Hong Kong part I

I’ve just spent a week in Hong Kong, enjoying the temperate weather (for a change) and getting lots of meetings in. I always walk around the city and see my products in store, and this time I even caught my HK toile teapot in use in someone’s home…

My favourite views in HK are looking down across the city, and looking out from the Star Ferry…

As usual, I managed to fit in lots of wonderful meals - dim sum, the newly Michelin star bib-gourmanded black sesame icecream, and some fusion HK local treats.

I visited the shiny new HK Stadium, which looks like an alien spaceship!

…and was absolutely fascinated by the replica Kowloon Walled City exhibited at the new Airside Mall.

I love HK at night, it has some sort of magic. I’ll be back again soon…

craft night sketching

Last weekend I went to a wonderful craft night at someone’s house and spent the evening sketching and chatting.

It’s always relaxing to draw with no purpose in mind, just looking and creating randomly. It’s like stretching muscles that have not been used for a while.

I really should sketch more! When I travel it’s so easy, seeing new and interesting things everyday, but when I’m working at home, I need to make the time. 2025 goals.

wine region maps

The exclusive members wine club 67 Pall Mall recently launched their newest book ‘Wine & the Food of Asia’. The book explores how you can pair wines with Asian cuisine, and I created illustrated maps for each of the chapters.

I worked with the book’s designer Lawrence Morton to devise a layout where I could show the countries in the map in each chapter, with featured cities, and also illustrate some of the foods representative of those places.

It is a beautiful hefty book, full of gorgeous photographs, as well as my maps.

I thoroughly enjoyed researching the foods from all these countries, and illustrating in a loose drawn style to capture the flavours of dishes and ingredients as much as possible.

Working around the gutter of the book was a challenge, as I had to keep anything important out of the middle of the map. I really enjoyed creating the pattern of the sea that is all hand painted in watercolour!

As well as ingredients and finished dishes, I researched the tools and equipment used in Asian cooking, and had fun playing with the shapes and textures of these objects.

I also subtly reflected each region in the border design I made for each map. I researched local textiles and ceramics to come up with a pattern that would be representative but not too specific.

The first maps I created had lines around the country borders to give more definition, and darker colours on the backgrounds of each country, but these were eventually removed to make the maps more minimal. Here’s the original Japan/Korea map with darker colours.

I hope the book is a success! I loved making these maps.

Singapore Toile Collection

I designed a brand new Toile Collection exclusively for inside, a boutique in Hong Kong and Singapore and it’s available in stores now.

Currently there is a teapot, teacups and saucers, Chinese teacups, mugs and teatowels, with more items in the future…

I created the design to feel tropical and urban, classical and modern, just like Singapore. I used colours inspired by traditional Singapore shophouses.

The design features local buildings, wildlife and tasty treats. I think it’s the prefct gift for anyone who has lived in or visited this wonderful city!

theatre sketches

We went to see the play Cuckoo Edible Magic yesterday and had an incredible time. I laughed so much I absolutely loved it!

It’s always tricky to draw in the dark, but I give it a go and hopefully capture something of the actors’ movements and characteristics…

sketching the Grammys

I watched the Grammys last week, and absolutely loved seeing all the delightful outfits everyone wore. I did as many super quick sketches as I could.

The simplicity of the little drawings reminds me always that every time I draw it’s great practice. Especially drawing people.

Can you spot anyone you recognise?

Happy Lunar New Year!

It’s the Year of the Snake and I really hope it will be a good one. Keep up the hard work, and we can make the world a little better for everyone.

I made this for the Keswick Foundation charity in Hong Kong. Only one more to do for them and they will have the full set of 12 animals!

Hong Kong LEI article

I met with the online Japanese-language magazine Hong Kong LEI when I was in HK last, and we had a great conversation about my work and my history with HK. I invited them to the faux showroom where they took some lovely photos. Here’s the full article in Japanese, and if you read it here in Chrome, it will translate to English. Enjoy!

window painting

I was commissioned to create a temporary painted window for The Lovely Clinic in Knightsbridge, while their renovations are happening.

I created a window design with a hand-drawn version of their logo and name, with an illustration of one of their laser machines. I added sparkles and wording and a little cheeky speech bubble.

I drew the design in black line first, doing all the lettering backwards, as I worked on the inside of the window.

I then painted from the front to the back, layering the colours to create as even and flat a layer of colour as I could.

The clinic will have its shutters down behind the window while they are renovating, so my painting will serve as a notice of what’s opening soon.

If you happen to walk past, let me know what you think, and do send a photo!

London

It has been an extremely chilly and frosty start to the year in London. I don’t remember it ever going down to -5C here before. I’ve been trying to capture some of the beautiful frost, lining all the vegetation in the mornings…

Getting up close you can really see the ice crystals forming over the different textures.

The garden is bare at this time of year, but the frost does make it seem sort of magical.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone’s year is starting out well! I’ve just come back from Brussels where I visited my friend Aude and spent the weekend working in her studio on a Mokuhanga Sisters project.

All 9 of us in the group worked in our own timezones across 6 countries over the weekend to carve a snake/moon image and print an editon of 25 postcard-sized prints.

I started by sketching a variety of snakes, then decided to create a snake and moon vase, working out if it should be a red vase on white, or a white vase on red.

I added some floral elements into the design, and then simplified it as much as possible to be able to carve it in one day.

I carved 2 blocks, the gold highlight block, which I printed first, and the red vase block.

All of us used the same red sumi ink from Nara, so that all our prints would match. We could add one extra colour, so I added an ochrey gold to the moon and added some gold shading inside the vase and in the pattern of the snake.

I printed the edition of 25 cards, and will add my chop when everything is properly dry!

It was a great experiment, and fun to know that the other Sisters were also printing, all around the world.

London Christmas

I’ve been in London this week, visiting family, celebrating Christmas, and even managing some sightseeing in town. I do love looking at the Christmas decorations and lights all over the city…

Happy Christmas!

Wishing you all a very wonderful holiday season with family and friends!

I based this little robin on the two who live in my parents’ garden. They each have their own corner, and would visit to say hello when I was staying in London over the summer. I tried to capture their little hopping motions and the way they suddenly switch from facing left to right. They’re friendly and so curious about everything…

ceramic products in HK

There is a wonderful feature about my ceramics in HK based Japanese language lifestyle magazine Hong Kong LEI this week. The editor and writer visited the faux showroom while I was in HK and we had a long chat. A full interview with me will be published in the new year.

The article is written in Japanese, but your browser can translate it to English (as above).

Hong Kong Toile nails

While I was in HK last week, I went to my lovely nail lady who painted these delightful patterns based on my newest HKtoile design.

She is really a marvel! We work together to decide which part of the pattern should go on which nail, but she is the one who replicates my lines at such tiny scale!

It’s always a lovely treat to get my nails done in HK…

New York Times article

A journalist for the New York Times contacted me a while ago, to ask if she could interview me for a pice she was writing about custom art. She had received a wedding favour at a friend’s wedding that was a ceramic cup with one of my customised designs on it, and had always remembered it.

It’s just a little quote, but it gave me thrill to be featured in the New York Times! They showed this pretty wedding illustration that I was commissioned to create…

These are the original cups that the journalist remembered, for a client of mine who got married in Hong Kong…

And this is a one-off piece that I was commissioned to create for my friends Ming and Wah. I spoke about it at length, but it was cut from the interview! It shows each of their families, and hobbies, and the things that they like. It’a based on a famous 1930’s Chinese advertising poster.

I love making these custom pieces, and do feel they are an ultra special gift for someone you love.

mokuhanga exhibition in Japan

I was invited by the artist Erico Fujita to participate in a group project with Narushima Washi, who wanted to promote their Japanese paper. Each artist was asked to create any sort of artwork with their paper, with the results to be shown in a large group exhibition.

The works are all currently on show in Hanamaki City Culture Hall, in Iwate, Japan.

I created a variable edition of mokuhanga prints - an edition of 12, with each of the flowers having a different pattern or colour. I sent 4 to be shown in the exhibition. I really wanted to showcase the paper itself, so I left a lot of negative space around the flower.

It has been wonderful to see photos of people visiting the shows, and I enjoyed taking part in a presentation with some of the artists via zoom.

There are so many different types of artworks, I wish I could’ve visited the show in person to take a look.

This is the poster for the project which lists all the participating artists.

It’s always lovely to see my work in a new context. Do let me know if you make it to the show!

a San Francisco saturday

We had a lovely day in San Francisco today, starting with a delightful brunch tasting menu at the now Michelin star restaurant Hilda and Jesse in North Beach. Each course was a feast for the eyes, as well as the tastebuds. Somehow if the colours around you as you eat are pleasing, everything is just so much better.

We then went to see the group show at STUDIO Gallery SF, where I had some prints. Both the prints that I had framed on the wall had been sold, but they’ll replace them with my peony mokuhanga print so fingers crossed that sells too.

From there we walked upto the top of Russian Hill to see the incredible view across the bay towards the Coit Tower. The sky is just so unbelievably blue in California, I still can’t get over it sometimes.

We walked some more and then drove home through the city, stopping off to get a pastry for later. What a very satisfying day.

SF Botanical Gardens

I spent a lovely morning in the San Francisco Botanical Gardens yesterday with a friend, sketching, having a small picnic, and catching up on the news.

I tried out some felt tip pens with brush nibs, and limited myself to a few colours. It was super relaxing and such a great way to unwind after a difficult week.

We nibbled on scones and blackberries and watched the geese. Sunny winter days are a treat!