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essini Palace is at her Auckland studio seven days a week, her self-proclaimed “happy place.” It’s there she creates the most dazzling, transfixing cast art with resin and ceramics. “The possibilities seem endless, and I am obsessed with form and colour and how I can transform a traditional whakairo rākau (wood carving) design into a contemporary piece,” she says. Having only recently connected with her whakapapa (Ngāti Apakura and Ngā Puhi), Messini is “coming home” through