mokuhanga baren pin

My printmaking collective wood+paper+box commissioned a jeweller to create some beautiful bronze lapel pins for us to sell. The money raised will go towards funding our future projects.

The pins are hand-made by Kansas-based jeweler Sunyoung Cheong. They are adorable 3-dimensional miniature replicas of mokuhanga barens. Each pin is 17mm in diameter (approximately the size of a dime) and we packaged them in kraft paper boxes, with our new “I love mokuhanga” stamps.

We had 15 pins for our soft launch this week, which sold out almost immediately!

DM @woodpaperbox on instagram if you’d like to be added to the waitlist for our official launch later in the summer. They are the perfect accessory for all woodblock printing geeks. I wear mine with pride!

tmtplaza beauty promotion

I recently designed an exclusive butterfly and peony pattern for a jewellery box for tmtplaza in Hong Kong, for their spring beauty promotion.I was asked to create something feminine and elegant, to match with this season's beauty products and cosmetics.The illustration started out as pencil sketches of peonies in pale colours, with detailed monochrome butterflies and shadows.This then gradually turned into a more colourful solid background with smaller butterflies......and I then developed the butterflies into more colourful versions, with stronger patterns and outlines. I chose a limited colour palette of pinks and greens to give the feminine feeling a contemporary twist.I tried more detailed peonies, in richer colours......but in the end it went with the paler, more loosely-drawn flowers and more fully detailed butterflies. If you spend over HK$1,500 at the mall, from 23 April, you can get my box as a VIP gift, while stocks last! Hurry!