Experiments in Clay

Experience a new clay each day, including earthenware, stoneware, mid-fire porcelain and paper clay, focusing on their characteristics, workability and firing temperatures.

Spend a week exploring different clay bodies and experimental hand-building techniques.  Incorporate clay additives like stain and organic material to extend the decorative finishes including carving, incising, addition and slip decoration.  Learn to use clay as a sculptural medium and open up new possibilities in your making.

The course is a perfect introduction for beginners with clay, or for those with prior experience who want to explore clays’ endless possibilities.

* Short courses are open to students of ages 16 years and over. For students under 16 years of age there are School Holiday Workshops, Art Club and other programs.

* What to bring? Please refer to the list of required materials in the Art Materials field below.

Ebony Russell is an Australian artist who uses an unorthodox approach to construct ceramic sculptures. Her unique technique was developed out of an interest in gendered aesthetics, labour and traditional craft practices where Russell methodically pipes porcelain in series of intricate layers to build gravity-defying forms. Challenging the traditional making processes of decorative vessels; in her works the decoration becomes the structure, and the boundaries between the two are erased. Exploring established perceptions of cultural and artistic practices that were once exclusively coded as feminine and thus insignificant, Russell’s work celebrates the decorative, promiscuous aesthetics and politics of purity; the superficial, excess and delight – with pleasure.

Ebony Russell completed a Bachelor of Applied Arts (Honours) at Monash University in 2003 and in 2019 graduated from The National Art School, Sydney with a Masters of Fine Art. Russell has won many awards including the Franz International Rising Star Award in 2018 and the Meroogal Women’s Art Prize, 2022. More recently in 2023, Russell received the Highly Commended Award in the International Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Art Prize, London.

Major exhibitions include Homo Faber, Venice 2024, Teetering on the Brink, Claire Oliver Gallery, New York 2024, London Collect 2024, Young Masters Art Prize, London 2023, 1001 Remarkable Objects: The Powerhouse Museum, Sydney 2023, Think Pinker, Gavlak Gallery Los Angeles 2023, SABOTAJE ESTEìTICO, Yusto Giner Gallery Spain 2022, Halcyon Days, Modern Eden Gallery San Francisco 2022, Clay Dynasty: The Powerhouse Museum 2022.

Students must supply their own art materials, please refer to the list below.

• An organic vapour mask (A1P2) is required for student safety, these can be bought from any other hardware store relatively inexpensively.
• Notebook and pencils/pens
• Towel and protective clothing such as an old shirt or apron
• Any ceramic tools that you may already have
• All clay and other materials are provided.

Enclosed footwear is essential in all studios on campus.