The story behind the pot
Your pot
has a past.
Poured by hand at our foundry in Richards Bay. Carried out of a story that started with a country doctor on the back roads of the Free State, North West and Namibia.
40+
Years of pots
3
Generations
1
Foundry, by hand
Drop a foundry / molten-metal photo
Richards Bay · KZN
Where it’s made
Cast in Richards Bay.
Every Pottie begins as recycled aluminium, melted down and poured by hand into sand moulds at our foundry on the KwaZulu-Natal coast. No mass production line — each pot is cast, knocked out, trimmed and finished by people who’ve done it for years.
01
Melt
Recycled aluminium fired to a glowing pour.
02
Pour
Hand-poured into a fresh sand mould, one pot at a time.
03
Finish
Trimmed, smoothed and checked by hand before it’s yours.
The lineage
Oupa Lacock’s pots
Dr Carel Lacock
“Oupa Lacock” · 2020
“A country doctor who carried pots between his patients — across the Free State, North West and Namibia.”
Dr Carel Lacock — Oupa to everyone who knew him — was a medical doctor who spent years locuming from town to town across the Free State, North West and Namibia. Between patients he carried handmade aluminium pots, selling them along the same back roads he travelled to practise. A potjie for a wedding. A flat pot for a new kitchen. He knew the families, and the families knew his pots.
Today his grandson is picking up where Oupa left off — taking the same honest, handmade pots and turning that legacy into Potties: a brand that carries the lineage further, to new fires and a new generation.
THEN
A locum doctor’s rounds, a boot full of pots, and a handshake across three regions.
NOW
The same pots, the same hands — cast for a new generation of fires.
Cast iron vs. aluminium
A tale of two rituals
Cast iron asks for a lifetime of looking after. A Potties aluminium pot asks for almost nothing. Here’s the honest comparison.
Weight
2–3 kg
7–9 kg
Rust
Never
Always a risk
First use
Ready now
Hours of prep
Upkeep
Soap & water
Oil every time
Storage
Anywhere
Keep oiled
Eight reasons it’s worth it
01
No curing process
Cook with it the day it arrives.
02
Never rusts
No oil coat, no babysitting.
03
Feather-light
A fraction of the weight of cast iron.
04
Cleans easily
Non-stick, and steel-wool safe.
05
Food won’t burn
Thick bottoms spread the heat evenly.
06
Brilliant heat conductor
Heats fast, cooks consistent.
07
Gas, open fire or oven
One pot, every kind of flame.
08
Lifetime guarantee
Handmade and proudly South African.
Cast-iron steps adapted from a 1987 “Voorbereiding van die Pot” care guide — the way our grandparents really had to look after their pots.
Carry the lineage forward
A handmade pot, cast in Richards Bay, built to outlive the trends — and maybe even you.