Clay & Sculpture: Soapstone Carving

The stone already has a shape. You just remove what isn't it.

About This Course

Soapstone is soft enough to carve with hand tools and forgiving enough for a first attempt at real sculpture. This course starts with a raw stone and a rasp, and ends with a finished, polished piece students carved themselves. No kiln, no glaze, just stone, tools and patience.

What You'll Create

  • A finished, hand-carved and polished soapstone sculpture.
  • A smaller practice piece from earlier in the term.
  • A short verbal description of the stone's original shape and the choices made carving it.

Course Details

Age Range
9-11
Term
Term 1
Schedule
Saturdays, 11:00am
Duration
10 weeks
Price
$480
Spots Available
0 of 8
This course is currently full. Join the waitlist below to be notified if a spot becomes available.

What You'll Learn

  • • You'll carve safely with a rasp and file, start to finish.
  • • You'll learn to see the form hiding inside a raw stone.
  • • You'll work a sculpture in the round, not just from one angle.
  • • You'll take a surface from rough to polished, one grit at a time.
  • • You'll finish something you can hold, that didn't exist eight weeks ago.

The Support You'll Get

You won't be handed the answer. You'll be shown how to find it.

Your practitioner has spent years making their own work, and their own mistakes. In the studio they work alongside you: asking the right questions, pointing out options you hadn't seen, helping you push through the moment you get stuck. The ideas stay yours. The decisions stay yours. They're there so you're never finding the way through alone.

Week by Week

Week 1: What soapstone is, and why it carves differently to wood or clay. Safety with rasps and files. Choosing a stone.

Week 2: Roughing out a basic form. Removing large amounts of material safely.

Week 3: Finding the shape hidden inside the stone. Working with the material, not against it.

Week 4: Refining form and symmetry.

Week 5: Surface decisions. Where to keep texture, where to smooth it away.

Week 6: Sanding progression, coarse grit to fine.

Week 7: Final polish and wax finish.

Week 8: Exhibition. Public showing, families attend.

Every course ends with an exhibition

Celebrate what you created with the people and our community. Every term concludes with a presentation or exhibition of your work: a chance to share your process, your ideas, and what you've made.

Your Instructor

Sai Neoh

Sai Neoh

Artist + Sculpture

Sai describes himself as a maker of murals, objects, buildings and ideas. His work moves between building design, ceramics, mural painting and teaching, which he treats as different ways of exploring the same thing rather than separate disciplines. Recent projects include the Federal Mills silo, the Marigolds and Peacock murals, the Tailfeather store, and a house at Barwon Heads. He says the process of making matters as much as the outcome. Most young people are only ever shown the outcome.

Want to join?

This course is full. Join the waitlist above to be notified if a spot opens up.