Creative People

Chrissy Lafian knows how to get stuff done. Born and raised in Makassar, Indonesia, the founder of SUKU Home moved by herself to New Zealand to go to high school when she was just 15. She landed in Melbourne to study graphic design at university, and has been here ever since.

Over the last 7 years, Chrissy has grown SUKU from a small bedding range sold online, to a fully fledged lifestyle brand with teams in both Melbourne and Bali, and a brand new flagship store, Dream Baby, on Gertrude Street, Fitzroy!

The jazzy SUKU prints in a rainbow of bright, happy colours are a sparkly jewel box  of joy in the often muted palette of Melbourne. That’s all Chrissy – her sunny demeanour and creative vision, coupled with business savvy and fierce independence make her a force to be reckoned with.

Between running the shop, managing her international teams, and being the creative force behind SUKU, Chrissy lets us in on what it takes to be at the helm of a business she’s built from scratch.

Chela Edmunds is an absolute creative force to be reckoned with. You might recognise Chela and her gorgeous daughter Ocean from our family story in February, but if you’ve been paying attention to Victoria’s creative scene over the last decade, you’ll no doubt have delighted in one of Chela’s many wonderful creative ventures.

Today, the founder of Takeawei Ceramics shows us around her latest project – a sunny new retail space on Gertrude Street in Fitzroy, and the apartment above that she’s completely made over, for short term accomodation!

OMG. This is a BIG day people! Today we’re launching something The Design Files…

Artist Liz Sofield moved to Brisbane 16 years ago and has lived in the coastal town of Scarborough, 30 kilometres north of the city, since. Before that, she and her young family did a brief stint living in a remote mining town. Devoid of a creative outlet, it was here that she reconnected with her childhood love for making art.

Drawing on training textile design and interior design, and with a lifelong love for craft, Liz began making simple sculptures from paper and thread. Now, her works consists of crochet and porcelain forms, which she makes from her sunny 1950s home in Queensland.

Tatsiana Shevarenkova studied finance and economics in Moscow before becoming interested in fashion imagery, working as a stylist in magazine editorial, and eventually moving to Australia.

It wasn’t until she shifted hemispheres that she discovered the gentle, slow-paced world of ceramics. This new discipline renewed Tatsiana’s creative focus, and her passion was further galvanised during last year’s lockdowns, which afforded her the time and space to hone her style. Now, Cosset Ceramics is her full-time practice, and she is one half of a duo show at Saint Cloche, where her fluid ceramic vessels sit beside Hannah Nowlan‘s titanic, earthy paintings.

Ukrainian-Australian artist Stanislava Pinchuk (formerly known as Miso) is known for her art spanning drawing, sculpture, and data mapping. Normally displayed separately, these artworks are being brought together for the artist’s first-ever career survey, open now at Heide Museum of Modern Art.

Titled Terra Data, the exhibition encompasses 40 works created between 2015 to 2020, including Stanislava’s renowned pinhole drawings and sculptures plotting war and conflict zones.

We spoke with Stanislava in the lead up to the exhibition to discuss this major career milestone, and the evolution of her art practice.

In a world where birthing people are expected to ‘snapback’ to their pre-baby selves, Jess Prescott, known for Mama Goodness + several vegan cookbooks, has dedicated her life to providing a slower, more considered approach to early parenthood.

It’s an important, too-often dismissed conversation, which Jess shares with warmth + candour. 

Jess lives in Preston, Melbourne, with her husband Andy and their two boys Louie and Jude.

The streets of Collingwood in Melbourne are filled with old warehouse buildings, leftover from the suburb’s history as a busy industrial area. These days, you can find any number of creative businesses behind these innocuous facades – but perhaps none quite so unexpected as Sense of Self, a modern day spa and bathhouse that has recently opened its doors!

Flash Minky is a brand new textile brand on our radar, bringing the designs of eight Indigenous artists from the Eastern Kimberley region to limited-edition blankets.

Founded by non-Indigenous woman Emilia Galatis – an arts professional who has worked with Indigenous artists and arts centres in remote communities for the last 14 years – 100% of the net profits are redistributed to the artists.

The blankets create a new medium for these lauded artists’ practices to be shared and explored, as well as connecting them with a mainstream audience. We love them!

Hands up who, in the last 12 months, has dreamt of giving up their 9-5 to pursue their creative passions? What has remained a daydream for most of us has become a reality for ceramicist Jess Choi of Eun Ceramics. Although Jess is still taking on a few gigs as a production manager in TV here and there, she’s (wheel) throwing everything into her true passion – ceramics. And despite feeling ‘imposter syndrome’ when she first put herself out there, her little business is thriving.

Jess found a lot more than just a hobby when she first took up casual pottery classes in 2016. Five years later and she’s found a way to be her own boss, and unexpectedly, reconnect with a part of her Korean heritage.