In Nel’s artistic process, ‘the plate comes first’. He finds it is the perfect canvas for painting onto directly. He still uses a low-temperature glaze recipe given to him in the 1970s, originally from the 1930s potter Dora Billington. He makes each plate on a kick wheel using a hump mould and local South African clay. Nel finds the elemental nature of pottery deeply engaging. ‘Rocks disintegrate and become clay, then you take it, add water and shape it, and expose it to heat,’ he says. ‘It turns back into a kind of stone that can last for a very long time.’ But the elements also play havoc with his process. ‘We're having a lot of rain at the moment and that makes too much moisture in the atmosphere,’ he bemoans. ‘Then the plate won't come free or is just a disaster because they’re floppy when I get them off.’ Even after 60 years of making, the medium still provides its challenges.
The longevity that pottery affords intrigues him, but he has been known to destroy his own work. ‘When you’ve just made things, you’re so emotionally tied up with them,’ he says. ‘I’ve learned not to react extremely when opening the kiln. If I’m going to break something, it’s after I’ve looked at it for a long time.’ Nel’s pieces are windows to his personal past, just as pottery shards dug up by archeologists are portals to the history of humanity – the thousands of years of culture, trade and craft that ceramics hold. It amuses him to think of what future historians may make of his work. ‘I suppose if we haven’t burnt up the planet before then, people will dig it up and come to whatever conclusions they come to.’
'Hylton Nel: This plate is what I have to say’ is at Charleston House, 25 March – 10 September; charleston.org.uk – Crafts members get 20% off tickets for this, and the Betty Woodman and George Woodman exhibition taking place at the same time, using the offer code CRAFTS20 in the 'Discount/voucher code' box at the online checkout. This offer is valid between 14 June and 12 August.