Weaving Stories in Thread - Sustainable Eco Business Surface Design Collaboration

Charlotte Wensley
9 minutes ago
5 min read

I'm so thrilled to be working with Nakie on a new collection of surface designs for their best selling outdoor products and to be called 'An Artist Of Nakie'!

Person wrapped in a colorful patchwork quilt sits on a rock in a forest. Bright hues of orange and blue; tranquil setting. Text: @nakieco.

'The Artists of Nakie Program brings together talented artists who share our passion for the outdoors, using Nakie products as their canvas to express their creativity.'

Nakie is an Australian outdoor brand redefining what it means to adventure responsibly. Best known for their hammocks, towels and picnic rugs, Nakie creates durable, beautifully designed outdoor gear made from recycled plastic bottles. Every product is an invitation to slow down, head outside, and reconnect—with nature and with each other—while treading lightly on the planet.

Sustainability sits at the heart of Nakie’s process. By transforming post-consumer waste - plastic bottles, into high-performance fabrics, they divert plastic from landfill and waterways, giving discarded materials a second life in the outdoors.

For Nakie, good design isn’t just about form and function, it’s about accountability and making a positive long-term impact on the planet.

Beyond materials, Nakie is deeply committed to regeneration.

Blonde person relaxing in a vibrant green hammock by a lake, with a cloudy sky. Text "@nakieco" visible in the corner.

Through partnerships with global tree-planting initiatives, every Nakie product sold helps fund the planting of trees in regions affected by deforestation. This tangible action turns everyday moments like lounging in a hammock or gathering on a picnic rug, into part of a larger story about slowing down, coming together and being present with people and place.

A woman holds a colorful, patterned towel by a lake. The towel shows abstract designs in orange, blue, and pink. Text "@nakieco" visible.

Nakie products are a canvas where art, sustainability and outdoor living intersect, proof that thoughtful design can be both beautiful and beneficial, leaving a lighter footprint on the planet whilst celebrating the landscapes that inspire us.

This collaboration is grounded in a shared belief that design can tell stories of place and connection. My paintings draw from the rhythms of the natural world with organic forms and layered textures reflecting landscapes not as they are seen, but as they are experienced.

Smiling woman wrapped in a colorful quilt with abstract patterns, sitting on a rock in a forest. Text reads "@nakieco".

Working with Nakie allows these visual narratives to be woven in thread and live beyond the studio. My work is transported into the outdoors where art can become part of a slower, more mindful way of being in nature and encourage conversations about our connectedness to the natural world.

Part of being a Nakie artist is having a little profile up on their website with a few Q &A's!

| Tell us a bit about yourself, your hobbies, your passions.

I’m an abstract mixed media artist based in Noosa, creating bold and vibrant nature-inspired paintings. My work explores themes of impermanence, vulnerability, and the quiet tension between fragility and resilience—drawing on both human experience and the ever-changing rhythms of the natural world.

Global wanderings have shaped my visual language, infusing it with a love of rich colour, layered texture, ornamental detail, and contrast. I'm always searching for that in-between, dreamlike space—where impressions of light, shape, and shadow meet memory and emotion.

Outside the studio, I find joy and inspiration hiking through national parks, beachcombing, and immersing myself in wild landscapes. These experiences allow me to reflect on and connect with a diversity of human narratives and the stories we carry—ideas that are never far from my mind as I paint.

A woman lies on a colorful geometric-patterned mat on grass, eyes closed. Text: "CHARLOTTE COLLECTION" and "designed by Charlotte Wensley."

| Tell us about this design you made for Nakie.

These pieces are part of my ongoing abstract landscape work, inspired by the shapes, patterns, and feelings that linger after time spent in nature—like echoes of mountain-scapes, flowing rivers, or tropical flora. These paintings are less about representing a specific place and more about capturing the mood, movement, and light that stay with you.

I’m innately drawn to rhythm and pattern—in the natural world, in daily life, and in my creative process. These designs reflect that search as I try to walk the line between referencing the natural world and expressing how we, as humans, experience and respond to it.

| What inspires you to create your Art?

Nature is my biggest inspiration—especially wild, untamed places where life quietly thrives. But it’s often the small, easily overlooked things that spark something in me too: a falling leaf, a twisted stick, the shape of a pebble. My imagination takes these notions further into more complex stories about human experience. Making art is my way of paying attention to these quiet details and the subtle stories unfolding around us every day and translating them into something visual and tangible, and something felt.

| Describe your ultimate adventure.

My dream adventure would be to ditch the keys, live out of a backpack, and go for a great big wander through remote, less-travelled places. I have a real love for mountain hiking and trekking, so my adventure would definitely involve long days on high trails, exploring the land and camping in the wilderness.

No schedule, no rush - just the freedom to follow whatever path calls, with plenty of time and space to let thoughts meander. There’s something meditative about putting one foot in front of the other, especially when you do it for days or weeks at a time. It’s the kind of journey that feeds both the body and the creative mind.

| If you were stuck on a deserted island, which Nakie product would you bring?

Assuming I’ve been abandoned on a cold rocky island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean it would definitely the puffy blanket, my most favourite thing in the world is to be toasty warm! If it was a Caribbean island, it would be a different story, the hammock would be top of my list - nothing beats whiling away an afternoon swaying beneath a couple of palm trees.

| Final Thoughts

Inspired by nature’s quiet rhythms, this collaboration brings my surface designs into Nakie’s sustainable outdoor pieces—where art, function and care for the planet align.

Check out my collection at Nakie here:

Shop my Nakie Collection