Get It Pretoria November 2019

CREATIVITY
&PRECISION
18 Get It Pretoria November 2019
Born and raised in the capital city, Rhoda Henning is a
qualified doctor-turned-pottery queen. We chatted to her
to find out how she combines her two passions.
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.