In a warehouse on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, tucked between concrete and workshop hum, Melinda Tualima builds vessels from earth and fire. Her studio space is minimal, but intentional. It’s here, alongside her husband Drew and their sons, that Melinda lives within her practice – raw, intuitive, and deeply personal.
 |
 |
Melinda doesn’t work from plans or drawings. Her orb-like vessels emerge from feel, from years of knowing the material. "My process is free-flowing,” she says. “Even for custom work, I let the clay guide me.” Her preferred method of firing is Raku, which is equally spontaneous. Flames, smoke, air, and instinct collaborate in the kiln, breathing life into each unique piece.
 |
 |
Mornings start with ritual. An ocean swim, incense burning, a reset before reentering the studio. “It helps me return 100% present,” she shares. “The quiet is where everything happens.” Within the walls of their studio, family and creativity coexist – her boys running around, Drew editing films for @southcornersessions, and Melinda at the wheel or her kiln.
Her work is grounded in memory: “I grew up by a creek, digging for clay as a kid. I never finished school, but I found my way to art college and always circled back to clay. Coming back to it in recent years, it feels like coming home.”
 |
 |
That sense of home is at the centre of everything she does. It’s felt in the vessels she shapes and the life she shares with her family. The deep loss of their first son, Lucien, is woven into her story and into her work. “He shaped how I move through the world. We're all interlinked. Our sons, our home – it’s not about bricks and mortar. It’s a feeling.”
This year, Melinda and Drew will open their Northern Beaches, Sydney studio for a collaborative exhibition – her vessels alongside his film work, a celebration of making and memory.
Through it all, the Pony Rider Crafters Series has become part of Melinda’s daily rhythm. “It’s reliable, earthy, like a second skin,” she says. “It moves with me through all parts of the day – from ocean swims to late-night firings. It fits our life.”
 |
 |
Creative Folk is here to honour stories like Melinda’s, where the act of making is inseparable from the life that holds it. It lives not in spectacle, but in the slow and steady – the hands that shape, the quiet that carries, and the love that holds it all together.
Check out the full Crafters Series here.
–
Get in touch with the creative crew
