Hand-Building Contemporary Ceramics

Explore the art of hand-building in clay, where you'll create contemporary ceramic objects ranging from enhanced vessels to expressive figurative sculptures. Drawing inspiration from diverse ceramic traditions and contemporary artists, you’ll develop unique responses in clay while honing your technical skills.

Sassy Park teaches the fundamental hand-building techniques—including coil, pinch, and slab construction—while experimenting with texture, surface decoration, and glazing. The course will introduce essential tools and methods for joining, hollowing, and refining forms, as well as decorative techniques such as impressions, sprigs, and sgraffito.

Designed to foster both creativity and skill development, Sassy offers a structured yet supportive environment where students can explore their artistic voice. She gives individual feedback and leads group discussions, providing valuable insight and inspiration throughout the course. All clay is provided and selected works will be fired in the NAS kilns.

* Please note: The course is not held on Saturday 6 September due to the NAS Open Day. The course will continue the following Saturday. You are welcome to attend the NAS Open Day with friends, family and colleagues.

* The course fee incorporates the cost for materials such as clay.

* NAS Short Courses are open to students of ages 16 years and over. The NAS Art Club is open to students from ages 15 years and over. 

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

Sassy Park is a Sydney based artist interested in the history of ceramics, objects and ideas. The medium of clay with its embedded transformative nature of fragility and strength becomes a metaphor for themes and debates of the everyday. 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 in Ceramics in 2018. Previous degrees include Bachelor of Visual Arts and Post-graduate Diploma in painting from Sydney College of the Arts. A previous recipient of the NSW Travelling Art Scholarship, she has more recently won the Muswellbrook Art Prize for ceramics and numerous runner-up awards, including as a finalist in the Wynne Prize in 2024. She has recently exhibited at the Art Gallery of Ballarat with her solo exhibition, ‘I have confidence in sunshine’. Last year Sassy was awarded the Keramikkünstlerhaus residency in Germany. Her work appears in the 2023 Australian book on ceramics, Earth and Fire by Paper Boat Press.

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

• Reference material eg photos, drawings etc
• A4 sketch pad or artist’s diary
• Drawing materials
• Towel and protective clothes (old shirt or apron) 
• Any ceramics tools that you may already have 
• All clay and other materials are provided 
• We recommend students bring a P2 KN95 disposable mask 
• Enclosed footwear is essential in all studios on campus.