About Ourselves

Chris Stevens has been potting for over 30 years. Originally from Cheltenham, in U.K. he has worked in potteries in many countries in Europe and ran his own village pottery on Crete for 2 years in the early 70s. From 1973 to 1977 he had a pottery near Bath in U.K. before going to Malawi in 1978 as a volunteer to start a pottery at Malindi, an old mission station at the Southern end of Lake Malawi . At that time Malawi had plenty of firewood and the production was hand thrown and wood fired. He married Charity in 1981 and in 1984, at the end of their contract in Malawi they set up a pottery on Crete, but with the aim of returning to Malawi once they had raised some capital. In July 1987 they returned to Malawi and Dedza Pottery sold its first pots in October 1987. Chris looks after the technical side of running the pottery while Charity tries to keep the operation solvent. It is very much a family business and many of the senior staff have been at the pottery almost since the start. While initially Chris trained the staff there are now in-house training programmes at both potteries.

Legal Status

Dedza Pottery and Nkhotakota Pottery are registered trading names of Paragon Ceramics Ltd a private company incorporated in Malawi and owned by Chris and Charity Stevens. Company law in Malawi is very similar to U.K. and requires annual company returns and submission of accounts audited by certified public accountants.