Small Oval Dog Dish, from Gemma Orkin Ceramics

Cape Town based artist and maker, Gemma Orkin comes from a family of artists and has been doing ceramics for 30 years with a degree in fine arts majoring in print-making. Gemma makes functional and semi-functional high-fired stoneware. Over the span of her career she has built up a good business both locally and abroad and made her passion a career. She has always been drawn to the old-fashioned charm of ceramics, the creamy glazes, traditional functional forms and the fact that ceramics speak for themselves. She feels that they are uncomplicated, timeless and beautiful.

It is Gemma's love for nature, specifically that which is indigenous to South Africa, that inspires the majority of her work. 

All Gemma's work is hand made and hand painted. Each piece is built up with coils, shaped, allowed to dry and then painted with color and illustrated.