Phones are not just phones – and when you’re listening to music on them, you want it to be loud and clear. Lee Currie met up with Mount Edgecombe’s Tracy Voss who has created a piece of art that does just that.
I met Mount Edgecombe artist Tracy Voss at a fair recently where she was showcasing some beautifully crafted clay horns attracting a small crowd of curious people. Nestled inside one of the horns, a smartphone emitted music with impressive clarity and volume considering there were no wires in sight.
Art in myriad forms has always been an integral part of Tracy’s life, pottery being one of her passions since childhood. She had earlier enjoyed a successful exhibition entitled Some Bunny Loves You – featuring a variety of clay rabbits each with their own quirky character. The pandemic effectively sent her back to the drawing board –or rather kiln – when her events company Out the Box Productions came to a grinding halt.
“During 2020 I found myself taking a breath after many successful years in business,” recalls Tracy. “This time I wanted to do something not only marketable, but creative and different. I searched my cupboards and found two unopened rolls of clay which I hadn’t touched for a couple of years. I then found myself going down the ‘Rabbit Hole’ on Pinterest looking for inspiration. I came across a Japanese site that made ceramics to amplify phones and wondered if I could create something similar. Ben my husband was always telling me to create something functional … and so my earthen amplifiers were born. I refer to it as acoustic art, a decorative passive amplifier for your smartphone.”
The amplifiers are made from clay, are double fired in high-temperature kilns, then glazed with high quality black, white or mint coloured ceramic glaze. “They work exactly as old gramophones used to work. You place your smartphone upright in the amp, and the gramophone shape serves to amplify the sound waves that come from your smartphone speaker, giving you a minimum 20 decibel bump in sound volume,” explains Tracy.
And everyone agrees – they are more beautiful to look at than conventional speakers and a piece of art even when not in use, for instance as a centrepiece for a table. “They’re totally eco-friendly and don’t even use electricity – perfect for our Eskom issues! I’ve found they’ve become talking points because people cannot believe how well they work.”
Tracy is married to actor/comedian Ben Voss (aka Beauty Ramapelepele), and their engaging 10-year-old daughter Scarlett has already tried her hand at selling hair scrunchies she has sewn herself. “With parents like us, Scarlett is destined to love the arts,” smiles Tracy. “We encourage her to try as many mediums as possible and not only make art but try to market it.”
We asked Tracy for her take on learners who want to focus on art at school or as a career. “You might feel this is an ‘easy way out’, but in the real world art is a career like any other. You not only have to be an artist, but a marketing guru, ‘techi’ and know how to build your brand. You might be talented and have found your medium, but you still need to sell your art to sustain yourself – which most of the time is more difficult to do than the creation of your work. However, if art makes your heart sing, follow your dream and find ways, be malleable and adjust your creativity into everyday work. Who knows … it could make you famous!”
Tracy hopes to promote her online store internationally. “Perhaps Covid’s ‘lockdown creativity’ will create a whole new sustainable business for our family.” *
FOR MORE INFO:
- www.earthenamp.com
- Email: info@earthenamp.com
- Insta: @earthen_amp
- FB: @earthenamp