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Meet the fire-wielding, woodturning Melbourne-based maker Makiko Ryujin

What might possess someone to incinerate their carefully crafted timber work? It's a question that Makiko Ryujin, the rogue craftswoman becoming known for her prowess with a blowtorch, is uniquely placed to answer.

Born and raised in Japan, Ryujin spent a year in Indonesia before moving to Melbourne to complete high school. On finishing a photography degree at rmit University, she sought a more hands-on pursuit, which led to a woodwork course at the Victorian Woodworkers Association in 2016. There, she discovered a fascination for woodturning, mesmerised by its immediacy. ‘I couldn't believe how quickly it could happen,' she recalls. ‘You take a rough block and suddenly, you have something you can use. It was like a magic trick.'

Even if woodturning itself provides almost instant gratification, the full undertaking of transforming tree into bowl is no simple feat — especially when the trees in question happen to be hefty eucalyptus and your main supply line is private sellers listed on the aptly named community marketplace Gumtree. Through this network, Ryujin finds fallen trunks salvaged from the Victorian bush, and searches for trees obstructing Melbourne's urban sprawl, untreated and ripe for rescue. These still-moist trees are cut into huge sections and forklifted into Ryujin's workshop, a grungy space she shares with industrial designers Michael Gittings and Jonathan Ben-Tovim on the northern outskirts of Melbourne.

After about a year spent honing her turning skills, it occurred to Ryujin to singe the vessels. Something about the medium sparked an unexpected connection to the memories she has of the small Buddhist spirit figures (known as daruma) of her childhood and hometown. ‘Probably ninety per cent of all daruma in Japan are made in Takasaki,' Ryujin explains. ‘We have a big ceremony at the end of the year where we tie them up at the temple and burn them to give thanks. I remember watching them in the fire, and there'd always be a moment where I wanted to save them because they looked so beautiful.'

Though not entirely intentional, Ryujin's process has become a personal way to honour a centuries-old custom. Mimicking the ceremonial burning, it takes only ten minutes to flame her vessels. And while she can now better anticipate the way timber might buckle and char, the true poetry of her work is that the flames have the last word. She considers the fire as her collaborative partner.

Today, Ryujin continues to build her on her body of work, and to great local acclaim. As the winner of the Front | Centre award for emerging talent at the 2019 edition of Australian design event denfair, she now has access to the full suite of facilities at Melbourne makerspace fab9, and looks forward to exploring the new materials and contemporary processes available to her. ‘I'd never really considered using methods like cnc machining and 3D printing,' she says. ‘But there's something there — maybe some way to combine the new with the traditional work that I do. It's very exciting.'

Crafted from tulip tree, plaster and oxide pigments, the Formation series of sculptural plinths was inspired by the eroded rock seen across Australia’s natural landscape