VWA Artists in Residence Update February 2026
Our Artists in Residence are continually working new projects and we’re excited to share their 2026 updates.
Freddy Mata
Chess Set
“Here is a one-off chess set that I have been working on, and it will be released soon. It is made from reclaimed Oregon (from the Younghusband building in Kensington VIC 3031) and coloured with what I am calling End Grainchromie.
Details missing are the box, last coat of hard wax oil and to write down the a fictional story to complement the set.
Here are the Queen and King of each clan and the chessboard. All pieces are handcrafted, finished by hand and their end grain is matched. “
Follow Freddy on Instagram here.
Caleb Biffanti
Laying down the foundations
“The first few months of the year are dedicated to some needed skill building, specifically in the hand tools department.
It’s less about finished pieces and more about laying down some foundational techniques to work from. This is my way of easing into the year, warming up a little.
The goal this year? I’d like to submit some work to a few exhibitions, have a piece or two included in a styling shoot, and, perhaps ambitiously, sell something. “
Also sharing a hand plane I’ve been restoring. Who knew doing this would be so time consuming!
Follow Caleb on Instagram here.
Wanda Gillespie
Over the past couple of months, much of my focus has been on teaching, with an expanding program of woodcarving classes and whittling workshops.
On Wednesday I ran my first regular evening class at the Melbourne Guild of Fine Woodworking, which went really well and now has four committed students, with a couple of others occasionally joining.
I’ve also been working with a number of private woodcarving students in my studio at the VWA and have really enjoyed guiding them through projects including a Green Man, acanthus leaves, a vine-decorated butterfly, and, at the Guild, an upcoming puppet carving.
Alongside teaching, I recently completed a custom walking stick carved with the likeness of a client’s Leonberger dog. This was a great project to test and extend my carving skills, and I particularly enjoyed working with Huon pine for the first time.
The whittling workshops continue to be popular, and I’m enjoying working in a different context at Anatolia Studios in Collingwood. These sessions often run alongside other creative workshops such as Turkish glass lamp mosaics, ring making, watercolour painting, perfume making and silk painting. It has been refreshing to step outside the wood workshop environment and share space with a wider community of craft makers. So far, we’ve focused on birds and cats, and I’m currently developing new designs including a whale, an alpaca, and a manekineko cat with a moveable arm. I’m also planning to begin selling timber blanks on my website, and possibly whittling knives.
https://www.wandagillespie.com/workshops.html
In terms of my art practice, I currently have work in the Maquette Sculpture Award at McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park until 22 February. The exhibiting piece is one of my abacus works from the Craft Victoria exhibition. The Wollongong Art Prize continues at Wollongong Art Gallery until 1 March, where my figurative sculpture Holding Hope is on display.
I’m excited to have received a small Creative New Zealand grant to support my VWA residency. I’ve joined the Thursday afternoon class with Lionel and Isabelle and am enjoying learning alongside them while developing new work. My first project is a series of picture frames. Continuing my interest in language, I’m drawing on alphabet letterforms to inform their shapes, with a focus on curved structures.
I also have an article in the current issue of Garland Magazine on the work of Indonesian-born, Japan-based ceramic artist Albert Yonathan Setyawan. I really enjoy the writing process and hope to find more opportunities to share words and images about inspiring artists and craftspeople in the future.
https://garlandmag.com/article/albert-setyawan/
Looking ahead, I have a solo exhibition coming up at Linden New Art at the end of the year, where I will present an ambitious new body of work including figurative carving and further Newton’s Cradles.
Follow Wanda on Instagram here.
Emily McRae
“In amongst my regular work I am starting a project that I plan to work on in the background.
It’s a toolbox based on plans from the North Bennet Street School. I look forward to brushing up on my dovetailing skills and get stuck into making some drawers.”
Follow Emily on Instagram here.
Margot Feast
Over the past few months, I’ve been focusing on developing a range of console table designs and mock-ups. These have grown out of an earlier side table design and feel like a natural progression from that piece.
One design I’m especially excited about uses the negative shape from the leg as the front of a drawer. This interplay between positive and negative space feels both resolved and surprising, and it strengthens the sculptural quality of the piece.
One of the main challenges I’ve been wrestling with in the studio is weight. Because my work is quite sculptural, the pieces can easily become heavy — both visually and physically. Lately I’ve been exploring ways to lighten things up. I’ve been looking at lighter alternative timbers and experimenting with building forms from narrower sections rather than solid mass.
I’m interested in keeping the sculptural quality while introducing a bit more lift and refinement. Alongside this, I have been reflecting on my growing collection of offcuts in the studio. One solution I am currently exploring is transforming these remnants into table lamps. My first lamp design will shape the offcuts into a form inspired by one of my favourite camping locations, Melville Caves, where enormous boulders stack and balance upon one another.
The lamp will embody this sense of weight and unlikely balance — echoing my broader exploration of mass, and structural tension.
Follow Margot on Instagram here.