Tag Archives: Accommodation in Swellendam

Open Studio, Potter’s Lunch, Update – Dec 2024

Hello and warm summer greetings from Bukkenburg in Swellendam as we approach the summer solstice.
We extend Season’s Greetings and our Best Wishes for 2025.

“May you be surrounded by friends and family, and if this is not your lot, may the blessings find you in your solitude“

Leonard Cohen

This quote by Leonard Cohen has often ended some of our seasonal updates, but in 2024, it acquired new meaning.

In our kitchen in Parkview, Johannesburg, early 1980s

Reflecting on the events of the past year, we find ourselves on an unexpected and most difficult journey. I suppose that is what life does to us!

Following last year’s lively and energetic update reflecting on a very eventful and productive year and  with such positive prospects for 2024, our lives took a sudden and heart-breaking turn when Felicity suffered a serious stroke early in the year.

After the stroke, Felicity spent months in hospital and frail care, and  has faced immense challenges, yet I’m glad to say she is stable for now, and comfortable at home, where she’s looked after with great care by Elizabeth Biko, her dedicated daily caregiver.

Felicity and I have been together for 52 years, and have lived in Swellendam for 28 years. Our blog updates, as with all things throughout our life together, have always been a combined effort, and this is the first one where she has not had any direct input – no suggestions as to what to leave in or leave out.

The companionship of 52 years is a blessing few achieve, but for those of us who do, it creates a matchless bond and synergy of spirit

Our family is again together, and in some ways, it has grown as we are surrounded by the love, concern, and practical help of so many. Felicity continues to inspire us with her resilience. James initially reacted quite badly to the dramatic changes we were facing; thankfully he’s settling down now.

We’ve managed to enjoy some uplifting moments with Felicity in the early summer garden, which is looking delightful, and she has even been able to visit the studio again – a gentle, touching time for us both.

Our GP has visited and assured us of his availability whenever we need his support, which comforts us as we adjust to her ongoing needs.

I am so grateful to everyone who has stayed involved, offering your presence, comfort, kind words in person and from afar, and, of course, the delicious meals brought by friends and neighbours.

Thank you also for your continued messages of support.

Our gratitude and warm appreciation for family and community support include special mentions to Felicity’s son Andrew, who took time off from work in Johannesburg to be here, my brother John and sister Marian from the UK who both made the journey, and cousin Tony, a medical specialist who has kept a close watch from Cape Town and made several trips to be with us.

And a special thank you to Penny Thome and Carmen Stuart from Swellendam, whose care and encouragement has been unwavering all through this unbelievable ordeal, and continues. Your kindness is precious.

This is Felicity’s caregiver, Elizabeth Biko, giving James his breakfast.

Carmen – – – – Penny

In the Studio

In the studio, life is slowly beginning to regain some momentum. With the invaluable help of Saskia van Leeuwen, I have completed long overdue glaze firings in our big oil kiln, and the results are most encouraging, considering that this is the first time in all these years that Felicity and I have not been in the studio together for the glazing and decorating cycle, and also we were not at the kiln together during the firings.

This work will be on display in our gallery throughout the holiday season and beyond.

In spite of the mad scramble to re-energize the studio in the early spring, after the catastrophic events earlier in the year and the desperately grim and bleak winter months, things have more or less come together for now.

The newly tested glazes that showed such promise at the end of last year and which we were so excited about have been used on some of the pots in these recent firings and those pots are now in the gallery. (Pictures of two of the new glazes were on last December’s news update, others in the new updates on the website – see below)

Several delayed commissions have been completed with this spring push, and now I am able to get on with the remaining ordered and commissioned work and hopefully extend into some more adventurous work in the New Year as I begin to explore all sorts of possibilities with the new glazes.

Saskia at the wheel with James watching – and – Saskia helping to load the big kiln

“These pots are fragile and so easily broken, they are only made of a little clay on which fortune has precariously bestowed some consistency; the same could be said of mankind”

José Saramago

Here are a few images of our new work:

There are several albums of pictures showing the new work on these refreshed pages of our website.
Please click on the highlighted text to get to those pages:

Current Work  – 
Recently fired pots – 3 galleries of pictures

Pots for Sale  – 
4 galleries of pictures of pots for sale.
These are the pots on view in our gallery at Bukkenburg and for sale from this page.
I will include prices and details quite soon – in the meantime if any of these pots interest you, please send me the three digit number of the piece by WhatsApp or e-mail and I’ll send you all the information.

We can accept EFT and card payments.
Reliable shipping to almost any destination can be arranged.

Potter’s Lunch & Open Studio – 21 December

Preparations are ongoing for our annual summer ‘Potter’s Lunch and Open Studio’ on Saturday, 21 December— always one of the highlights of the year.
We will be limiting the number of people for lunch this year.

A warm invitation to join us on the 21st, and if you’d like to join us for our well-known buffet, please book your place:
Tel:                 082 342 5453
E-mail:            david@pottery.co.za

The menu and costs will be available soon.

Here are some pictures from earlier events:

Exhibitions

Very early in the year, sometime before Felicity’s stroke, we decided that we should be making more of an effort to have our work seen further afield again and so agreed that we would take part in group exhibitions should the opportunity arise.

Two exhibition opportunities arose early in the year:

  • ‘The Persistence of Memory’, The Winter Ceramics Exhibition – Spier Arts Trust in Stellenbosch, from June to September
  • Inaugural SA Clay Awards 2024 Exhibition at Rust-en-Vrede Gallery & Clay Museum in Cape Town, in November

We sent in pictures of our work for possible selection and were accepted by both!

It has been so long since we took part in any of these joint or group exhibitions and we are delighted to have been represented in both – more especially at having one of our pieces selected for the Inaugural SA Clay Awards.

There were more than 500 entries for the SA Clay Awards from which 45 pieces were selected for the exhibition.

This is the piece of ours that was accepted.

SA Clay Awards  2024  press release: https://rust-en-vrede.com/clayawards/

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Unpacking a pair of big stoneware jars at Spier Arts Trust which had been accepted for the Spier Winter Ceramics Exhibition.

We look forward to submitting work again should the opportunity arise.

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Swellendam – On The Way To Everywhere

Swellendam – at the foot of the Langeberg Mountains


With all that the town has to offer visitors, it is sad that in recent years, Swellendam has operated without an organized tourism body and no plan or strategy in operation.

We acknowledge and value the tireless work of individuals striving to maintain the visibility and prominence of the town and its surrounding region.

Despite the absence of a coordinated effort, these dedicated individuals contribute significantly to sustaining the profile of Swellendam, ensuring it remains a notable destination.

Their hard work plays a vital role in helping to promote the town and enhancing its appeal for visitors.

Also of great concern is the extent of political infighting and tension in the Municipal Council – the fallout from this certainly cannot be good for the town’s citizens, and the town’s profile as a developing tourist destination.

It has recently been announced that Swellendam Municipality has achieved another clean audit!
This is really great news as so many small and larger municipalities in this country are in deep financial trouble

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Our guest cottage at Bukkenburg

ACCOMMODATION AT THE STUDIO

Our self-catering guest cottage in the garden, shown in the picture above is available for an overnight stay or longer.
Please contact us for availability and rates.

Details and pictures on the ‘Accommodation Page’ Click Here

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Delighted that the pair Spotted Eagle Owls returned again to their nesting tree near to us this year and fledged these two babies.

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Looking ahead

Our current situation and Felicity’s’ condition determine a particular outlook for the road ahead, and we will approach the New Year very much on a day by day basis.

Even in these trying times we have so much to be grateful for.

I am more than grateful that Felicity is home and comfortable with a really fine caregiver in Elizabeth Biko, and James has recovered from a very difficult period earlier in the year when Felicity first took ill.

Equally so, I am grateful for the support of a network of amazing local people.

A family who, although so far away, are always there for a call, and who will, I am sure again drop everything to be here with us should the situation require it.

Thankful too that our gallery now has a lively and diverse display of fresh, new work on view and for sale, and that we have some meaningful commissioned work to complete as the New Year begins.

The article below was written by Chief Kagisho Molema and posted recently on swellendam.com and SwellenGram:

https://swellendam.com/the-sage-at-the-potters-house/


Malachite Sunbird – male

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Thank you so much for your ongoing interest and support, and for taking the time to read through this update.
We’re looking forward to seeing some of you here during the summer months and beyond

The studio and gallery are open and working daily
Visitors are always welcome

With our warm wishes for the festive season and 2025

David & Felicity
At Bukkenburg in Swellendam
December 2024
Moblie / WhatsApp: +27 82 342 5453
E-Mail: david@pottery.co.za

We hope that you will visit and support our various Social Media pages:
Facebook Studio Page
Facebook – Bukkenburg Pottery
Facebook Accommodation Page
Facebook – David
Instagram


Ken Beittel

Summer 2022 at Bukkenburg

Season’s Greetings from Bukkenburg in Swellendam
Our Best wishes for 2023


Our interesting winter journey mentioned in the last newsletter has continued to provide ongoing interest and some drama into summer.

Malachite sunbird on a flowering Agapanthus.

The Swellendam Garden Expo and Open Gardens Weekend in early November was fantastic.

The organisation of the weekend was really superb and the event was so well supported by local residents and visitors to the town.  All gardens that were on the program and open reported a bigger than expected turnout.

Well done to all involved – organisers, those who presented workshops, The Gardener’s Market, and all the participating gardeners and their gardens.

We thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and we’re looking forward to all the preparations involved in getting our garden and studio ready for the open gardens next spring.

And also very importantly, as a fundraising effort, the weekend event raised a substantial sum for Swellendam SPCA.

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The ongoing nation-wide power cuts have intensified recently and are causing such havoc throughout the country – affecting even us in our small home studio in rural Western Cape.

As mentioned in an earlier post, we need at least 14 hours of uninterrupted power to run the three phase fan on either of our oil kilns and the increased frequency of power cuts since the end of November means that it is just not possible.

We have an electrician working on a system right now to run the fan from our backup electricity supply and free ourselves from the ongoing power cuts on the national grid.

It’s taking longer than we hoped and is further complicated by the difficulties of getting things done in the service industry during the end of year pressures.

Progress?

Here’s hoping that the kiln will be in operation again very soon.
We’ll begin with the restart of an interrupted firing from a few weeks ago when it had to be shut down due to a sudden increase in the frequency and duration of the power cuts.

The power situation in the country has become untenable and we’re having to resort to extreme and very expensive measures along with everyone else to try and remain afloat.

Streaky-headed seedeater (canary) enjoying new season sunflowers in the garden.

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There have also been disruptions in our fuel supply recently and it’s now very difficult getting paraffin locally. We have been using paraffin to fire the kilns since moving here in 1996.

Thanks to a suggestion from a friend on Facebook, we have been able to buy Jet A1 at the local flying club as an alternative; it is essentially paraffin with some additives.

Filling our cans with Jet A1 fuel at the airfield with Michael. That is Jacob Streicher filling the cans.

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Glazing and decorating continues in anticipation of the power supply to the kiln being sorted and several glaze firings to come.

As soon as things stabilise our outstanding commissions and orders will be fired and we will again have a refreshed display of new work in our gallery at the studio.

Thank you to all who are waiting for pots from us for your patience and understanding!

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Our most recent adventure appeared on the morning of Saturday 17 December when we went into the studio and found that it had been flooded during the big rain that had fallen overnight.

On further inspection we found that the brick wall between us and our neighbour had come down during the heavy rain and the water that came in behind it had washed through the studio leaving a deposit of fine silt throughout.

Thankfully there is no further damage to work in progress or the building, just a mess to clear up, which is almost done now, and re-building the wall in the new year.

The collapsed wall at the back of the studio.

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Swellendam – On The Way To Everywhere

For the past few years Swellendam has been without an organised, co-ordinated tourism plan or strategy, and we appreciate what is being done by several hard working individuals in their efforts to keep the profile of the town and region visible and prominent.

The Cottage

Our self-catering guest cottage, shown above, is available for an overnight stay or longer.
Details and pictures on the ‘Accommodation Page’ Click Here

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The studio and gallery will be open and working throughout the holidays and beyond, and visitors are always welcome.
Please call ahead if travelling from afar, we’re hoping for an occasional outing to the beach if time and weather allow.



“May you be surrounded by friends and family, and if this is not your lot, may the blessings find you in your solitude.”
~ Leonard Cohen ~

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With our very best wishes for the festive season and 2023

David and Felicity
Bukkenburg – December 2022

Mobile & WhatsApp: +27 (0) 82 342 5453
E-mail: david@pottery.co.za

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Please visit and ‘like’ our various Social Media pages:
Facebook Studio Page
Facebook – Bukkenburg Pottery
Facebook Accommodation Page
Facebook – David
Instagram

Spring 2022 at Bukkenburg

Hello and sunny spring greetings from us at Bukkenburg in Swellendam

How wonderful to feel the warmer weather now and enjoy longer days with the arrival of spring in the southern hemisphere.

We’re marking two notable milestones in October

And one upcoming event

We have been together for 50 years!

Our meandering journey / adventure / odyssey into clay and the art and craft of high fired studio pottery began within a few months of our getting together in October 1972.


We’re also marking 26 years in Swellendam.
We moved into the heritage house Bukkenburg on 1 October 1996, after many years in our home and studio in Johannesburg.

Bukkenburg

Winter into spring

It’s been a different and an interesting journey this past winter.

Felicity broke the fibula in her right leg in July about a week after we posted our last newsletter, and that had a profound impact on the rhythm of life and work.

We are so grateful for supportive friends and neighbours who helped us through this time.

We ran several short workshops in the studio during the winter while Felicity was ‘out of action’, and managed to cater a marvellous dinner for the Swellendam Music Society and their visiting artists with help of Carolyn from next door, Sue and Felicity’s son Andrew who was here for the weekend.

Occupancy in the cottage has been modest and steady.

Felicity’s recovery is reassuring and work in the studio is regaining some momentum – the rhythm of life and work slowly returns.

We have the house and some light studio equipment connected to a backup electricity supply and so now we are able to remain productive.

The studio and covered outside drying area are filling up with unfired pots, many orders and stock for our gallery for the summer.
We’re looking forward to getting busy with our spring firings as soon as possible.

As with so many all over the country, the ongoing nationwide power cuts have impacted our work in the studio.
In order to fire either of our two big oil fired kilns we need at least 14 hours of uninterrupted electricity.

We’re hopeful for a more steady supply of electricity soon, and if not, we we’ll have to consider an alternative solution, perhaps a generator to run the big three-phase fan that atomises the fuel as it enters the kiln.

Swellendam Garden Expo & Open Gardens
4 to 6 November

We have also been very busy preparing the garden for the Swellendam Open Gardens weekend in November.

Ours will be one of 18 gardens in and around Swellendam that will be open to visitors from 4 to 6 November.

In addition there will be a Gardener’s Market and a range of events.

For further information and bookings please visit the Swellendam Garden Expo.
Website: CLICK HERE
Also on Facebook; CLICK HERE

A few spring garden pictures

‘Swellendam – On The Way To Everywhere’

For the past few years Swellendam has been without an organised, co-ordinated tourism plan or strategy, and we appreciate what is being done by several hard working individuals in their efforts to keep the profile of the town and region visible and prominent.

Our self-catering guest cottage, shown above, is available for an overnight stay or longer.
Details and pictures on the ‘Accommodation Page’ Click Here

Overberg farmlands outside Swellendam in late September

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Wishing you all the best

David and Felicity
Bukkenburg – October 2022

Mobile & WhatsApp: +27 (0) 82 342 5453
E-mail: david@pottery.co.za

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Please visit and ‘like’ our various Social Media pages:
Facebook Studio Page
Facebook – Bukkenburg Pottery
Facebook Accommodation Page
Facebook – David
Instagram


Potter’s Lunch and Spring Open Studio – 28 September

Garden view at Bukkenburg in spring, looking north towards the Langeberg Mountains.

A warm invitation to our coming Potter’s Lunch and Spring Open Studio in Swellendam

Wheel thrown stoneware vase – 31 cm tall

Our spring open studio begins as usual with a buffet ‘Potter’s Lunch’.
This year it’s on 28th September, just a week after the spring equinox.

Lunch will be served on the veranda and will include fresh local meats and fish from the braai, and a variety of vegetarian dishes including salads and vegetables from the garden.
This will be followed by a selection of delicious desserts -served on our own porcelain and stoneware tableware.

Lunch bookings for the 28th are essential
Please call: 082 342 5453 or e-mail: bukkenburg@sdm.dorea.co.za

Menu and cost will be available soon.
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The gallery has been tidied up and dusted after the extreme winds recently, and is now looking good for the coming spring and summer season with a selection of recently fired work on show and for sale.

The gallery at Bukkenburg
Stoneware lidded casserole

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Accommodation at the studio

Our recently renovated and refurbished guest cottage is available on a self-catering basis for those wanting to stay over in Swellendam on their travels.

The cottage offers luxury accommodation comprising two en-suite, air-conditioned bedrooms, kitchen, lounge with wood burning fire, full DSTV package and outdoor veranda.

Please contact us for further details, availability and rates.
For pictures of the cottage please click HERE
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Brown hooded Kingfisher – eating his own lunch in the garden

We hope that some of you will be able to visit the studio and we look forward to welcoming you here.
The studio and gallery are open and working daily and visitors are welcome to browse and enjoy our environment.
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With our best wishes
David and Felicity
Spring – 2019

Bukkenburg Pottery Studio, Gallery & Guest Cottage
8 Hermanus Steyn Street
Swellendam
Tel: 082 342 5453

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Winter in Swellendam

Winter in the Southern Cape – flowering canola fields and the Langeberg Mountains near Swellendam.

Winter in Swellendam –

Some new work and the Swellendam Winter School.

It’s an ongoing busy winter in Swellendam, some of the big orders have been fired and shipped, and we also have some new work in the gallery.

Smaller orders and the rest of the bigger pots still to be fired before we can get on with work for the spring and coming summer.

Here are some of new pots:


More pictures of the new pots in a future post and ongoing on our Facebook and Instagram pages.


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Swellendam Winter School

The Swellendam Winter School began last month by running several 3-day and 5-day courses in various disciplines and activities for the three winter months, June to August.

We have held two well-attended 3-day weekend courses since the inception of the Winter School which we’ve called ‘Clay Explorations’ – one in June, the other in July, with a third planned for the weekend of 23 to 25 August.

For details and further info on our August ‘Clay Explorations’ Course including bookings and accommodation options please CLICK HERE

For further information about the Swellendam Winter School, the courses, bookings, accommodation options etc, please CLICK HERE

Here are a few pictures from the first two courses this winter:


We hope to broaden our offerings for next year’s Winter School with more advanced courses for experienced potters looking to enhance their skills.

We’re thinking of an advanced throwing course, and one focused on glazing and firing high temperature reduction-fired stoneware and porcelain.

Details will follow.

Our thanks and appreciation to all those involved in getting this initiative off the ground this winter – organizers, course facilitators and the participants who have come from far and wide.

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Accommodation at the studio

Our recently renovated and refurbished guest cottage is available on a self-catering basis for those wanting to stay over in Swellendam on their travels.

The cottage offers luxury accommodation comprising two en-suite, air-conditioned bedrooms, kitchen, lounge with wood burning fire, full DSTV package and outdoor veranda.

Please contact us for further details, availability and rates.
For pictures of the cottage please click HERE

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Please let us know if you would like to be included on our mailing list.
Our e-mail address: bukkenburg@sdm.dorea.co.za

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