Text: Mariëtte van Niekerk / Photographer Ron Sibiya
Rhoda Henning has called the capital city home all her life but looking back now, little would Rhoda know that one day she would get to live out both her passions in life – medicine and pottery. The Brooklyn resident attended school first at Laerskool Anton van Wouw before matriculating at Afrikaans Hoër Meisieskool. Her family is very medical orientated and with her dad being a professor in Ophthalmology at the University of Pretoria, it was quite natural for Rhoda to follow in his footsteps and pursue a career in medicine herself.
She enrolled at the University of Pretoria after matriculating and studied towards a BSc degree in Maths and Zoology. It was during that time that she was introduced to pottery and in her third year she joined a pottery class in the city. Who knew that she would fall in love so utterly with something so creative and crafty like clay work and pottery.
“The following year I started to study medicine and got credit for all but one subject, so I decided to work in the pottery studio for the rest of the first year,” Rhoda explains.
In her sixth and final year of medicine she gave birth to her first daughter and in her house doctor year her second daughter was born. This made her evaluate her options as she wanted to work part-time at a hospital to be able to spend time with her kids. “All the posts were, however, frozen at that time so I decided to start a practice at home. I changed my mind again and started a pottery instead,” she laughs.
In 1985, without any formal training in pottery and ceramics, she opened her own pottery studio in Brooklyn where she offered hand building, wheelwork and decoration (painting on ceramics and glazing) classes. “I was fascinated with the idea that one can produce hard, durable things from raw clay. I fell in love with the whole process,” Rhoda explains.
For her own work she gets inspiration from nature. “Pottery is such a big field. One can be good in one technique in a short time, but to cover every aspect well will take a few years. Yet, pottery is a skill that can be taught,” she adds.
When the Brooklyn resident is not busy at the pottery studio, which she these days runs with her daughter Madeleine she still makes time to assist with operations. But, how does she get time for both?
“It is difficult to find time for both surgery and pottery. Often some things just have to wait,” Rhoda says.
Where medicine can be quite precise and pottery a bit more creative, there are a few similarities. “Medicine is very precise, but doing pottery like I do, is also precise. A lot can go wrong in the process from raw clay to the final finished product,” she explains.
That’s also why one of the biggest lessons she’s learnt is to never put your heart on any products you have made until it is safely out of the kiln and completely finished.
When Rhoda is not working at the pottery studio or operating she loves to spend some time in the garden, gardening or get lost in a good read.
At Rhoda Henning’s Pottery and Art Studio, Rhoda and her team offer weekly pottery classes as well as once off sessions perfect for special events like a kitchen tea, birthday celebration, or corporate teambuilding function. Details: www.rhodahenning.co.za.
