Mud Studio

I’ll never forget the feeling I felt when, working in London just after university, I saw a queue outside a theatre and realised it was for a Hugh Masekela jazz concert. You just can’t help it – feeling patriotic and proud when you see excellence from South Africa being exported. Sometimes, it’s also mixed with a kind of sadness that what is good enough to proudly display overseas is not well known at home… A few years ago I walked into a Conran shop in Tokyo, only to be stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the beautiful ceramics made by Mud Studio, a South African company. Back home, I sourced the products to sell it in my own shop. Inevitably, some of them found their way into my home as well.

Werner and Philippa du Toit, owners of the now well-known Mud Studio, are not only responsible for the handmade ceramics (mostly organic shapes and neutral colours), but their rural-empowerment clay-bead project makes the most striking chandeliers. They have set up shop at 3 Desmond Road in Kramerville, a beautiful, expansive showroom designed to make you drool over every item. My visit to the shop instantly conjured up that wonderful sense of pride I felt, the one which made me try to explain to a Japanese shop assistant what the words “local is lekker” mean…

 

 

You can visit their website here or like their Facebook page.