ETERNAL FLAME

Anieszka was inspired to create her felt candles for her twins, Poppy and Sage, to have a safe flame to play with. The wood was found on a beach near their home in Karekare and the flames are needle-felted Ashford wool.

Being creative allows Anieszka Banks to feel most like herself. Whether that’s painstakingly adding tiny wax flowers to candles or carving tiny wooden mushrooms, she says, “It feels like mine and it feels like home.”

At university in Brighton, the English artist specialised in illustration, which led to a flood of freelance commissions that allowed her to travel around Europe and eventually settle down in Auckland, New Zealand. Now she’s started a business, Poppy and Sage, from her house in