In the tranquility of Rheenendal early Spring landscape De Beer's motto, "Don't do everything today, otherwise you have nothing to do tomorrow," seems quite fitting.
Born in Western Transvaal (now North-West Province) and raised in the Eastern Lowveld on a 'fruit salad' farm in Hazyview, he believes his creativity was shaped in those early years by the bounty of nature that surrounded his family's farm near the Kruger National Park.
"I think I was only eight years old when I 'borrowed' my father Jan's oil paints without permission - and there a star was born," he grins.
De Beer studied fine arts in Pretoria. In 1993 he, his wife and their "pigeon-pair kids" moved to Knysna. Before this move, he also farmed on the banks of the Sabie River.
"Fifty hectares on which to do art," he laughses as he remembers a life where hippos and crocodiles cross the lawns. "We decided to sell the farm, but it happened so quickly that we were caught unawares. We were looking to do something creative and found a small business here in Knysna that made beautiful clay birds, called Funny Birds CC, which now trades as Crazy Clay. It was the best move ever!"
Once they had moved to Knysna and had taken over the business, the passion-driven team began experimenting with new designs, while at the same time embracing Crazy Clay’s commitment to the social development and upliftment of local communities.
"In our studio on the banks of the Knysna Lagoon we give flight to life’s pressures by participating in the hand-making and painting of our eye-catching Commix range or glazing our unique African Savannah Raku-fired range of animals, birds, fish and figurines which would complement any decorating theme," explains De Beer who began taking in students in 2002.
Apart from being an excellent excuse to have a leisurely picnic on a gorgeous pre-Spring day, De Beer's pit-fire allows him and his students to give completely unique finishes to their creations.
"Raku is an ancient Japanese method of pottery glazing and has been enthusiastically adopted in Africa where its smoky, mysterious lustre fits perfectly into the African sense of style," says De Beer, who is a leading local expert on the technique. "Crazy Clay's Raku-fired African Savannah stoneware bird and animal figurines are pottery with character!"
Raku is instantly recognisable. It has a deep, velvety black body that contrasts with stains of black, green, blue, yellow or white crackled glaze. The slight imperfections of the crackling give added lustre and living colour to the glazes produces by the artist. At the leather-hard stage of the process, the items are burnished with a smooth stone until it shines, or it is surfaced with 'slips' according to the Terra sigillata methods of the Greeks of old. The items are then bisque-fired in an electric kiln before heading for the pit-fire. This is where all the odd ingredients come into play. "With pit-firing you can literally use banana skins or even dog food or tin foil to produce the most magnificent and unpredictable adventures in colour on the clay."
After firing, the clay items are washed and polished to discover and bring out their new colours. The entire process from start to finish takes about seven hours to complete.
De Beer warns, "One can not rush a pit-firing! Patience is needed. If you rush the cooling process you stand a bigger chance of cracking your precious item. Thirteen items were successfully pit-tired this time and only one had a small crack in it."
For people who want to be creative at a leisurely pace, Crazy Clay offers classes in Knysna on Wednesday mornings when hand-built coil pots and sculptures are created and then pit- or high-fired or Raku-ed. Visit Crazy Clay at 10 Auction Mart Avenue, Knysna or contact them at 044 382 5394 or crazyclay@mweb.co.za.
On show in his rural home are many of the exquisite art pieces that Gerhard de Beer has created over the years.
ARTICLE: ANOESCHKA VON MECK, KNYSNA-PLETT HERALD JOURNALIST
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