Creators and Magic Makers • Georgina Yen Qin Lee, Founder of Dynasty

Please tell us a bit about yourself and the work that you do.

I’m a Melbourne-based ceramic artist and designer working across sculpture and tableware. In my studio practice under the name Yen Qin, I work primarily with porcelain, creating vessels and sculptural forms that draw from Chinese decorative traditions, family heirlooms, and architectural details connected to my heritage. I’m interested in how motifs, colour, and material carry stories across generations, and how those references can be expressed in contemporary form. I am also the founder of Dynasty, a tableware line developed with Luzerne, where similar cultural influences are translated into functional porcelain designed for everyday use. Across both practices, I explore how objects can hold history while still feeling entirely present.

Through your work/business what is the impact that you hope to make and why?

I want to create space for people who live or grew up in third cultures, because that in-between space can often feel ambiguous or unarticulated. Many of us inherit stories, rituals and traditions without always fully understanding where they come from or how they may continue in our present lives. Through my work, I hope to make those cultural threads visible and usable in everyday life, not as something distant or ceremonial, but as something lived with. If someone can set their table and feel both connected to their heritage and confident in their modern identity, then I feel like I have contributed something meaningful.

How would you say you arrived into finding your purpose?

It wasn’t a single defining moment, but I also don’t see purpose as static. It evolves as you do. I spent almost twenty years in corporate while building my art practice on the side. Over time, I started paying closer attention to what genuinely energised me and what left me flat (and, at times, very sick). Corporate shaped me in important ways, but it wasn’t where I felt most alive. Stepping away came from recognising that pattern and choosing to follow the work that held my attention more naturally. For me, purpose has emerged gradually by noticing where my energy consistently returns.

How do you balance your social life, work life, health, family?

I feel like balance is never perfect, but something that is consistently ebbing and flowing. Some weeks are work-heavy, especially around launches or tours, and other weeks I lean more into rest, relationships, or studio time. There’s rarely a moment where everything feels evenly distributed. After navigating health challenges in recent years, I’ve become more conscious of energy rather than hours. I don’t follow a strict daily routine, but I pay attention to my rhythms. For me, balance is self-awareness and adjusting before things tip too far in one direction.

What do you do to get yourself into a state of creativity?

I immerse myself in references. Museums, archives, antique markets, reference books. Creativity for me comes from exploration and input. Working physically with clay also shifts me into a different mode of thinking. Making with my hands unlocks ideas that my analysing brain alone can’t!

Instagram post here.