Thamaga

Thamaga Pottery was set up in the 1970s as a training and production workshop and has run since as a community enterprise, employing local potters who throw, glaze and fire on the premises. The work is functional stoneware in earth colours with hand-painted decoration, sold from the shop at the workshop, and visitors can watch the process from throwing through to the kilns. The village around it is a large ordinary settlement on the road towards Kanye.

What you actually see

• The throwing room - potters working on wheels, open to watch.
• The kilns - the firing operation at the back of the workshop.
• The decoration - hand-painted patterns applied before glazing.
• The shop - finished stoneware sold directly from the workshop.

When to go

April to September is the most comfortable. Weekday mornings are when production is running and worth timing for. The workshop closes at weekends and on public holidays.

Honest expectations

Production levels vary and the workshop is sometimes quiet with little to watch. There is nothing else in the village for visitors. Weekend arrivals find it closed.

Nearby

Molepolole is north, and Gaborone is northeast.