Mishael Sharaf

Hi! I’m Mishael, a designer and educator who learns best by making. My background is in architecture and craft-based design, where working with materials, tools, and processes has always shaped my approach. Through Fab Academy, I’m exploring how digital fabrication and technology can expand my practice, integrating physical making with interactive systems and experiential learning.

Work History

I have been teaching design foundation courses for Bachelor of Design students in interior, product, and communication design, integrating hands-on processes as core pedagogical tools. Alongside this, I conduct workshops where making becomes a collective way to explore geometry and spatial thinking. These sessions emphasize learning through play, using simple materials and shared experimentation to understand structure and transformation. Together, this combination of teaching and workshop practice has shaped my approach as experiential, process-led, and collaborative.

Explorations through paper folding

Working with handmade paper, I explored tessellation and modular folding as methods of structural investigation. The pieces examine how repetition, symmetry, and controlled deformation transform a flat surface into spatial form.

Mini origami studies developed in reference to the above-mentioned designers.

Explorations in Ceramics

Developed during my postgraduate studies in ceramics and glass, these works explore Raku firing and sgraffito as methods of material investigation. The pieces examine how heat, surface carving, and glaze interaction contribute to texture, depth, and formal expression.

Explorations in Glass

Using kiln-forming techniques such as fusing and slumping, I explored how controlled heat and gravity shape glass into fluid yet structured forms. The pieces investigate surface pattern, depth, and the dynamic relationship between material and light.