Meet Your Tutors

Aurora Elwell

Tutoring: Monday & Tuesday Evening Wheel Class and 'Scale Up Your Throwing'

Aurora Elwell is a passionate, full-time ceramic artist and potter with a specialised focus on creating large wheel-thrown vessels. Since completing a Bachelor of Creative Arts Honours degree from Toowoomba UniSQ she has been teaching beginner pottery lessons from her home studio in the Lockyer Valley. Aurora sells her pottery at the weekly Toowoomba Farmers Market and co-hosts a podcast all about ceramics, Birds of Clay.

Aurora is excited to share her joy, experience and knowledge in studio pottery, ceramic sculpture and conceptual art.

Janet Geisel

Tutoring: Wednesday Morning Handbuilding

Janet Geisel is a well loved and highly valued member of the Darling Downs Potters’ Club and the arts community. As a founding member of the Potters’ Club, Janet has honed her wonderful pottery wheel and handbuilding skills over many years, and her works can also be found in our Gallery.

We are honoured to offer our Wednesday Morning Handbuilding classes with Janet and know that her students will take away a wealth of new skills and tips from their experience.

Kirsti Falconer

Tutoring: Saturday Morning Handbuilding

I have been working and creating in the arts throughout my life, initially in painting and sculpture. The combination of these two mediums has now fused with ceramics which I have been studying and creating for 6 years.

My preferred process is hand building focusing on the whimsical and somewhat magical aspects of imagination, creating sculptures for the house and garden and also for function use.

Heather Roy (Poulton)

Tutoring: Short Workshops including
'Sgraffito Ceramic Plate Workshop'

I am based just outside of Toowoomba in a beautiful area called Silver Ridge.

I began my ceramics journey in my early 20’s and after completing a diploma in ceramics with high distinctions in 1986, I spent many years producing functional pieces and exhibiting my wares in my own little gallery and many galleries and shops up and down the east coast of Australia.

For 20 plus years, life got in the way raising a family and I found myself with no time to pursue my love of pottery.

In the last couple of years, I have rekindled my passion for clay and now primarily create for fun and relaxation using a variety of stoneware clays and lustres.

I’m enjoying experimenting with different techniques such as majolica, sgraffito and slip trailing and often embellishing my pieces with 22-carat gold lustres.

I enjoy making unique pieces and would hesitate to go back to production pottery as I did when my children were little.