MAKERS: the process

Ivett Dodd, AKA Ivi is an Hungarian-Australian writer and photographer living in Nipaluna / Hobart. Before publishing ‘MAKERS Lutruwita / Tasmania' she explored socially ethical and environmentally sustainable ways of producing high quality wearable objects. Her work has won two Australian Fashion Awards, Finalist at the Arts of Fashion International and has been part of fashion events in New York, Berlin and Melbourne. Image making has been an integral part of her design practise as a powerful tool to communicate the cultural context of sustainable design.

Dr Helen Norrie is a writer, curator, architectural critic and design academic working across scales from the curation of ideas through text and exhibitions, to the design of buildings and urban environments. Helen is a lecturer in the School of Architecture & Design at the University of Tasmania, and founder of the Regional Urban Studies Laboratory (RUSL), a collaborative urban design research initiative that explores the opportunities for the future sustainable urban development, particularly in regional centres. RUSL uses academic, postgraduate and undergraduate design research investigations to explore a range of urban issues, focusing on the role of architecture in developing a relationship between urban design, development and planning.

Martin Mischkulnig was born in 1969 in Adelaide, South Australia, to Austrian immigrant parents. Growing up in the vast desert landscape behind his family’s outback motel instilled a lasting understanding of scale, light, and environment — foundations that continue to inform his work today.

A professional photographer since 1996, Martin specialises in premium architectural photography and motion for leading architecture practices, developers, and commercial property groups. He produces high-impact still and cinematic content designed for award submissions, marketing campaigns, editorial features, and brand positioning across print and digital platforms.

Martin holds a Master’s in Film Studies from Staffordshire University and trained at the Raindance Film School in London, enabling him to deliver fully integrated still and motion outcomes for sophisticated built-environment clients.

Alongside his commissioned work, Martin offers private mentoring to selected photographers and creatives seeking clarity, direction, and a deeper level of professional development. His mentoring is direct, experience-driven, and grounded in nearly three decades of practice across editorial, commercial, and architectural disciplines.

Ben Richardson was born in Lutruwita/Tasmania, and completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Tasmania in 1972. Soon after he was working with resin and fibreglass on the long curves of surfboards while playing in the ocean, before undertaking non-qualifying studies in ceramics at the School of Art in Hobart finishing in 1981. That same year he established Ridgeline Pottery on the South Arm peninsula near Hobart focusing on woodfiring and the use of indigenous raw materials in a place-based approach to craft making. The years since then involved part-time teaching at the Centre for the Arts in Hobart for both UTAS and TAFE alongside a developing professional practice. His interest in woodfiring along with gathering and using local materials has continued but now he also makes contemporary tableware - working with outstanding chefs who seek to express an integrated plate-based response to place and season.

He has exhibited nationally and internationally as an invited speaking at conferences and symposia and his woodfired ceramics have won both the inaugural Vitrify Award in 2011 and the Bay of Fires Art Prize in 2021. His tableware for Quay Restaurant in Sydney was awarded a Retail Design award in 2018 by the Design Centre, Launceston.

Jane Bamford began studying ceramics in Japan in 1993 and subsequently completed a BFA, majoring in Ceramics at the Tasmanian College of the Arts, Hobart. Jane was selected as an Associate at the Jam Factory Craft and Design Centre in Adelaide.

Since 2017, Jane has consciously moved her practice to focus on art/science projects in collaboration with scientists and researchers, including working with CSIRO to design ceramic artificial spawning habitat for the critically endangered spotted handfish, collaborations with little penguin ecologists to support nesting and a native oyster reef restoration collaboration.

Jane has become known for pioneering an arts practice around creating functional forms in species support which embody creative problem solving, functionality and compassion for the non-human world.

Nanna Bayer has been specialising in the Japanese nerikomi technique, making very thin fine porcelain objects. Bayer is an internationally recognised ceramic artist, whose work has been exhibited in almost 60 exhibitions in 17 countries. She was a resident and is still a member of the world-class artist community in Fiskars, Finland.

After relocating to Tasmania, she widened and transformed her practice in utilising traditional techniques to build a sauna out of cob (clay+straw). Her creative practice has attracted the attention of MONA and she is represented by Handmark Gallery. Bayer was both producer and exhibiting artist in the Australian Ceramics Triennale Tasmania 2019. Bayer has had exhibitions in numerous galleries throughout Australia.

Immigrating to lutruwita/Tasmania in 2001, Nataša Milenović, a German-trained goldsmith, seamlessly integrates environmental consciousness into her craft. Inspired by convergent patterns of evolution and symbiotic relationships, she employs traditional metalworking techniques such as cold forging and hand fabrication while incorporating contemporary fold-forming methods. Through her exploration of materials and adept use of patinas, she eloquently conveys themes of transformation and ephemerality in her jewellery and objects.

Honoured with funding from the Carl Duisburg Gesellschaft, Australia Council for the Arts and Regional Arts Tasmania, Nataša has presented her work in solo and selected group exhibitions across Australia and internationally and has been a finalist in several awards.

Scott van Tuil is a designer-maker born, raised and practising in Tasmania. His work reveals a search for line and form, with a desire to create furniture, objects and spaces that are beautiful in both form and function. Working across a range of materials and processes, Scott’s work has been exhibited broadly, and has been acknowledged with various awards including the GOTCHA award from the DIA, Tasmanian Design Award, and a permanent place in the Wood Collection at Design Tasmania. Scott continues to be inspired by this island; its beauty, isolation, stories and people.

Michelle Maynard is a contemporary Tasmanian First Nations designer and artist. Her creative practice moves across digital design, print, collage, installation, creative production, fashion and textiles.

Through her work, she accentuates visual acknowledgement, memory in place and untold story. Empowering the memory of her people and breaking down false and oppressive perceptions inspires her approach.

Michelle often uses the bright colours of country to evoke feeling that mirrors the beauty, vibrancy and playfulness of First Nations people.

Passionate about advocating for her people and country through art and design, Michelle is powerfully motivated from the core of her family and their history on the Cape Barren Island Reserve. Sustainable practice, maintaining cultural responsibility and respectful care and consideration for country and people, are central to her practice.

Deborah Wace is a Churchill Fellow, a botanical artist & fabric designer, ecological activist, and professional printmaker from Tasmania. Her highly detailed and intimate artwork creates a window into the botany of Tasmanian wild plant communities.

Deborah was a founding member of groundbreaking a'capella group ‘Arramaieda’, which helped seed community choirs around Australia.

Also founding ‘The Recherche Baybes’- using song and satire to rally public engagement in the long, but successful community campaign to protect the Type Locality of Recherche Bay, from the predations of industrial logging. A successfull campaign, helped by Bob Brown and the Greens.

Her ultimate goal is to create real conversations about habitat loss & biodiversity, inviting a deeper and more informed and sustainable connection into our natural world, using fabric design, song, poetry, art and film, the most subversive democratic mediums for creating social change!