Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 103 - Sep/Oct 2021 i frankie Magazine

This issue comes with some happy/sad news: after five wonderful years putting frankie magazine together, it’s my final edition as editor. (Insert cry-face emoji.) Emma Do – who’s worked alongside me as frankie’s assistant editor since 2018 – will be taking my place at the helm, continuing to produce magazines that make you snort, sob and scratch your chin every two months. As for me? I’m stepping out for a brand-new adventure – though frankie will always hold a big old chunk of my heart. Some folks attribute this quote to author A.A. Milne, some to his semi-nude bear creation, Winnie the Pooh, but wherever the words were uttered, the sentiment applies: “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” My time at frankie has…

My name is Tamatha Paul, but most people call me Tam. For the past few years I’ve sat on the Wellington City Council and I am one of New Zealand’s few young Maori woman councillors. It’s not exactly what I expected when I was growing up, and it’s not a job I will do forever, but I really believe that institutions like the council can be tools for good if young people get engaged. A funny thing about being a young person in a position of power is that you’re always getting asked, “Who are you?” I’m still actively trying to figure that out; I’m still shaping who I am. First and foremost, though, I’m a rangatahi Maori, a young Maori person. And I have always lived in urban Aotearoa…

Imagine selecting a group of humans for the first mission to colonise some distant planet. They’re probably highly trained and intelligent. They have IQs off the charts. They’ve been studying and working and training all their lives for this moment. But now imagine they reach the planet, settle down and start having children. Those kids are still born into the shadow of glory – they’re probably quite bright themselves, and they’ve been raised on stories of green grass and blue skies and something called a ‘burrito’. But then those kids start having kids. Suddenly you’ve got a third generation in space, whose grandparents abandoned Earth to explore the cosmos. They might not be as smart, or skilled, or as talented as previous generations, and they’ve never even seen this magical…

What do you do for a crust? We are ad photographers and own a company together called Tropico Photo (@tropicophoto on Instagram). Describe the house you live in. Our home is a modern one-bedroom condo with high ceilings and concrete floors. The building was constructed about 12 years ago and has four floors – we’ve been here for almost two years now. Our unit itself is really open and full of light. We’ve got lots of plants scattered around and hanging from the ceiling, plus unique knick-knacks from our travels and little pops of art in every corner. We like the idea of each piece in the house being elevated beyond its normal use. What have you done to the place since you moved in? When we first arrived the…

By Caro Cooper - As a kid, I never liked sleeping over at friends’ houses. This is not unique to me, I know. But I never liked it because all my friends’ families were weird. Or at least, different from mine. They watched kid-friendly movies, didn’t have strange names for their genitals, didn’t have a chocolate cupboard stocked full with teeth-rotting treats and, most notably, they weren’t deeply superstitious. In my family, it was sacrilege to say you did well on a test at school. You had to come barrelling through the front door screaming about how poorly you did. If we said a positive word about our efforts, my mother would hush us and tell us not to jinx it. We were a house of super-nerdy kids who always…

I have a hard time finding interesting pots for my indoor and outdoor plants. Most of the time they’re pretty plain and in basic colours, which is great for someone with tendencies towards a more minimal aesthetic. But as someone whose philosophy is ‘more is more’, I wanted to make some pots that suited my high-contrast, retro-inspired aesthetic. To do this, I used my new Cricut Maker 3 – a super-smart cutting machine – to create decals that will jazz up some plain pots, and in turn, my (or your!) home. WHAT YOU’LL NEED plain pots with a flat surface (light colours are better) spray paint in bright colours of your choice Cricut Maker 3 Cricut Smart Vinyl Cricut Smart Paper PC/tablet or smartphone with Cricut Design Space app newspaper…

BRIDGE ROAD BREWERS FREE TIME ALCOHOL FREE PALE ALE Look, I love beer. It’s basically a funny water that requires you to be somewhat responsible. But even a casual observer can tell that beer must be stopped. It is too powerful, too enticing. And the ramifications of one too many? Bad news. That’s where something like Bridge Road Brewers’ Free Time comes in. Very easy on the palate, it has just a suggestion of pale ale to remind you what we’re here for. Close your eyes, it says, and come with me into a world of beermagination. The Free Time label presents its non-alcoholic allegiance pretty prominently, which is bad news if you’re nervous some yahoo is going to take exception to you not being on the big-kid beers, but…

What’s your background in fashion? Born and bred in New Delhi, India, I studied design and development at London College of Fashion and spent my university years gaining a wide range of experience under the guidance of different designers. What motivated you to start Studio RIGU? After returning to my hometown, I noticed a lack of comfortable formal wear for the modern, enterprising woman. There was a shift in Indian demographics and a need for an updated wardrobe. This gap drew my attention and gave birth to Studio RIGU. I began interacting with friends and family, discovering the difficulties they faced in finding well-fitted formal clothes. We decided to create everyday luxury with a modern sensibility by incorporating calculated yet eccentric minimalism and thoughtful detailing. Tell us about this collection,…

It was gifs of Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe on Tumblr – the microblogging site popular in the late 2000s – that first got Lily Chen interested in old Hollywood films. She was around 15 and studying at a Canadian international school in China when she first watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s. That was her “gateway drug” into vintage style. Something about the way the starlets held themselves, plus the way their garments moved, captivated her. “I wanted to capture some of that magic in my own life,” Lily says. “I’ve always been a bit of a dreamer and tried to make my surroundings beautiful. I’m a very visual person. As a kid, I always wanted to create my own aesthetically pleasing world.” The Western vintage fashions Lily became infatuated with…

Tell us a bit about yourself, please! Who are you and what do you do? Hey there, my name’s Tom Skipp and I’m a UK-based documentary photographer. I try to take on photographic stories that improve my understanding of others, and then convey those stories to the world. How did you find yourself in Rwanda? After being in London for many years working in design for the music industry, I decided I needed to make a change and do something that might genuinely help people. I moved to Rwanda to take up a job as an art director for a charity magazine called Ni Nyampinga. They’re solely focused on nurturing and championing girls and women through a magazine and radio show highlighting female issues. My role there was to develop…

A SENSE OF HOME I grew up in a town called Horsham in Victoria, and we’ve always had a farm in the Grampians region, which is where my mum lives. I always need to create a sense of home, because I am someone with anxiety. I’ve lived in Melbourne for seven years and have probably lived in seven different houses in that time, and my first priority is always making it feel familiar – putting my things around, art on the walls, sensory things like candles or oils to burn. I’m lucky that I play in a band with people I’ve known since we were about four or five, so home comes with us everywhere we go. WATCHING TV I love watching trashy reality TV and other people’s drama. It’s…

Have you always been an arty type? What’s the first thing you can remember making? When I was young, my dream was to become a musician. I really liked playing the piano, and sometimes I would compose a song when there was something I wanted to express. I’ve forgotten most of the songs I wrote at that time, but one song, “Turtle”, is still in my memory, and I often hum it when I’m alone. The first thing I made materially was a clay, heart-shaped necklace when I was about six years old. What kinds of techniques do you use in your art now? I learnt oriental painting in Korea for several years, and when I combined acrylic paints and watercolours with those techniques, I got the result I wanted.…

Where is it? 1/110 Marine Parade, Kingscliff, New South Wales. Describe Stone Studio in a sentence. A community pottery studio and café offering workshops, courses and studio access for people of any skill level looking to learn, create and connect. What goes on there? On the weekends, we offer a variety of different pottery workshops. You can bring friends or come solo and make some new ones. We also offer six-week courses for beginners and intermediate students, and three days a week we open the studio up to our members so they can create their own work. We pour coffees all week long, so you’ll often find our regulars sitting outside having a catch-up. What’s your personal connection to pottery? I began my journey with clay eight years ago. I…

MAKE THINGS SMELL NICE Take a leaf out of your nan’s book and please your snout with a bowl of homemade potpourri. Thinly slice and gently dry apple pieces in the oven on a low heat, then mix in your favourite scents – orange slices and cinnamon sticks perhaps, or pine cones and peonies. Spritz the lot with a few drops of essential oil, if you want. Then strategically place sachets on your showerhead, inside a lampshade or in your sock drawer and enjoy the sweet smell of fruity victory. .................. SOOTHE YOUR SKIN Forget an apple a day – try an apple face mask every week or so. Not only a hardcore moisturiser, this fruity superpower is also capable of calming acne, fading scars, treating puffy eyes and soothing…

What’s the last thing you did that you were proud of? Did you finish a work project that made you super-happy? Maybe you drew something you didn’t recognise as your own because it was just so good. Or perhaps you did the first round on that Couch to 5k app, then burst into tears because you’ve never run before. (Yes, it counts as running!) Well, this is your reminder to celebrate that shit and tell people all about it. I get it – it’s totally unnatural to spruik your achievements, especially if you’ve traditionally been expected to just do your work and get on with it. As a kid, when I told people I’d done something cool, the response was often, “Do you want a medal?” And yes, I’ll tell…

Hi Lizzie! Who are you and what do you do? Hi! I’m a full-time mixed-media artist living and working in New York. In my studio practice, I make large-scale mixed media paintings and collages, using found imagery. I also specialise in photo illustration, working on editorial commissions for publications. This year, after several years in Brooklyn, I decided to move upstate into a converted barn/studio, where I now create my work and am adjusting to more space! Tell us about this collage series. What’s it about? When I started these works, I was single and dating at the beginning of the app craze. I went on some pretty awful dates, so I started creating artworks around these interactions, to find the humour in them – a coping mechanism, perhaps? They…

BATHS FOR THE WIN BY JACK VENING I once had a housemate who loved baths so much I had to take him aside to ask if everything was OK. It was always the big moment of his day, the thing everything led to. “I’m running a bath,” he would warn gravely, in case we needed to get any business in before he started. Then he would sit on the floor of our pathetic little shower, drain half-plugged with a hand towel, running the water lightly over his back and listening to audiobooks for roughly two hours of Standard Earth Time, sometimes more than once a day. This was someone who chose baths, even when no bath was present. It was his nirvana. He just got it. (He was also very…

Scientific name: Leptospermum scoparium. Etymology: Ol’ pal William Shakespeare once wrote, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” And the bard had a point: whether you call this plant manuka, kahikatoa or Captain Cook’s chosen moniker, tea tree, it’s still going to delight the senses with its cloud of delicately scented flowers and general loveliness. Description: Speaking of flowers, those sweet-smelling blooms are usually white or pink with short, dark red stamens (aka those bristly bits in the centre of the petals that produce all the pollen). They pop up along each woody branch between needle-like leaves and teeny capsules full of seeds that are blown off by the wind and dispersed so more plants can grow. Not that…

I purchased my first vintage travel soap in 2010 from an antiques shop. It was from the Emporium department store in San Francisco and was sitting in a bowl of odds and ends. Most likely it had been swiped from the ladies’ room at the store and tossed into a smart pocketbook. I don’t have it anymore – I gave it to a friend. But a few years later I started actively collecting vintage soaps. I never expected to have a vintage travel soap collection, but they can be hard to find, so they’re fun to collect. For collectors, it’s often the thrill of the hunt that keeps them going. With these soaps, I also love the smell. It’s amazing that a fragrance can remain over the course of decades!…

For the past few years, Lily Ferres and her auntie Margaret Swan have been talking more often than most friends do – they’re on the blower (or texting or video-calling) several times a day. “We might be sewing and we’ll leave the phone on top of the sewing machine,” Margaret says. “We never run out of subject matter – it will be about what we’re doing, what we’re planning to do, our hopes and dreams, or gold thread.” The duo – Margaret, who works on her family framing business in Melbourne, and Lily, until recently an art teacher in Wilcannia in north-western New South Wales, and now in Newcastle – might be 1000 kilometres apart, but they’ve formed a tight little sewing circle, the Quiltmore Girls, which revolves around their…

What is your series Brillo Putx all about? Brillo Putx is a body of work that manifested when I came out as non-binary about two years ago. It took me a long time to let go of ‘maleness’ because it was something I held on to for the sake of being seen as desirable. I was so scared to be feminine, but I desired it so much. When I realised I was non-binary, I wanted to celebrate my queer body, and challenge my own ideas of what makes a body inherently male or female. So Brillo Putx was born. Tell us about your experiences as a queer, first generation Mexican American. I have definitely felt alienated, because I didn’t see my identity represented in gay media. I also didn’t have…