Each year The Mill presents a series of SALA Masterclasses with prominent South Australian artists. We invite practicing artists and creatives to participate, offering the opportunity to grow their practice through learning new skills, connecting with peers and developing insight into professional artists practice.
The Mill's Masterclass program runs throughout the year as a professional development program for artists, offering workshops with established international and national touring artists in both performance and visual arts. These diverse sessions draw South Australian artists into global conversations around aesthetic, performance and creative practice.
Photo: Morgan Sette
Masterclass: Lost Wax Cast Jewellery with Nativis
When: Saturday, August 13 or 20, 12-3:30pm
Where: The Mill’s Exhibition Space, 154 Angas St,
Cost: $250 (+bf)
All materials and light refreshments provided.
Learn to carve jewellers wax to create your own ring using the lost wax casting method. We'll carve with files, pick with tools and melt with flame until you've made yourself a masterpiece. Jewellers wax is a medium like no other; easy to get lost in and can take on so very many forms. We will explore different shapes, textures and techniques (please note, this workshop does not include working with stones). No two rings are ever the same, just uniquely yours!
At the end of the session, Nativis, aka Elly, will collect all your finished wax moulds. They're then cast in solid silver, after which Elly tackle the processing for you, and return to you your shiny, finished piece. Making jewellery is wonderful but sharing the experience is more-so, this is my way to get people involved and bring them closer to a slow and conscious way of creating.
About the artist:
Elly Pepper is a predominantly self-taught jeweller; creating one-off pieces from recycled solid silver and gold, and ethically sourced stones. Her works range from simple studs to future heirloom pieces, as she enjoys continuing to build her skillset and experimenting with new techniques.
As a trained horticulturalist, her work is continuously inspired by nature, the earth, and the beautiful stones she holds, particularly Australian opal. Elly began offering wax workshops mid-2021, hoping to bring to life the opportunity to make a gift instead of buying it, an experience for you and your loved ones to create treasures you will hold forever, made by your own two hands. Her dream of bringing people together over food and drink to create is well and truly alive within these workshops!
Photo: Courtesy of the artist
Masterclass: Process-based Approaches & Resolutions with Ruby Chew
Join Ruby Chew for a two day process based workshop at The Mill. Ruby will guide participants through techniques in abstraction and alternative making techniques building towards creating an abstract painting on wood board.
This workshop is suitable for beginners through to established artists, with a focus on experimentation, play, exploration, and composition. Ruby is a generous teacher with many years experience teaching and as a practicing artist.
Students will need to provide some basic materials (scissors, glue stick, wood board etc. list will be provided with ticket), and The Mill will provide other materials for the group to share.
About the artist:
Ruby Chew is a painter who employs process-based making techniques to create open dialogues with her viewers whilst exploring the fluidity of pictorial space. Completing a BA Visual Arts Hons. at Adelaide Central School of Art (2010), along with further study at Central Saint Martins, London and the Florence Academy of Art, Florence, Ruby’s practice is deeply rooted in traditional painting techniques, which are the foundation of her practice.
Ruby is a Ruth Tuck Scholarship recipient (2015) and has exhibited, taught and held residency positions interstate and overseas. She has had numerous solo exhibitions, notably Portraits at Magazine Gallery (2011), Spitting Image at Hill Smith Gallery (2012) and The Difference Between Things at Floating Goose Studios (2021).
Her artworks are in public and private collections across Australia, Canada, Malaysia and London. She currently lives and works in Adelaide, South Australia.
Image: Viray Thach
Workshop: Beginners lino printing with Viray Thach
When: Sunday, August 21, or Saturday, September 10, 12-4pm
Where: The Mill’s Exhibition Space, 154 Angas St
Cost: $40 (+bf)
Materials and light refreshments provided
If you're looking for an opportunity to be creative, join Sponsored Studio artist Viray Thach for an illustration and lino print workshop. This beginners workshop will introduce skills in preparing a design, carving lino and printing, and all participants will take home finished artworks.
Held in The Mill’s exhibition space alongside Viray’s solo exhibition Resilience, the workshop will be intimate and casual and is open to complete beginners.
About the artist:
Viray Thach is an emerging digital illustrator and educator. Her style, inspired by pop art, art deco and art nouveau, also sees deep-rooted influences from traditional Kbach ornamental designs that pay homage to her Cambodian roots. Viray’s iPad is the digital sketchbook where all the magic happens. Here, she marries the old and the new, using cybernation to recreate time-honoured textures and techniques into tactile designs that evoke a warm, homely compassion.
Formally educated in graphic design, business management and education, Viray is not only dedicated to her role as an illustrator, but as an educator and mentor, cultivating young minds and passing her multi-creative knowledge on to creative visionaries of the next generation. She remains business-minded and efficient while still delivering work full of the heart and soul.
At the root of it, Viray uses her art to tell a story – whether that is through character-rich portraits, lively illustrations, or bringing her mind’s eye to life through magnificent murals.
