Take a closer look at the artist’s vivid vessels and you might spot depictions of Donald Trump and Obama’s ears.

Those distinctive boxy stools at Antara 128, and the solid American rock maple chairs at Leonie Upstairs, all come from By Dave’s noisy warehouse in Footscray.

Oil paint smatterings touch every surface in this flower-filled studio in Darlinghurst, where the artist channels her love of the natural world into spectacular still lifes.

The Melbourne artist takes a slow approach to clay from her shared studio. Inspired by her Balinese culture, Mustika’s vases and vessels are both maximalist and minimalist, with a touch of glam.

Luke Phillips first began selling his upcycled designs via Instagram. Now the Melbourne-based label has customers around the world (including Chile and Brazil), runs sewing workshops and hosts community potlucks with a house party feel.

The Melbourne artist transforms wire and velvet yarn into fantasy sculptural pieces that are in demand with galleries and collectors alike.

The former primary school teacher magics up hand-sculpted candles and candelabras that are part witches’ coven, part underwater fantasy. From her Melbourne workshop, which looks like a Stevie Nicks fever dream, Green makes room for creative learning and community.

The Melbourne-based creative spent a decade capturing intimate scenes of her home town in India. Now her powdery film photos have been featured in Vogue, exhibited at the NGV and published into a book.

Intuition is at the heart of the Bondi-based artist’s practice, and no two pieces are exactly alike.

“We’re the silent craftsmen. The plates are such a huge part of a restaurant’s experience.”

Look closer at her large-scale abstract paintings and you’ll see layers of paint that shift and dance in the light.

Co-founder and designer Johanna Ryle-Howe has been consciously creating timeless wardrobe staples for a decade now. The Melbourne-based brand uses one of Australia’s last remaining knit factories and imports Italian yarn from the same place as many of the world’s top luxury labels.

The Melbourne-based artist has shown at ACMI and Tate Modern, plus across giant screens in Hong Kong and even your local beauty store. Stafford talks about teaching herself 3D motion graphics via YouTube tutorials and her future visions around technology and the environment.

“We’ve always adapted and adopted new styles and new techniques to get our stories across,” says the 28-year-old in his Brisbane home.

Two years ago the Blue Mountains artist developed debilitating symptoms that forced her to quit her day job. Then, last year, she won a national art prize. Sutton shares how chronic illness gave her the courage to become an artist – and the meaning behind her specific style.

Every outfit made in the Newtown terrace tells a story – and the latest looks thread together kink, the occult and persecution in a collection inspired by “the witch of Kings Cross”.

The Filipina-Australian artist likes to bring her children into the picture – as subjects and as artistic helpers. “They’re our future community leaders,” she says.

The Melbourne-based ceramicist makes everything from palm-fitting mugs to seven-metre art installations, all with the common intention of making you feel something – whether that’s calm, sad or small.

She has the imprimatur of Vogue and Dior for her sculptural clay light fixtures. The Melbourne ceramicist talks architectural inspiration, motherhood and how horseriding taught her to take it slow.

Last year she won the Archie. This year her textile artworks will be digitally projected onto the Opera House. From her Sydney studio, Julia Gutman shares her process, recurring themes of self, and what’s in store for 2024.

Artist? Stonemason? Furniture maker? Founder of Melbourne studio Denholm Steven John Clark has shown at NGV and Art Basel. He makes experimental furniture from ancient limestone - and does a neat sideline in Michael Jordan memorabilia and branded socks.

Honouring her late mother – and following in her footsteps – the Melbourne-based creative explores themes of pleasure, self-love and freedom. Mu believes in serendipity and community. And claiming your seat at the table (even if you have to make your own).

Creative couple Jimmy Casson and Jane Davidson make limited-run cushions in nostalgic colours and textures. Working from their home studio in Melbourne’s west, the pair also restore iconic Grant Featherston designs, giving them a new life and home.

Glassblowers Amanda Dziedzic and Laurel Kohut founded their studio in 2019, building a community for local artists and creating a space to hone their craft. Their output is stunning, colourful and skilfully made – and they’re looking to teach a new generation how it’s done.

The Melbourne designer and artist sculpts lampshades into uncanny humanoid shapes, and her playfully surreal mirrors might just be looking back at you. She’s shown at Milan Design Week and been anointed by Vogue Living as one of Australia’s top designers – and she’s just getting started.

DNJ Paper founders Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran and Jake Nakashima-Edwards “bake” paper into everyday clothing that's low on waste and big on style. Now they’re making uniforms for this year’s MPavilion.

With cakes this pretty, there’s no filter needed at Alice Bennett and Alisha Henderson’s co-working studio. Each week, the Melbourne bakers churn through 100 kilos of butter, 900 eggs, a ’90s mum playlist, and plenty of fancy icing.

Part retail space, part gallery and part workroom, this Brisbane-based studio connects customers with the process of upcycling their clothing to creatively tackle sustainability.

The maker is part of a new wave of stained-glass artists reinventing the ancient practice for today. From her studio in Brunswick, she creates bold works under the label Duck Ragu that riff on nature, geometry and, occasionally, David Lynch movies.

Focusing on fashion design half the year and his art practice the other half, Gogos spends the whole year questioning the context of his work, historical value and the concept of sustainability.

“This area is the most beautiful country I’ve ever been in,” Lee says. “It’s where heaven meets earth. Every morning I wake up and look across the valley, with lush green hills dappled with sunlight, and it’s just so peaceful.”

“I feel like my designs are timeless,” says the 75-year-old, whose always-in-demand work has influenced a new gen of designers, including Sydney’s Romance Was Born. As an homage to her contribution to Aussie fashion, Sydney Festival has erected huge, amorphous creatures inspired by her work.

“It’s like a tide – it comes in and out”: the celebrated artist continues to produce strident, confronting work out of his secluded studio in Brisbane’s north-west. Still, he insists he’s an optimist.

The Sydney artist is known for Australiana-inspired artworks created from everyday junk. Her bunker-like studio is filled with vivid koala totems, tactile splodges of plasticine and large storage boxes exploding with fabric.

Prized by the likes of Lorde, Chelsea Wolfe and Winona Ryder, her collections are moody, dramatic and monochrome. She talks about juggling work and personal life from her characterful home studio in Brisbane’s inner-north.

The Sri Lankan-born Sydney artist is still in the early stages of his career, but he’s exhibited his imaginative figures all over the world. We step inside his Gladesville studio to hear about his new book, his infinite ideas and his disdain for anything low-key.

“The interesting thing about biomaterials is that they’re still alive,” says the artist, who spent last summer moving a ton of oyster shells from the NSW South Coast to her Sydney warehouse. “They get mouldy, they’re stinky, and they have personalities that come out in the process.”

The New Zealand-born artist doesn’t like the word “spiritual”, but she enters a “painting trance” to create her ethereal, abstract compositions. Each one is filled with symbolism and a secret language.

After 20 years in the industry, the Sydney designer has merged his colourful personal aesthetic with that of his clothing label’s. He now tie-dyes orders in his mum’s backyard and he’s a part-time youth worker. We visit his inner-west studio to hear about the shift to custom gender-neutral clothing and how surviving cancer gives him fresh perspective.

Though his work regularly appears in Australia’s major mastheads, the illustrator didn’t come to his career until his thirties. Two decades on, he worries it’ll come to a sudden end: “What do I do? Just come up with jokes and do some scribbles on a page. That’s not a skill.”

White brick walls are littered with subversive, darkly funny comics that Mountjoy has been publishing on social media for the last eight years. “Putting light on dark topics is a coping mechanism,” she says.

Drawing inspiration from family photos, the young Arrernte and Kalkadoon artist channels her history and activism through captivating landscapes and hopeful portraits.

Blush-pink suit jackets, floaty powder-blue dresses, linen safari jumpsuits and chocolate ribbed knits hang inside the Sydney designer’s studio, which is where she comes up with new ideas for flattering fits with minimal waste.

Lawyer-turned-designer Dinzi Amobi-Sanderson sources vibrant wax fabrics from Ghana, Tanzania, Nigeria and Senegal. She creates striking homewares and made-to-order clothing collections from a small space in Melbourne’s Abbotsford Convent.

Business partners Pepa Martin and Karen Davis use the Japanese technique to dye cushion covers, wallpaper, tablecloths, surfboards and even leather in deep indigo patterns, which they sell across the globe. They also teach shibori workshops at their studio in Sydney.

The prolific, food-obsessed Melbourne artist taps into restaurant iconography and nostalgic overseas trips to create exuberant ceramic sculptures collected worldwide, from Brussels to LA.

The pandemic grounded the internationally minded visual-design and production company, so its creators have doubled down on their hometown, unveiling a new open studio in a two-storey former shoe factory.

Ahead of her new show in Melbourne’s Flinders Street ballroom, we step into the strange and wonderful world of one of Australia’s foremost artists. There we find gender-fluid nudes, drawers overflowing with both human and animal hair, and an anthropomorphised cat with tyre-tread flesh.

Melbourne designers and sisters Anna and Olivia Nicholas reimagine everyday objects into wearable pieces, such as handbags made from upcycled industrial webbing and shoes from discarded gas masks.

A welcoming art space arrives in the south, and it’s dedicated entirely to the meditative process of hand-built ceramics.

In 2016, Richard Cooper quit being a vet to pursue the art of knifemaking. Now his hand-forged blades, made from reclaimed steel and timber, can be found in the kitchens of Michelin-starred restaurants around the world.

This Adelaide-based costume designer has worked on Game of Thrones and Vikings, and has collaborated with award-winning Aussie director Sophie Hyde. We visit her sunny home studio to find out what’s keeping her busy during lockdown, including an iso-themed digital series for children’s theatre company, Windmill.

Former DJ and Sneaky Sound System frontman Daimon Downey invites us inside his Bondi art studio to talk about his striking new work. His exhibition might have been a covid casualty, but he’s taken it digital, and is having lots of fun with it.

How the Adelaide jazz scene shaped the producer and multi-instrumentalist's most ambitious album.

The Melbourne-based ceramicist creates earthy hand-thrown clay bowls, cups, jugs, plates, dishes and planters. Find out how her family’s migration to Australia from Egypt shaped her craft, and what it means to “layer” your dinnerware.

We look inside the Windsor warehouse where ceramicist Mike Lepre is helping provide meaningful employment for those experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

In the lead-up to Queensland Ballet’s 2019 production of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's classic tale of seduction and manipulation, Broadsheet visits the company’s costume studio to get a behind the scenes look at the design process.

As his new retrospective opens at the NGV, the artist and musician takes us behind the scenes of his glossy, pop-infused world inspired by sitcoms, fast food and a fear of death.

We take a look inside the Red Hill home where the Brisbane ceramicist creates her whimsical Art Deco-inspired designs.

The designer behind cafes such as Fred Eatery and Fine & Fettle seeks inspiration as far afield as London and Paris.

The Adelaide artist reveals the pain and pressure of painting her agony – a debilitating disease that affects millions of women – ahead of her new show.

The Adelaide musician, sound engineer and founder of Girls in the Mix talks industry inequality and forging pathways for young women artists.

Adelaide jeweller Tim Parker has a contemporary vision with old-school technique.

When this Adelaide design studio speaks, the world listens.

Explore this multi-storey, multi-disciplinary art factory and meet its next wave of artists.

A boutique cobbler opens up shop in Newtown.

The Millicent Elizabeth designer creates sustainable, timeless pieces to last beyond the seasons.

How to craft an international music career from your spare room.

Inside the workspace of Adelaide’s guitar master Steve Salvi.

How the Melbourne-based jeweller known for organic, sculptural forms, made a career from boredom.

The artist’s exhibition features a series of paintings and sculptures depicting the life and death of the Great Barrier Reef.

Journey into the synth cave. Cosmic-disco, electric violins and dance music with spirit.

We visit the painter at his studio in Annandale to get a snapshot of his ever-evolving practice.

Starry nights on plates, and rivers in mugs, inspired by Scotland.

He’s been a journalist and a graffiti artist. Now he uses art to discuss his ancestors, and what it is to be black.

Smokey stones and precious metals shapeshift in this seaside studio.

Retro synths and rooftop swimming: we visit the awesome studio space of underground music producer Made in Paris.

The artist’s vivid works have a sinister inspiration.

We pay the watch designers a visit in Caringbah to find out about their new line of leather bags.

This up-and-coming furniture designer and interior stylist is influenced by Japan and sustainability.

Martine van Reesema has been cutting, riveting and sewing beautiful leather handbags since February – in her mum’s kitchen.

In a large garage overlooking Tamarama Beach, ceramicist Alana Wilson spends her days making ancient-looking vessels.

One of the founders of Mud Australia has started a new ceramics studio in her Botany backyard.

Jedda-Daisy Culley, the artist behind the Desert Designs clothing label, has an exhibition of paintings inspired by the Western Australian landscape. Visit this weekend.

Artist Alesandro Ljubicic’s new exhibition of paintings incorporates a perfume, fresh flowers and silk scarves – a floral experience for every sense. Visit this weekend.

We visit the seaside studio of a jeweller in the south.

Visit their Christmas pop-up store for gifts and interior inspiration.

The minimalist jewellery label is opening a new Sydney studio to the public.

Natalie Rosin’s clay sculptures are influenced by her work as an architect, with a little more room to mess up the straight lines.

Before her upcoming solo exhibition, we travelled up the coast to visit Sydney artist Lisa Madigan in her Newport studio.

We visit the family owned pottery business in Pakenham that’s producing custom-made tableware for restaurants all over the world.

By day, Tara Burke makes earthy ceramics from her studio in Alexandria.

With a recent Christmas commission from Hermes in the bag, we discuss what it’s like to cross Australia’s notorious tyranny of distance with this acclaimed Melbourne lighting designer.

Up six flights of stairs in a beautiful art deco-apartment complex sits a light-filled sunroom overlooking Elizabeth Bay. This is the home of Sydney jewellery label Petite Grand.

Helen Poyser, artist and jeweller, swapped the Sydney suburbs for the mountain air of Katoomba five years ago. It is here she has been quietly crafting jewellery and honing her painting practice.

Lyn Balzar and Tony Perkins are creating tactile, handmade wonders inspired by outer space.