In addition to qualifications in Architecture Melissa has trained in the art of Fine Woodwork.

Melissa took a 12 month sabbatical to train at the Sturt School for Wood, part of the Sturt Gallery & Studios, in Mittagong New South Wales. It was an intensive full time course covering all aspects of woodwork starting with the making of your own tools such as mallets and diagnal measuring sticks (to check the squareness of corners) to the fabrication of furniture.

2 years later Sturt invited Melissa back to undertake the position of Artist in Residence for the year. In this time she ran her own workshop exploring new ideas and forms, whilst she tutored the wood students the principles of design thorugh a series of lectures and workshops. Melissa also worked with the Design & Technology students at Frensham girls school (linked to Sturt), guiding them with the design and fabrication of their School Certficate and Higher School Certificate projects. https://www.sturt.nsw.edu.au/

Melissa was inspired by the training architecture students recieved at the Bauhaus Design School, where students were trained as ‘universal designers’,… “It became renowned for its modernist approach to art education, which scrapped the traditional divide between "fine" and "applied" arts, and redefined the relationship between art, design and industrial manufacturing techniques. In particular, its mission according to Gropius was to conceive and create the new building of the future, combining architecture, sculpture, and painting in a single form, which required the teaching of a new guild of craftsmen without the class-distinctions separating craftsmen and artists. In short, the Bauhaus trained students to be equally comfortable with design, craft and methods of mass production.” ref: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/bauhaus-design-school.htm

Prior to studying Architecture at the University of Technology, Sydney (1987-92) Melissa trained in Interior Design & Colour Theory at the Shillito Design School under the tutorage of Phyllis Shillito https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/shillito-phyllis-sykes-11683 and Peter Travis https://www.daao.org.au/bio/peter-travis/biography/

In addition to her teaching at Sturt School for Wood & Frensham Girls School Melissa has run RAIA ‘BEE Built Environment’ and ‘Girls into Technology’ workshops with primary school students, and taught tertiary design students AutoCAD computer drafting and SketchUp with Podium 3D design software.

The following are pieces from her catalogue of work

Kauri table

The following images illustrate the fabrication process of this table. Designed to test an alternative to the traditional post & rail method of construction, the table consists of 13 layers of ply with handcut veneers of kauri of the exterior faces. The legs were glued up in jigs, then after being run through the thicknesser & scarf jointed they were then biscuited to the horizontal rails. Once all the legs & rails were joined they were then biscuited together to make the table.