Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 124- Mar/Apr 2025 i frankie Magazine

Not in a creepy way! But in an open-minded, playful way. On page 38, shutterbug Bri Hammond chats about her new photo series, Object Permanence, in which she documents childhood items. She went through boxes of old kid stuff at her parents’ place and found herself playing with the objects to get the perfect shot – but also because it was fun. The experience was quite lovely and nostalgic, she tells me. The conversation reminded me of my kid stuff. Whenever I go back to my childhood home, I sit on the floor of my old bedroom and rummage through the contents of its drawers, shelves, boxes. Almost everything is where I left it. There’s the green and silver robot Poo-Chi dog, and the purple and silver Girl Tech Password…

Ever wanted to feel like a teeny-tiny fairy, walking among towering blooms the size of trees? Well, you can – just pop on your tutu and head to Jotterbook Flowers, an art studio run by Carrissa Wu that’s located on a leafy suburban street in Fremantle/Walyalup. The studio is lined with canopies of vines and tendrils, and long-stemmed flowers and fronds in all kinds of shapes and colours. The only catch? Every big, beautiful blossom is made of crepe paper. If you’ve attended one of Carrissa’s paper flower workshops at the studio, or encountered her impressive, giant flower sculptures at places like the WA Maritime Museum and the Bunbury Fringe Festival, then you might be surprised to learn that she only started her business in 2020. She’d been introduced to…

It was my 10-year high school reunion last weekend, and I did not want to go. This isn’t to say I hated high school. Contrary to almost every teenager throughout human history, I actually had a reasonably good experience of high school. It was not without struggle of course – my first heartbreak comes to mind, as does the related memory of its soundtrack, John Mayer’s breakup album Continuum . Despite this, the very thought of going to the reunion filled me with dread. I had not attended the five-year reunion, having successfully convinced myself that “I still see all the people I want to see.” As we arrived at the 10-year mark, however, I had to face the facts: this was no longer the case. Most catch-ups now require…

A few things sparked Adelaide/Tarntanya photographer Bri Hammond’s new still-life photo series, Object Permanence . First off, she has a young son who, like most toddlers, tends to accumulate leaves, rocks and other small bits and bobs throughout the day. “From when he was really young, he would hand it to me and I would just take a phone photo of the thing in my hand, just to document it,” Bri says. Secondly, an audiobook Bri had been listening to, The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did), prompted her to reflect on her childhood experiences – good and bad. “Whatever age your child is, they are liable to remind you, on a bodily level, of the emotions you went through…

Tell us a little bit about your business, Calypso Studios. Calypso Studios is a small, family-owned business dedicated to creating one-of-a-kind pieces inspired by history, all while keeping them affordable for the next generation of jewellery enthusiasts. Why did you decide to start sourcing vintage watches? Collecting vintage has always been a passion of ours – from jewellery and watches to clothing and home decor. Our first few drops of watches featured dozens of pieces from our own personal collection that we decided to share with others. How do you source and restore the pieces? While we can’t share all the details, we can say that many of our pieces are thoughtfully reworked, as they often arrive with missing gems, stones, pearls and other elements. We frequently update the bands…

What’s the history of your house? The house was built in 1959 and we (my Duncan and I) are the third owners. I feel like the first owners would have designed and built it in a real 1950s style, and then the second owners came along and tried to change all that to fit the 1980s. So by the time we got it, it still had its 1950s bones and the original bathroom as well. It’s quite a small house, but it’s big enough for us. We’ve got an amazing view over the landscape, and love watching the birdlife flying by – galahs, cockatoos, kookaburras, all sorts. How did you find the house? I never thought that I’d be able to buy a house, but we got lucky. I was…

Tell us about yourself and your interest in libraries. I have a two-pronged career: memoirist and travel writer. Like all writers, I’d wager, I hold a great reverence for libraries. When I was a child, my mum used to take me and my sisters to our local public library once a week, and we’d sit for hours in the stacks, happy as clams. It was the only place we ever went where we could take as much as we wanted of whatever we wanted. For a child, that’s like being told you’re a millionaire. What made you want to write a book like Hidden Libraries? There’s something so tantalising about the idea of a rack of knowledge just sitting out there, that only a rare few souls have ever accessed. What…

She was one of the most influential, brilliant creators of the 20th century, and she’s one of my heroes – but in Australia, when I ask someone if they know about her, they’ll more often than not respond to my question with a confused stare. Let me introduce you to Finnish writer, artist and queer icon Tove Jansson – the mastermind behind The Moomins who, throughout her 70-year career, defied social norms and created magical worlds brimming with beauty and wonder. Tove’s children’s stories champion chosen families, love and nature, while her fiction for adults is wise and eccentric. And, truth be told, I have a bit of a crush on her. Tove was born in 1914 in Helsinki to a couple of artsy bohemians. Her dad Viktor was a…

We all have that tin of food languishing at the back of our pantry – the one we don’t remember ever buying but somehow has moved houses with us multiple times… Whether it’s a tin of baked beans or sliced beetroot in the darkest corner of your cupboard, it’s time to crack it open. As someone who literally just read a supermarket brochure like it was a key year 12 literature text, times are tough financially – to put it lightly! Dining out? Unless it’s a table and chair in the middle aisle of Aldi, forget about it! Takeaway? Only if I get enough for leftovers for the next three days minimum. At the moment it’s impossible to leave the house and not spend $35 even if you’re just checking…

In late September, 2024, I set out with a small media team to document slow food and slow travel over a 10-day trip. Equipped with Eurail passes, we took the train across Greece, winding our way through the area my family is from near Thessaloniki, and through Bulgaria. These are some of our trip standouts. ATHENS On our first night in Athens, we met at Akra, a restaurant in Pagrati that uses traditional cooking techniques in contemporary Greek dishes. Their hot dishes are all cooked to order over charcoal, and they use traditional copper cookware to do so. We sat at the chef’s table in front of an open kitchen and watched the chefs grill pork steaks to order, but also items like eggplants and fresh green beans. For each…

By Samantha Allemann – I’ve long been obsessed with music and was introduced to Melbourne/ Naarm’s music scene pretty early on. In Year 6, my friend Catherine made me a mixtape. On it was a weird song called “Greg! The Stop Sign!!” by an even weirder band, TISM. Thanks to its “Ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba” intro, references to cocaine and football and real estate agents, and a super-catchy chorus, I was hooked. Fast forward a decade. I was bored at home and my options were to stay in and stare at the wall (pre-smartphone era), or mope around the city and see if I bumped into someone I knew. I chose the moping. What can I say – The Catcher in the Rye was my favourite book, so I was big…

Lani 27, LESBIAN, SHE/HER I was about 13 when I realised that I liked girls the same way that my friends liked boys. I had a mega-crush on one of my friends, and I was so hard on myself for it. I would walk to school crying because I was so upset with myself for “not being normal”. I remember there was a queer woman on the competitive singing show my family was watching at the time and my family reacted so poorly to her – it made me feel even worse about myself, like I was shameful. I semi-came out when I was about 16 and it did not go well. I didn’t really speak about it again until I finished high school, when I came out as a…

I’m a palaeontologist, which means I study fossils. If you’re wondering whether I dig up dinosaurs, yes, I do. And yes, it’s as cool as it sounds. Last year, I got to spend about four weeks in Canada on a dig. I actually discovered an almost-complete dinosaur skeleton on that trip. It was incredible. If I’d found that in Australia, it would immediately become the best-preserved dinosaur that we have in the country. But in Canada, which is practically brimming with dinosaur fossils, they were just like, “Oh, well, it’s missing some bones, and, you know, it’s kind of high up and would be hard to excavate… And we’ve got six already that are better preserved, so we’re just going to leave it here.” I can’t complain, though. I think…

A Bubble O’Bill and a bag of racing cars? A blue-heaven milkshake and a Melody Pop? What did you make a beeline for when you pulled aside the dangling rainbow plastic strips of the milk bar entrance? For milk bar aficionado Eamon Donnelly, it was the pastel sherbet-covered balls known as Fizzoes, a handful of spearmint leaves and maybe even teeth-cracking eucalyptus drops. The milk bar: a colourful, shining beacon of incredible signage and mountains of sugar on a random suburban street that holds a special place in the hearts of many people who grew up in Australia. But for Eamon, the milk bar is more than a fond memory… it’s a calling. He’s literally written the book on it – two, in fact. His latest tome, The Milk Bars…

“if we can better create a space where everybody feels like they belong, we won’t have to relieve all of the negative things that might then happen – we can prevent it from starting.” The work I do focuses on the education system, but education doesn’t just mean school. It’s so much more than that. We need to continue learning about ourselves and the people around us. I am South Sudanese but was born in Egypt, where my parents migrated because of the civil unrest in Sudan at the time. Just before I turned eight, my family and I moved to Australia. My uncle was living in Brisbane and he sponsored us to come over. I had no clue that Australia even existed. The only thing that our father told…

VACUUMING I’ve made a lot of poor decisions in my life but spending a stupid amount of money on a Dyson sure as hell isn’t one of them! I love my Dyson. I would marry my Dyson. I have a profound respect and quiet reverence for my Dyson. They are not sponsoring this piece, but in a way, they sponsor my heart. I jumped at the chance to vacuum for this road test: I vacuumed the house, my car, the couches and anything I could justify sucking up. While using it, I wished I had more filth surrounding me. Would it be odd to harass my neighbours to see if they need their floors cleaned? In another life I’d be a door-to-door salesman hysterically demonstrating how this bad boy can…

FAVOURITE MUSICAL ARTIST Nicki Minaj. Every time my sister calls me, we get stuck in this infinite loop of just rapping Nicki lyrics, and then we don’t actually talk about whatever it was that we called to talk about, because we’re Barbz. Also, my cat is named Barb. Nicki Minaj is ever-present. FAVOURITE SONG “Hide and Seek” by Imogen Heap. We had The OC soundtrack CDs, and I remember sitting on the carpet – I would have probably been eight years old – playing that song on repeat, and when it was done, rewinding it again and trying to wrap my head around how she was singing all these different notes at one time. That was the beginning of my obsession with using vocals as an instrument. FAVOURITE MOVIE Charlie’s Angels…

The artistic style ‘still life’ conjures images of oil-painted bowls of fruit, hefty vases, violins and maybe a sprig or two of greenery. But it doesn’t have to be this way! Melbourne/Naarm artist Alice Oehr, whose botanical work is featured on our cover, creates tactile and digital still-life works that are actually fun to look at – and fun to create. She’s got a bunch of beginner-friendly tips for folks who want to give the traditional art style a crack in a non-traditional way. TAKE PHOTOS, MAKE NOTES Get out and about to find inspiration for your piece. One place that always gets Alice’s creative juices flowing is the market. “I love all the colour and energy and vibrancy,” she says. “The other thing I love about the market is…

Regardless of whether you loved or hated maths at school, we’re willing to bet that you don’t associate the dreaded (adored?) subject with the botanical world. But for Melbourne/Naarm artist Yuria Okamura, the stories hidden within natural geometry are front of mind. Yuria has always loved observing and engaging with nature, but it was during her art studies at university that she became fascinated with geometry. She spent several years examining and sketching geometric forms, and now combines them with nature through drawings, paintings, installations, ceramics and even jewellery. “Fibonacci patterns – those kinds of mathematical patterns – are often found in nature. Even though you think of nature as having only organic forms, there’s a lot of geometry that’s embedded in the organic forms,” she explains. In Yuria’s birth…

As a kid, few things rivalled the pure joy of a picnic. They usually involved friends, there was almost always a treat, and eating while rolling around on the grass or between cartwheels was accepted – nay, encouraged – by tired, often slightly tipsy adult applause. My favourite picnic experience was on my fifth birthday, which involved a picnic in a (no longer active) volcano, an impromptu sit atop a horse (thanks to the kindly horse rider passing by), cake and presents galore. When I grew tired and grouchy, I was sent to the car for a little post-picnic snooze while the adults packed up. Life was good. But picnics have been on a slow decline ever since. While early-adulthood gatherings had their charm – long boozy lunches and leisurely…