Situated at the beautiful Earthworx Garden World on the corner of Valley Road and Victoria Road in Hout Bay, Cape Town. Our Large studio caters for up to 10 Students in one class.
Founded in 2018 by Katie Forsyth and Julie Anderson. We quickly outgrew our tiny studio and found a home in the sunny upstairs studio on the Earthworx Garden World Property.
We are proud that we have created a relaxed, open to all studio catering for all level of expertise with classes available for Adults and in the near future to young ones. From a Basic introduction to clay as well as a varied offering of Specialised techniques in workshops held through out the year.
HBSPI was founded in July 2018 to allow for two things: one to be a creative well equipped space for the founders Julie and Katie to play with clay at will, the other reason was derived from the conditions of operating in the maker space called Workspace. These conditions mandated and maintained by Craig Dunlop were that we were to offer some kind of skills training and earning opportunities to the less fortunate community living in Hout Bay.
So how did we do it…
Initially, using our own modest skills we had acquired on our respective potting journeys, we encouraged friends to join us and learn pottery. These friends came on board as regular students paying a fee for materials and our guidance. Their commitment allowed us the resources to share our equipped studio with a few local students on a bursary Giving rise to The Hout Bay Social Pottery Initiative – HBSPI. The criteria for the bursary was “show up”. If applicants were willing and interested and committed to the weekly lessons then we would welcome them back week after week. Bursary Application details here.
The finances were often tricky and we had to ensure we were growing as well as offering a quality service to the paying members of the studio. To Supplement the growing running costs, we conducted short courses, corporate events, workshops, open days and exhibitions to generate the additional income we needed to keep the clay coming and the kiln firing.
The result…. An amazing group of students! People from different environments in the diverse valley that is Hout Bay. Visitors from Canada and the UK, South Africans from Durban, Capetonians, Zimbabweans, Harbour residents, Informal settlement residents all mixing and sharing stories and ideas. Social cohesion at work.
This so called socially responsible project allowed NGO’s and CSI to incorporate us into their world. Go for Gold hosted their Year end function in the studio,
By October 2019 we had already out grown the Workspace studio. Our move to the new larger studio gave rise to Pottery at Earthworx. The large sunny, inviting well positioned studio allowed for frequent workshops, retail space. Toinette Lindley joined us to take on an afternoon kids pottery class.
This was short lived and almost came to an abrupt end in the height of the pandemic of 2020. Katie and her family relocated to Scottland. Though Katie left a gaping hole, she also gifted a working studio and a project worth running. The generosity of waived months rental and no annual rental increase from our landlord at Earthworx Garden World allowed for us to keep the doors open and continue to offer classes, workshop’s and events.
