Star Trek

This weekend I went to the Star Trek Las Vegas convention - it was amazing! There was so much to see and so many wonderful people to meet. The highlight for me was taking part in the Star Trek themed craft swap: I prepared some vintage-looking Starfleet photo cards and did quick sketches of other crafters as my trade. Here are some examples - it was wonderful to sketch the costumes and smiling faces…

The first event we went to was a War of the Worlds reading with all sorts of incredible actors. They had adapted the script to be more Star Trek!

There were all kinds of interesting panels with guest speakers, like the one and only William Shatner…

…and this one with the two Daxes from Deep Space Nine - I love Jadzia!

It was a special anniversary of the Voyager series, so for the first time in a long time, the whole cast was present for several panel discussions. Awesome.

It was also great to see the camaraderie of the current Star Trek crew - Strange New Worlds, although the captain wasn’t there.

Las Vegas itself is always mesmerising, I love the neon and the over-the-top everything.

By accident we stumbled upon a James Turrell installation above one of the shopping malls. It was quietly beautiful.

And seeing the desert always reminds me how lucky I am to live and travel to strange new places in this wonderful world of ours.

daily constitutionals

Every day, I try to go for a walk, or ‘daily constitutional’, and really look at the world around me, wherever I am. Right now I’m at home in the Bay Area, so what I see are beautiful gardens, seasonal flowers and incredibly vibrant blue California skies…

birthday week

It was my birthday last week and I had a wonderful time. I love birthdays! I like to make the celebrations last for as long as possible…

As a birthday treat I went to see the Wayne Thiebaud exhibition at the Legion of Honor museum in San Francisco. I especially enjoyed seeing his cake paintings up close.

I enjoyed several very special meals with friends…

…and had my birthday picnic in the park. Hurrah for cake!

Thank you to everyone who sent me best wishes, cards, gifts, flowers and cakes. I feel very lucky indeed.

Wimbledon sketches

I love watching the tennis, especially Wimbledon. To me if feels like the real beginning of the Summer Holidays, the time when I was supposed to be revising for end of year exams. I love the ‘thwock’ sound of the balls and the green of the courts.

This year I watched the tournament every day of the 2 weeks, keeping it on in the background as I worked. For once jet lag worked in my favour and I was able to watch many matches live at 4 am in California, when it was the afternoon in England.

These are some of the sketches I made during the final match between Alcaraz and Sinner. Sketching helps me focus and I enjoyed trying to catch some of their movements.

I’ll watch the US Open in August, but really I’m just waiting for next June, when Wimbledon comes round again…

award season

I’m so excited that two of my projects have been acknowledged by big illustration institutions. The first is my new green and gold Hong Kong Toile ceramic collection - the platter has been given a Merit Award in the 3 x 3 Annual in the surface design category.

The platter, as well as the other items in the collection, is available to purchase directly from faux in Hong Kong.

And my Rosewood Willow Pattern ceramic collection, designed exclusively for the Rosewood Hotel in HK has been longlisted in the World Illustration Awards in the UK, in the ‘design product and packaging’ category.

The collection is made of a set of small ceramic candle holders, and a set of 3-D coasters. I’d love the project to go through all the way to win an award, so fingers crossed!

These items are available to purchase from Rosewood in HK.

'Cats vs Dogs' show in San Francisco

My little Cat + Jug etching is currently up in Fayes Gallery in the Mission in San Francisco as part of their Cats vs Dogs exhibition.

I love taking part in group shows, and this one is particularly fun!

Hope you can pop in if you’re in the area. It’s up until August 10th.

whistle workshop

While I was in the UK, by chance I was able to attend a whistle-making workshop by the wonderful Emma Carlow. I’ve admired her whistles for ages and couldn’t believe I would get the chance to make one of my own!

*that’s me at the table behind Emma!

We made two whistles, learning how to make the hollow body and blowing attachment and then shaping the whistles into birds, and finally painting them.

I made long birds, and now wish I had added legs! The whistles were left with Emma for firing, and I can’t wait to see how they turn out.

I spent a little time wandering around the pretty town of Lewes while I was there, it was a perfect Summer day!

If you get a chance to do one of Emma’s workshops, I would 100% recommend.

Paris

This week I spent 3 days in Paris. I realised I haven’t actually been for over 10 years, which is ridiculous as it’s so easy to get to from London. I met my friend Aude and we visited a few exhibitions together and relaxed and walked everywhere. This is a picture of the installation by Celeste Boursier-Mougenot at the Bourse De Commerce. It was stunning. We went at the end of the day and captured a few moments of stillness when there were no other visitors.

I did some sketching with pens and colour pencils, capturing fleeting views from cafes in the heat.

And of course there were lots of delightful meals. This dessert is called a religieuse, 2 choux pastries filled with ganache. Sublime. The icecream is from the hipster bar/icecream parlour Folderol. It was mugicha flavour and very refreshing.

We visited several art shops, which felt somehow historical, and I treated myself to this lovely little watercolour palette from Charvin. I was able to switch out 6 of the colours to make this unusual collection.

I tried to do quick sketches, without worrying too much about detail, as a sort of drawing practice…

We went to see the newly rebuilt Notre Dame Cathedral. I love that Parisians just sit outside, on benches or outside cafes, casually chatting with each other for hours and hours in the warm Summer weather. We sat, looked at the light changing on the cathedral, and sketched.

There were so many iconic views of Paris wherever I looked. It truly is a beautiful city, and I already can’t wait to go back.

East Sussex

Last week I went with my parents on a mini-holiday to East Sussex. It was the perfect Summer weather, sunny but not too hot, and the countryside was lush and green everywhere.

We stayed in a delightful place called the Grain Store, near Lewes, which was modern and spacious and had spectacular views across the South Downs National Park.

We visited the coast and ate fish and chips, and shared them with the seagulls.

I did a sketch of the unusually turquoise sea!

The most beautiful moments were walking along the South Downs Way. I was absolutely stunned by the beauty of the rolling hills and waving grasses. I want to come back and walk more of it…

On the way back we stopped in at Monk’s House, which used to be Virginia Wolff’s country house, and is now run by the National Trust. It was delightful, and wonderful to see her little wooden studio in the garden where she wrote most of her famous works.

It’s not far from where my parents live, but felt like a real holiday away.

COPE in Geneva

In celebration of World Environment Day, COPE Disaster Champions officially launched its newest book in back-to-back events at the 8th Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction on June 5th. Here is the COPE team on the stand in Geneva with our book!

The main message of the book is ACT NOW FOR TOMORROW, which encourages children (and adults) to take small, meaningful steps that could help slow down climate change and build resilience for the future.  

Below is the COPE stand at the GP2025 and also Martha Keswick speaking on the Ignite Stage about all the COPE books.

The book was developed in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organization, UNDRR, the Oxford University, and with contributions from global experts and young people — including UNICEF East Asia and Pacific’s Youth Action Team.

I was extremely proud to be at the presentation of the Climate Change book at the WMO head office, and to meet Professor Saulo, the Secretary General of the WMO. What an inspiring lady!

We also gave a presentation of the Climate Change book and all the previous COPE books alongside the WMO and Save the Children.

I sketched while we presented, and also when we watched everyone else presenting. It was incredibly informative and moving.

You can see more photos from all the events COPE attended here.

I even managed to have a few hours to explore the city a little, and had lunch at this lovely little cafe in the park.

It was a wonderful, inspirational visit, and I can’t wait to see what COPE does next!

London

I’ve just arrived in England, the sun is out and summer is here and my parents’ garden is in full bloom…

waterbirds

I love birds, and I especially love drawing them. We often go for walks along the Bay Shore here in San Francisco and there are so many wonderful waterbirds to spot, and they occasionally find their way into the things I make…

I’m not a bird-spotter (yet) so I don’t know their names on sight, but I try to record the birds I see.

This is a bookmark with waterbirds that I donated to the Bookmark Project this year, that raised money for charity. I just found out that they bid on it themselves to keep it in their permanent archive!

weekend by the beach

We spent the weekend just north of San Francisco in the beautiful little town of Stinson Beach. I managed one sketch, but mostly spent the time relaxing…

Limantour Beach

We found a tiny little place to stay, with a cozy seaside vibe. We could hear the waves in the nighttime.

I love the sand dunes and the way the light dances on the shifting sands at different times of day.

We ate breakfast on the beach, watching the waves, and wandered along the water’s edge at sunset.

In Bolinas Lagoon there were seals playing in the morning, and in the evening they all bundled up together for a nap!

Staying so close to the beach meant we could just pop there whenever we felt like it, and I loved seeing the moon rise over the dunes…

Met Gala sketches

I always enjoy the red (this year blue) carpet moments for big celebrity events, and this year’s Met Gala was super fun.

The theme was Superfine: Tailoring Black Style and it was great to see really over the top men’s fashion for a change.

The hosts were fun to watch, I especially liked Teyana Taylor’s look in red.

I sketched my way through the whole event, trying to capture as many outfits as possible.

Some were ridiculous (Demi Moore as a tie) and most were glamorous.

Can’t wait for next year!

nails

I got my nails done twice in Hong Kong, a wonderful extravagance! I love having nails that are interpretations of my own work.

I took this mokuhanga print I made in to the wonderful Alian at NailUps and she created this green and pink design for me.

Before I went to Japan I asked for a pink sakura design, taken from my Japan Toile ceramic collection, and she created a silver and pink wonder.

Alian paints everything by hand with the finest paintbrushes you can imagine, it’s truly like magic. I’m already thinking of what I’d like for next time…

Hong Kong trip II

I stopped in Hong Kong for a few days before heading home to California; a few more meetings, a few more ceramic samples checks, and a few more nice meals with friends. I walked everywhere, and even managed a wander through the botanical gardens, where I sketched some of the birds.

Meals in HK are always a treat, and I try to go to few new places every visit, to try a few new dishes, as well as my favourites…

I checked in on the progress of my new ceramics. I’m loving the green and gold of the new Hong Kong Toile collection.

Hong Kong at night always shines: I love the lights, the neon and just strolling around soaking it all in…

Star Wars Celebration

Part of our trip to Japan was reserved for Star Wars Celebration, the huge convention, held every couple of years for fans. We got tickets for it way before we even booked our flights. There was was just so much to see, and over 100,000 people there, it was incredible.

I sketched in the panels we went to, and even managed to sketch some of the cosplayers. I traded my sketches for merch: apparently trading like this is a tradition at Star Wars Celebration.

The cosplay was next level - some of the costumes were exact replicas, but I loved the ones that took Star Wars and mashed that up with Japanese influence, or their own fun versions. Everyone was there to see and be seen, and so happy to pose for photographs.

I especially loved the little miniatures display of artwork by Tanaka Tatsuya, making dioramas of Star Wars using everyday objects.

We watched animations, saw Anthony Daniels and caught a glimpse of Hayden Christiansen. We bought all sorts of Grogu merch, ate Chewbacca-styled yakisoba and I actually learned alot of Star Wars culture and history I didn’t know. We would definately do this again!

Kamakura

This week we spent a few days exploring Kamakura. It’s such a beautiful town, although the sheer number of visitors, both local and international, was a bit overwhelming. We did manage to find a few quieter spots, which was lovely. The first was in the grounds of the Hachimangu temple, where the peonies were in perfect bloom. I sketched some of the incredible flowers…

Each peony bush was protected from the sun by a paper parasol, and with the backdrop of perfectly blossoming sakura trees it was like a dream.

We also visited Sugimoto temple, the oldest in Kamakura. It has lovely mossy steps and a quiet atmosphere. I loved the designs of the paper labels on the insides of the structures - signs of visitors long past.

The cherry blossom was blooming at its peak, and we walked along the longest avenue of sakura I have ever seen.

And no visit to Kamakura is complete with seeing the big buddha at Kotoku-in. We made it all the way there, but couldn’t face the sheer number of tourists, so we said hello through the gate, and decided to walk along the beach instead…

It was a lovely visit, and I especially enjoying going on both the old-fashioned Enoden train line, and the retro-futuristic monorail!

Hayama

We just spent the week in the most beautiful house we’ve ever stayed in. We have been living in Hayama, next to Kamakura, south of Tokyo, and I enjoyed it thoroughly: it’s relaxed, friendly, and somehow cosy. I set up this area to draw in, and was super productive. I’d love my own studio to be like this one day!

Every room in the house was thoughtfully designed, preserved and made comfortable. I truly didn’t want to leave… If you ever feel like spending some time in Hayama, I recommend it! You can book directly with them here.

We walked along the beach and coast in various places at different times of the day, and it was always stunning. Even in the rain.

We went out for many delicious local meals…

…and we drove further down the coast to Miura, and visited the dramatic Jogashima coastline. The geology is so wonderful, I wish I knew more about it! So much to discover all the time in Japan.

sakura season

I’ve been in Japan for a week and wherever we go, have been loving seeing the sakura burst into bloom. There are so many kinds, in all different tones of white to pink, and even on the rainiest day, looking at cherry blossoms makes me feel lucky to be alive.