the works on display.

The Department, housed within the Faculty of Arts and Design, encompasses programmes in Fine and Applied Arts as well as Jewellery Design. The selection on display reflects a diverse range of disciplines, including sculpture, ceramics, glass, printmaking, painting, drawing, jewellery, and surface design.

Together, these works highlight current studio practices and offer visitors a compelling encounter with both emerging and established voices within the Department.