Theresa Wormser has been working in clay for more than 30 years. After completing her BA Fine Arts degree with a higher education diploma, she spent six years teaching English, art, and ceramics at public schools. She established a job creation project training people to paint and decorate bisqueware. This led to the creation of her own ceramics business, called TW Ceramics, which today exports to many countries worldwide. 

Over the past five years, Theresa has turned her attention to her own creative development. She works primarily in clay, exploring the versatile medium through different hand-building techniques. For her, capturing the essence of the creation process is more important than rendering a perfect representation. She enjoys making marks on the surfaces of vessels with objects found on her walks around the Cape Peninsula. She is also inspired by the textures of the wild coastline and the rugged beauty of fynbos.

The hand-thrown forms in Theresa’s “A moment in time” series are deliberately asymmetric to serve as a statement about the unpredictability of life, the way in which we are formed by it, and the importance of maintaining our uniqueness. 

In her “Play” series, Theresa’s construction of ceramic forms was reminiscent of constructing sandcastles as a child, a process in which the moment, not the outcome, is most important. This series highlights how the ability to play has been lost in a society driven by performance and achievement.

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