Venda Arts Route

Venda has an unusually dense concentration of working artists in a rural area, and the route linking them is informal - a set of homesteads and workshops across the Soutpansberg foothills where you buy directly from the maker. Pottery is the strongest thread: Venda pots are hand-built without a wheel, burnished, fired in open pits and finished with graphite and ochre bands, and potters such as Rebecca Matibe became internationally collected. Woodcarving is the other, with Jackson Hlungwani, Noria Mabasa and Albert Munyai among names that moved from local practice into national galleries; Mabasa's carved wooden figures and clay work are in major museum collections. Drum making, weaving and beadwork run alongside. The workshops are spread out on rural roads and finding them takes local directions or a guide, which is part of the day rather than an obstacle.

What you actually see

• The pit-fired pottery - hand-built pots burnished and banded with graphite and ochre.
• The carvers - workshops of artists whose work sits in national and international collections.
• The direct buying - purchases made from the maker at the homestead.
• The scatter - a route that needs local directions rather than signposts.

When to go

April to September. Two days. Phone or arrange ahead where you can - makers are not always home.

Honest expectations

There is no signposted route - you need directions, a guide or good local contacts. Some artists have died and their workshops are run by family or closed. Roads are rural and rough. Bring cash; card facilities are rare.

Nearby

Lake Fundudzi and Thathe Vondo are north; Louis Trichardt is west.