Explore, experiment and push the boundaries of porcelain, stoneware, mid-fire clay, earthenware, under-glaze drawing and slab casting in a dynamic, thought-provoking and nurturing studio environment surrounded by other creatives from across Australia and the world.

Juz Kitson will offer instructive and practical demonstrations and exercises on how to push and pull the materials by hand and with specialised tools, building up forms and preparing surface treatments in her coveted style. Juz encourages participants to be experimental and courageous in their making and draw inspiration from their inner world, the natural surrounds and the many natural wonders that the South Coast has to offer during their stay in the surrounding areas.

Each workshop will focus on the familiar and unfamiliar, internal and external environments, as well as on human and animal forms. There is always an underlying concept behind each workshop although participants are free to use their own concepts and bring new ideas they would like to develop with help from Juz. There will also be several discussions along the way about combining other materials both organic and inorganic, how to bind or adhere different materials with the ceramics, the right adhesives or glues to use and exploring different ways of installing/displaying final works. What makes these workshops so special and unique is that Juz guides each participant individually to find their own creative voice and visual language through the use of porcelain and different clay bodies to creat unique experimental works of art.

 Moving away from the traditions and confines of plinth based works and or wheel formed functional works, Juz thoroughly encourages the crossing of boundaries within the field of ceramics, mixing of medias, challenging of perceptions of the material and the creating of avant-garde works that will become wall based objects or freestanding sculptures - all while enjoying the evolution of the creative process along the way. 

 Participants will gain a strong foundation in practical hand-building skills, from slab forming to coiling larger forms, Juz will share her technical knowledge learnt through over a decade of working professionally in the Contemporary Art world & alongside traditional artisans in Jingdezhen, The Ancient porcelain city in China and there will also be open discussions about other contemporary ceramics practices both nationally & internationally that are challenging traditional notions and creating innovative works that are both technically refined and conceptually challenging.

There are only a very limited amount of workshops scheduled for 2025. Each workshop has its own focus point and objectives, though the hand building techniques explored are relatively the same across the classes. Students will be guided to draw inspiration from their own practice, natural or urban environments, the uncanny and unfamiliar and delve deep into exploring new ways of making.

Bringing resources to the workshop to help springboard off of for inspiration, and create a collection of personalised objects that will form an installation or body of work for exhibition or further development outside of the workshop duration.

The 2Day & 3Day workshops include an unlimited supply of ‘Porcelain Queen’ and The ArtHouse Milton’s new formulated porcelain sourced from Jingdezhen (the ancient porcelain city in China) and local Australian stoneware, raku, mid-fire and earthenware clays - Porcelain bisque fired plate or bowl for under glaze experimental painting, along with underglaze, high-temp glaze, bisque & high temp firings. Along with hours of studio time on each day of the workshop, several instructive demonstrations, one-on-one turatorials with Juz and group activities & collaborations. Light refreshments are served on each day of the workshop.