Art, Design, Crafts 

• Art: let’s age with beauty

• Design: let’s embed fantasy in the function

• Crafts: let’s use our human hands

hj-duo mirrors the world that Hua Li and James Richards live in as both work and life partners. 

Hua, a Chinese-born, Melbourne-based artist and interior designer, has worked on high-end hotel, commercial and retail projects in Australia and China since 2000. Her multicultural background and experience in design and artwork practice have formed a unique approach to work on each project with a strong identity. She blurs the line between art and design,

James, an industrial designer and a skilled luxury furniture maker in Melbourne since 2011 or more accurately, since his childhood on a farm in northern Victoria, possesses a wealth of technical knowledge in working with various materials: metal, stone and wood, breathing life into each piece with humbled craftsmanship. 

We mix our decades of design experience and a wealth of knowledge in materials and techniques to create special furniture and art. Each ‘hj-duo’ piece carries effortless elegance and unexpected details, acts as a reminder to slow down and enjoy the present moment.

We live in Melbourne with a cat, a garden, a workshop, a music studio, and our daughter, Duo Richards. We surround ourselves with multi-talented resources.