The small village of McGregor is lucky to boast a beautiful gallery space which is shared by two talented locals, Joni-Leigh Doran and Alila Hofmeyr.
 
Simply stepping into the gallery is guaranteed to elevate your mood and at once there’s a sense of inspiration and spaciousness. Alila and Joni-Leigh’s work  feels like a match made in heaven with soft, earthy hues blending seamlessly across both bodies of work.
 
I got to spend time with Alila last year in her pottery studio and it’s wonderful to see this new expansion. Alila works predominantly on the potter’s wheel in both stoneware and porcelain. She focuses on the value of handmade ceramics and their role in our daily rituals. From mugs and bowls to lamps and wash basins, the focus is on creating something beautiful and useful to enrich the human experience.
 
I asked Alila how she came to be in McGregor and to share some of her story, enjoy…
 
Alila tells me she arrived in 2016 to do a woodfiring apprenticeship with Paul de Jongh and Nina Shand of what was then Millstone Pottery. It was supposed to be 3 month chapter however she ended up being with them for a year and now, nearly 9 years on, is still living in the village. McGregor really seems to have a way with playing temptress!
 
Alila explains, “I was lucky to be exposed to pottery as a young child. My mother had a colleague whose wife, Lissa, was (and still is) a potter. They had a young daughter, Natasha, the same age as me. When Lissa started teaching her first children’s classes, Tash and I were three years old and participated in these early classes. I think the pottery classes became a safe space for me to be creative. Consistent feedback that I have had from students over the years has been that when they do pottery, the outside world falls away.”
 
“Finding an outlet like this as a child, especially one who is a bit anxious and a bit weird, is magic and can be life-changing. I can imagine that I was also a bit obsessive and got completely addicted to the results. Pottery is chemistry and art that combines into what feels like alchemy, and I think this balance satisfies multiple parts of my brain and personality.”

When Alila started her first year at university in Cape Town, she started pottery with Lissa again after some time away as a teenager. Alila majored in psychology and drama and had wanted to be a high school life orientation teacher. However life had other plans, and at some stage, she joined Lisa and came to a workshop at Millstone in McGregor. Experiencing the wood-firing sealed the deal for her. She graduated from UCT in December 2015 and started her apprenticeship in February 2016.
 
Alila has spent most of her time over the past two years working on commissions and teaching weekly pottery classes to McGregor locals. She began building her own woodfiring kiln in March last year and now that it is finished her focus is back on her own work.
 
Last year I took a term of weekly pottery classes with Alila at her home studio. Each class was spent with a lovely group of women, gentle chatter throughout, Alila’s cats popping in from time to time to be part of the action, chickens clucking outside and Alila adeptly giving us individual instruction and attention. Working with clay is such an elemental and grounding practice which requires your total attention. It doesn’t leave room for any intruding thoughts of ‘to-do’ lists or anxious overwhelm. These were conveniently parked outside and I left in a better state and mood, every single time. 

CAN YOU SHARE ONE OF YOUR DAILY RITUALS?
I drink one black decaf coffee a day, in the morning after breakfast, and its always in a handmade cup or teabowl made by myself or someone whose work I love and admire.
 
BEST THING ABOUT LIVING IN MCGREGOR…
The feeling of space to breathe deeply
 
WHERE DO YOU FIND BEAUTY?
This is such a hard question to answer! In the details – if I were a photographer I’d have a powerful macro lens and I’d be taking pictures of the hairs on a spider or the reflection in its many eyes. I find this too when I photograph my pots I always want to zoom in right into the colours and the textures or the silhouette of the form, the shape of it’s shadow.
 
DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE PART OF THE POTTERY PROCESS AND WHY?
Making big pots at the wheel. I find working at the wheel in general is my favourite part of the process but making big pots I find especially satisfying, I quickly get bored of the repetition of making smaller things and each pot blurs into the next whereas with the larger work you form more of a relationship with each pot which I really enjoy.  
 
ONE LESSON FROM THE POTTERY PROCESS THAT HAS SHAPED YOUR WAY OF BEING IN LIFE
I couldn’t say this shapes my way of being in life that would be far too generous a description, I’m not there yet and may never be. But, two things, which I certainly continually try to take with me into life that any potter can tell you all about, are non-attachment and understanding impermanence. I can make something on the wheel which I absolutely love but there are so many things which need to happen to that pot before I know whether or not it was a success that I just cannot become attached to it. Making pots cannot only be about the outcome, there are just too many things that can go wrong. When something breaks, or warps or cracks in the firing you have to just assess and accept and then move on. Hopefully you grow and learn something in the process.
 
3 THINGS THAT BRING YOU JOY?
Problem-solving – from doing jigsaw puzzles to fixing something that’s broken around the house and of course making pots. treasure hunting – from shells on the beach to antique furniture bargains! Arriving home from time away.
 
DAILY MANTRA…
One step at a time

All photography: Lana Kenney ©