6-week courses start from 12th October. BOOK NOW!

Meet Our Tutors

Meet our dream team of talented tutors, bringing years of hands-on experience, knowledge and a whole lot of passion for ceramics.

Adele Macer

Adele Macer is a self-taught Melbourne ceramicist creating functional tableware, pots, vases and planters defined by simple, clean forms. Her work explores the contrast between glazes and the natural textures of stoneware clay, balancing minimalist design with everyday practicality.

Adele has showcased her work at events including the Melbourne Ceramics Market and Finders Keepers. She holds a Master of Education from the University of Melbourne and a Master of Visual Art from the Victorian College of the Arts, and currently teaches wheel throwing in Melbourne.

Barry Spencer

@speculatype

Barry is an artist and designer exploring letterforms, code and clay to create engaging, thought-provoking work. With a background in graphic design, tertiary education and a PhD focused on exploratory letterforms and creative practice, his work brings together experimentation with materials, form and technology.

Drawn to pottery in 2023, Barry has since combined his diverse creative skills with ceramics. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and he regularly leads workshops, presents at conferences and shares his passion for creative exploration.

Adele Macer

@claireharmer_

Originally from Macksville on the mid-north coast of NSW, Claire recently moved from Sydney to Melbourne to further develop her ceramics practice. Claire is a self-taught artist, working primarily in sculptural ceramics, drawing on her background in photography and filmmaking.

Her practice is a private act of world-building and symbol-making, grounded in an exploration of place. Through her work, Claire considers how we form relationships with our environments and how these connections are reflected in objects as cultural artefacts, carrying personal and collective meaning.

Ella Bendrups

@ellabendrups

Ella is a ceramic artist who creates refined, modern interpretations of ancient forms. Her practice is inspired by the timelessness of clay and stone artefacts, exploring their ability to transcend the cultures and eras in which they were made. She embraces hand-building techniques like pinching, coiling, and carving to emphasize the maker’s touch.

With a background in styling and studies in Communication Design and Interior Design at RMIT University, Ella began social ceramics classes in 2015 and has since developed a self-led, explorative practice. Through clay, she expresses her artistic vision while finding personal balance.

Gillian Martin

@gmartin.ceramics

Gillian is an artist with many years’ experience creating and working in Melbourne, Australia. She completed her Bachelor in Fine Arts (Ceramics) at Monash University and worked for a number of years in photography. Since returning to ceramics, Gillian continues to explore her passion for the power and impact of bold bright colours and how they interact with textural elements in her work.

Her current practice explores the relationship between color and texture through vibrant stripes integrated into her pieces. She enjoys using her own range of glazes, particularly Terra Sigillata.

lona Marsden-Sweeney

@ionas.makings

Iona first discovered her love for pottery as a child under the mentorship of Phil Elson in Castlemaine. She later moved to Tasmania to earn a Fine Arts degree with honors, majoring in Drawing and Ceramics. Recently, Iona relocated to Melbourne to further develop her pottery practice.

In her art practice, Iona seeks to beautify the mundane aspects of everyday life, enhancing joy and satisfaction in simple moments. By crafting objects for the home that become part of our daily rituals and decorating them with her personal visual perspective, she transforms tedious chores into celebrations.

Lize Myburgh

@lizeceramics

Lize grows up with ceramics, has practised and explored ceramics throughout her life. She began teaching in 2016, joining the Northcote Pottery Supplies team in 2023. Always eager to expand her knowledge, she is currently studying ceramics as part of her Fine Arts degree at RMIT.

Lize’s practice combines wheel work and hand-building techniques, with hand-painted surface decoration inspired by tattoo-style illustrations.

Rachel Wheeler

@roo.chel

Rachel is an artist who passionately loves the clay medium and all its intricies. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in ceramics, where she found a deep appreciation for sculptural work and gained experience in glaze making, handbuilding and pottery. Rachel continues to create in her home studio, often exploring ideas of memory, time and mark making and the things we hold dear to us as artifacts of ourselves.

Rachel also currently works at NPS in the retail space and assists with the kilns for the firing service.

Raymond Laurens

Ray is the owner and working director of Northcote Pottery Supplies and Bendigo Pottery, as well as a respected ceramic artist and mould maker based in Melbourne. With over half his life spent in the ceramics industry, Ray brings extensive knowledge and experience to his practice. Captivated by the beauty of imperfection, he explores how subtle variations transform seemingly identical forms into unique works of art.

Working with handmade moulds and wheel throwing, Ray combines technical skill with an experimental approach to making. He is passionate about sharing his knowledge and supporting emerging ceramic artists through his work at NPS.

A person indoors wearing a black puffer jacket over a blue ribbed sweater, holding a dark metallic, spiky helmet-like object above their head. The photo has a grainy, vintage aesthetic with warm lighting and a wood-paneled wall in the background.

Ruby-Jean Whitehead

@rubyjean_whitehead

Ruby-Jean Whitehead discovered clay eight years ago, beginning with a simple hobby that soon flourished into a thriving small business. Her creative journey deepened through the completion of a Diploma of Ceramics and has since grown to encompass teaching, exhibiting and exploring the endless possibilities of the medium.

With an enduring passion for clay and the creative process, Ruby-Jean is dedicated to sharing her knowledge and experience with others. Through her teaching, she encourages students to build confidence, embrace experimentation and discover the joy of creating something with their own hands.

Siobhán Motherway

@siobhan.the.potter

Siobhán is a Brunswick East-based potter whose journey began with a Beginner Wheel Throwing course at Northcote Pottery Supplies. After years of honing her skills, she became a sessional tutor at NPS in 2021.

Siobhán enjoys teaching new potters the intricate skill set behind a basic cylinder, encouraging them to experiment, find their own forms, and embrace the joy of “failing” well. Her own ceramics practice is influenced by her other life in museums, drawing on fiction, scientific artwork, and narratives of place and the natural world.

A woman in a pottery studio wearing a black long-sleeve shirt, a gray apron, and a purple patterned scarf, sculpting a small clay vessel on a pottery wheel.

Valentina Palonen

@valentinapalonen

Valentina is a professional artist and trained ceramicist with over 20 years experience in the field. She is a former NPS Guest Artist in Residence, an experienced art technician, and is our current School Consultant. Her work has been showcased in exhibitions across diverse spaces, supported by artist residencies both in Australia and abroad.

Valentina has also shared her expertise widely, leading workshops in multiple mediums within schools, tertiary institutions, and gallery settings. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Victorian College of the Arts (2012) and a PhD in Art from RMIT University (2021).