Ms Tshililo Malange, a self-employed potter from Mpheni Block D1 near Elim, enjoys being productive and keeping poverty at bay by making beautifully decorated pots and bowls.
Malange started her business, called Mosaic Art Works, in 2006, after she had received funding from Luminosa Trust, the company she had previously worked for as a field worker by distributing community public phones to spaza shops.
She explains that she buys traditional clay pots from the local grannies around her community and uses them as moulds to cast her ceramic pots to ensure a strong final product. She also uses other Venda materials. She buys the mosaic tiles used to decorate her ceramic ware in Pretoria. "Working with ceramic is not the same as using clay soil," she said.
She soaks the casting clay in water. When it becomes liquid, she pours it little by little into moulds until the moulds are filled up. She waits about three days for it to dry, then takes it out and places it on the electrical pottery wheel and starts to shape it into form. "When it is shaped, we bake it in the oven at 1100 degrees Celsius. Once baked, we clean it with a dry cloth, and later I decorate it with the mosaic glass according to my desire. I make pots in bright colours or plain," she said.
Malange believes that her responsibility is to share her good fortune with her community. She often shows youngsters and other women from her community how to make ceramic mosaic pottery. She says that for women to find something that can generate an income for themselves is important. "Now is the time for women to work hard, so that they can reap the fruits," she said.