Mochaba's exquisite handmade clay artworks

GASEBALWE SERETSE
Staff Writer | Friday April 23, 2010 00:00

 

The project was initiated by one woman, Gwen Kebitsang, who founded Mochaba Pottery and Nursery, which produces eye-catching handmade clay pots, garden lampshades and sculptures. Although Kebitsang has since handed the directorship to Kamkondo Munthali, who is originally from Malawi, the company is still going strong, as its products continue to attract motorists and art-lovers travelling along the road.

Munthali took Arts & Culture on a tour of the workshop where these products which are very pleasing to the eye are made.

According to the Munthali, a typical day at the workshop  starts with the collection of clay at some ponds in the village of Serule.

The clay is collected in lump form and it gets crushed with a stamping tool made out of steel until it is soft and powdery.

After the soil has been crushed into a powder it is sieved before it is put in a huge pot where it is mixed with water and stirred until it is in a mouldable form.

One of the workers at the workshop, Moffat Zulu told Arts & Culture that after mixing the clay with water, they take it to another section of the workshop where they start making the base with a tool that they call a hand hammer.

'Once one of my work mates has made the base, I draw a picture on the board so that he should mould the clay in that particular shape,' said Zulu. The potter said that when a base has been made, coils of clay are heaped on top of each other until they reach a desired height at which point the potter starts shaping the clay using a trimming tool.

When the potter is happy with the shape of the piece, it is decorated with different designs before it is taken to the kiln for firing. Interestingly, before the pieces are taken to the kiln they are grayish but they come out brownish as a result of their exposure to high temperatures.

According to Zulu, normally, the pots are 40 cm high and their mouths are also 40 cm wide.

On average each potter makes two pieces in a day and the prices range from P 60 to P 1 200 depending on the size and the design.

Munthali said that all the products at  the workshop are handmade and as such the  use of tools is very minimal. This is ascertained by the fact that they do not have a potter's wheel at the workshop and the few tools they used do not have 'proper' names as they have all been crafted by the workers themselves so that they make the job easier.

He further said that he believes that one of the reasons why people love his products is that they are mostly handmade, which makes the special as no piece looks exactly the same as another. Surprisingly, Munthali pointed out that he has noted that most of his clients are not from the Serowe/Palapye area where he is based.

'I have noticed that although we are based in Palapye, most of my clients are people from Gaborone,' he asserted adding that one of his biggest clients is the government of Botswana, which he said has bought a good number of products in recent years.

In the past, he also supplied big curio shops in Gaborone with his products, but he has since stopped because the company has been instructed by government  to find an alternative place in the industrial site in the village.

Currently, Munthali and his workers are dismantling their workshop at the farm as ready to relocate to the new place where they hope they would be able to go to full production and so that they secure back most of their former clients.

Apart from the two Zimbabweans, who are both professional potters, Mochaba Pottery  employs two young Batswana men.

Munthali told Arts & Culture that one of his objectives is to train Batswana to become potters that is why early this year he took the youthful Collen Raphaka and Modisaotsile Bantu under his arm.

The two came with no background in pottery and only got to learn all the skills from their Zimbabwean mentors.'I came to Mochaba Pottery in February this year looking for a job and I am glad that they took me in since I have learnt a lot,' said Raphaka adding that on average he can make two pots. The young man said being part of the project has helped keep him off the streets and that nowadays he is able to earn decent earning.

For his part, Bantu also told Arts & Culture that he received all his training at the workshop but he has since learnt a lot about pottery.

Munthali said that he is prepared to train at least two more Batswana resources and time permitting.