If you frequent Orsini Fine Jewellery, you may have noticed Beloved, a vibrant piece of textile artwork adorning its front window. What you may not be aware of is that the creator also works in the store, and created this piece from recycled street banners.
Meet Frankie Meaden, a.k.a. Beautifully Frank, member of the Orsini team and exhibiting textile artist. Her role at Orsini is mainly carried out behind the scenes, managing the boutique’s social media, website and packages. When she’s not working for Orsini, she’s busy creating her signature woven artworks.
This intersection between art and sustainability has been growing for the past couple of years. “I love creating art that isn’t just about aesthetics,” she explains. “It’s a tool to transform waste materials like recycled plastic rope and street flags into something that celebrates the wonder of colour and joy.”
In 2022, Heart of the City commissioned Frankie to create a 9m embroidered canopy to suspend in the Auckland CBD. Frankie knew she wanted to experiment with large-scale recycled materials, and developed her now-iconic process of upcycling street banners into fabric strips and weaving them together. The result of this process was ‘Flourishing’, vibrant, tactile, oversized floral embroidery.
Since then, Frankie has exhibited across Aotearoa and the United States, showcasing her signature woven flowers in all shapes and sizes. Her art process is also deeply connected to Parnell—our old street banners are a staple of her pieces.
The street pole flags that used to hang in Parnell have featured in every single artwork that I’ve created so far, as they are a lovely green and make up a good portion of the leaves in my floral style.
You can find Frankie’s art online at beautifullyfrank.com; at her upcoming exhibition in Turua Gallery, St Heliers; or at Orsini Fine Jewellery.
