Figure and Totem: Handbuilding Techniques in Clay

Discover the ancient tradition of clay figure-making and learn to hand build small ceramic sculptures in the image of your loved ones, as a totem of remembrance.

Sassy Park provides an inclusive environment to explore concepts of figurative and expressive hand building techniques in the ceramic’s studio. She encourages students to ‘be in the moment’, share stories, experiment, as well as develop foundational, handbuilding techniques. You’ll learn clay building skills including pinching, coiling, joining and slab constructions with artistic intent. Sassy teaches you how to paint with slips, underglazes and glaze on terracotta and raku clays, to bring your work to life.

Bring your reference photos of your special people and animals and create clay figures of your loved ones. The course is suitable for beginners to ceramics and to those with some prior experience. All clay and glazes are provided. Selected pieces will be fired in the NAS kilns after the workshop, and we will notify you when they are ready for pick up.

*Please note that there is no class on the 8th of June due to the long weekend.

*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 youth art programs.

Sassy Park is a Sydney based artist interested in the history of ceramics, objects and ideas. Her work plays with the accepted uses of domestic ceramics and genres, including pots and figurative works, providing a contemporary take on what ceramics are and what they can say. Sassy Park graduated from the National Art school with a Masters of Fine Arts degree in Ceramics in 2018. She was a recipient of the NSW Travelling Art Scholarship for painting, and won the Muswellbrook Art Prize for ceramics in 2021. Sassy was an Artist in Residence at the Onslow Storrier National Art School Studio, Cité Internationale des Artes, Paris, and undertook research in French ceramic folk traditions. Sassy appears in the 2023 Australian book on ceramics, Earth and Fire published by Thames & Hudson.

• Reference material eg photos, drawings etc
• A4 sketch pad or artist’s diary
• A range of pencils
• Ceramics tool kit
• Protective clothing and covered footwear are essential

All Clay will be provided