Dragana Jevtovic

Dragana Jevtovic was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia where she studied Art and Philosophy at the University of Belgrade, and Music at the Belgrade Faculty of Music Arts, obtaining the B A Mus (Honours).
She moved to Cape Town, South Africa, in 1993.
In her studio at her home in Durbanville, Cape Town, Dragana has been exploring the clay medium in many ways – from hand thrown and slab built one off pieces to decorated slip cast utility ware and lamps.
The studio offers employment to 13 women from underprivileged backgrounds. Most of them did not have the opportunity to finish high school and are the bread winners for their families of 4 to 8 dependents. The training and empowerment provided in the studio has changed their lives and the lives of their children. Each item produced represents their joys and struggles.
Every piece is uniquely decorated by free hand, and often includes African motives: birds, feathers and geckos. Shunning ready-made commercial products, she mixes her own cobalt blue and tawny underglaze colours. Her acclaimed cobalt Blue Guinea Fowl design, inspired by Dutch and Chinese tradition and interpreted with an vision which owes much to her European heritage, depicts the quaint, indigenous African guinea fowl that abound in the gardens and parks of Cape Town.
Her slip cast ceramics are stoneware fired to 1220’C and glazed with lead free transparent glaze, making her products oven proof, microwave and dishwasher safe.
She has exhibited her ceramics throughout the South Africa and her work has found its way into homes all over the world.
Besides having a special love for ceramics and music, Dragana Jevtovic paints in oils.