Tasmania Makes 25: Celebrating Innovation & Craftsmanship Across Tasmanian Design

2025 sees the return of Tasmania Makes — Design Tasmania’s flagship annual project celebrating the state’s leading designers and makers. Now in its second year, the program invites audiences to experience all-new work by sixteen Tasmanian practitioners, presented across two exhibitions and developed in partnership with local industry and workshop collaborators.

Presented in 2025 with industry partners Hydrowood, Waverley Mills and Timber World Tasmania, and with workshop partners Simon Ancher Studio (Launceston) and DOT (Hobart), Tasmania Makes 25 showcases new work by sixteen designers from across the island, over two exhibitions.

“We want to provide a platform that celebrates the talents of our designers-makers, while also fostering a supportive environment for their growth. Tasmania Makes is more than just recognizing individual achievements; it’s about creating a thriving ecosystem of creativity and craftsmanship.” — Michelle Boyde, Artistic Director, Design Tasmania

Tasmania Makes is an annual platform in its second year, designed to celebrate and invigorate Tasmania’s rich culture of innovation and craftsmanship across all design disciplines. Known for our thoughtful, resourceful and naturally sustainable way of working, Tasmania boasts an ever-expanding reputation for its reliably good and distinct vernacular design.

From the southeast coast and Hobart to Launceston, sixteen designers from materially driven design disciplines — spanning furniture, ceramics, jewellery, textiles and object design — have been invited to reconsider and refine their practice through the creation of new work responding to local or global imperatives.

The design pieces have been developed through a series of intensive workshops with Simon Ancher Studio (Launceston) and DOT (Hobart) and will be exhibited in various stages — from prototypes through to resolved works — all made by the designers themselves.

Three local industry partners have supported select designers through the supply of sustainable materials and production support in 2025, including Hydrowood (supply of recovered myrtle timber), Timber World (supply of plantation-grown Eucalyptus nitens timber), and Waverley Mills (local wool and upholstery production).

Crossing two exhibitions over eight months, the program features designers such as an architect creating small-scale objects for adaptive use, a public artist designing lamps with VR technology, and a ceramicist transforming Knocklofty Reserve’s historic quarry refuse into tiles for a contemporary coffee table.

Employed are a spectrum of making modes — from the practical to philosophical, traditional hand tools to advanced digital processes — all exemplifying a unique Tasmanian approach to shaping the future through well-crafted design.

ARTISTS

Andrea Barker – Ceramic Artist
Carbonised ceramic vessels, linking ancient archaeology with contemporary design

Christopher Clinton – Architect / Object Maker
Creating adaptive functionality through thoughtful design

Nanna Bayer – Ceramicist
Finnish designer shaping porcelain into vibrant, functional lights

Kate Bowman – Designer / Ceramicist
Transforming forgotten ceramic waste into bespoke design

Shauna Mayben – Jeweller
Celebrating the beauty of ocean by-product through bespoke jewellery

Liam Starcevich – Furniture / Objects
Intuitive design, blending timber and cork with functional clarity

Scott van Tuil – Furniture / Objects
Circular design — sand-casted homewares to endure forever

Adam Wallace – Textiles Artist
Transforming vintage and found materials through traditional handcraft

Isaac Williams – Furniture / Objects
Reimagining waste as art, crafting meaningful designs that blend symbolism and form

Craig Ashton – Furniture / Sculpture
Forging functional sculpture from timber offcuts through lost wax bronze casting

Travis Bell – Ceramicist
Redefining ceramics, stacking vessels into functional furniture forms

Geoff Farquhar-Still – Object / Installation
Fusing heritage materials with contemporary form

Benjamin Grieve-Johnson – Furniture / Objects
Crafting light sculptures with steam-bent timber and willow tree

Elliot Hall – Furniture
Sculpting furniture with organic forms, reclaimed timber and Tasmanian wool

Sharon O’Donnell – Ceramicist
Ceramic vessels evoking nostalgia, identity, and sense of place

Stuart Williams – Furniture / Objects
Anthropomorphic furniture made from Hydrowood myrtle

Tasmania Makes 25

Presented by Design Tasmania with sustainable industry partners Hydrowood, Waverley Mills and Timber World Tasmania

An Exhibition in Two Parts—both exhibitions on display for one day only.

• EXHIBITION ONE 24 Jan – 31 May (currently showing)
• EXHIBITION TWO 1 June – 21 September
• LIVE EVENT Saturday 31 May 2025

More information: designtasmania.com.au