How Ceramics Start-Up Zizamele Ceramics Is Empowering Its Local Community
How Ceramics Start-Up Zizamele Ceramics Is Empowering Its Local Community. Zizamele Ceramics consists of a team of artisanal women potters who are working together to create a range of handmade and hand-painted African ceramics. All members of the team are from the local community, the company is located at Stand D1, The Watershed V&A Waterfront, CAPE Town.
Toni Burton, whose background is in Higher Education, started Zizamele Ceramics in 2008. After studying Fine Art (with Ceramics as a major) at Michaelis School of Fine Art at UCT, she taught high school art and ran a home teaching studio for children and adults for many years. She then became a Ceramics lecturer at College of Cape Town and progressed to False Bay College where she ran learnerships in Craft Production. The final cohort of students were granted an extra 6 months Learn & Earn opportunity and together some of the students and her started Zizamele Ceramics.
Burton’s family consisted of entrepreneurs who owned their own businesses, so she had an instinctive understanding of how to guide the business to success. She has managed to secure numerous awards along the way for the signature range of Ubuntu Bowls and related products, which are firm favourites at in South Africa and abroad. While Product Development is her first love, she declares herself an educator at heart and is thrilled to be teaching ceramics again from the Zizamele studio.
Zizamele Ceramics’ first export order was in 2008 for 1500 items ordered by Anthropologie in USA. The same year, the company was named a Craft Icon by the local Craft&Design Institute.
