hong kong
I'm really missing HK this week, so here's a photo I took at my local cha chaan teng when I was there last time, just down the steps from my studio. I love the combo of colours and textures...
I worked with organic cosmetic company Beyørg (Beyond Organic) in HK this year, to create images they could use on promotional products, supporting the Breast Cancer Foundation charity.
I drew pandas (cutest of all Asian animals) interacting with various ingredients from the cosmetics, such as acerola fruit, ginseng root, and white lupin flower. The illustrations also featured a farm element, as the client wanted to emphasise organic farming. I tried to make the pandas cute, but not too cute. They were used on packaging, and promotion for the brand.
I created a repeat pattern with the pandas along with some extra elements, and this was used on a patterned white umbrella. I love it! 
The umbrella is a limited edition gift item for customers in the shop, and will only be available until the end of August. There's also a cuddly panda...
The products have been featured in various local magazines, along with a little about me. How nice!
Here's a nice photo from kapok, advertising their hanging lights. It's got my blue Peony etching in a pretty white frame on the right hand side!
I was featured recently in South Side magazine in Hong Kong. I grew up in Stanley, which is 'South Side' so I was happy about that! You can see the interview online here or click on the image below to see it full size.
A very happy Year of the Snake to everyone. Here's a red & gold snake I created for chocoyou to bring us all prosperity and luck this year...
Chinese New Year is just round the corner, and I've designed some exclusive packaging for Hong Kong based personalised (you can create your own flavours!) chocolatier chocoyou. The special new year red and gold sleeve is wrapped around a gift box of 5 chocolate bars. 
2013 is the year of the snake, so I've based the illustration on a stylised Chinese papercut snake. When opened up flat, it also works as a fai chun (lucky sign) you can put up in your house. The shiny gold brings good fortune, wishing you a prosperous new year. Here are some of my sketches for the project...
I also designed a sleeve for a special Valentine's Day set.
The pretty watercolour floral illustration is a romantic Valentine bouquet.
You can order both these box sets here, the perfect gifts.
Another of my drawings has been featured on an e-gift card at Lane Crawford in Hong Kong. They're special personalised ones that you can add a little message to...
This weekend (1/2 Dec) I'm creating personalised Christmas cards in store as part of the Lane Crawford GIFTED Shopping Weekend in Hong Kong.
I'm in the homeware section at Pacific Place. Customers can choose one of my designs, or ask for something special, and I create a one-off original card. Here are some I made earlier...
Hope you can pop in and say hello!
I'm in Hong Kong at the moment, and have just popped in to Tree, a large friendly eco-homeware store, that has started selling my HK Toile teasets.
I chatted with the sales assistants and they told me they're selling extremely well, hurrah!
Hope you can pop in to see them. The HK toile products are also on sale through kapok, HKTDC, HK Museum of Art shop, inside, and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel shop.
A fab new website has been launched for the Max and Mei series of bi-lingual children's books I illustrated. The books are Mandarin-English and really great fun.
The new site features all the characters from the books, and all sorts of interesting interactive stuff.
You can hear the stories being read aloud,
and play some fun language games (I was ok at the numbers, not so great at the word matching!)
The website has lots of (educational!) playful stuff for kids of any age.
The original books are based on Max and Mei meeting all the creatures in the Chinese zodiac. In the newest book they meet a dinasaur (sort of!) The books are available direct from the publisher PPP in Hong Kong, and amazon everywhere else. 
Enjoy!
Another pretty wedding project for a client in Hong Kong. She asked for two pheonixes, a bird symbolising longevity, that could be used in various elements of her wedding. I created several stages of the pheonix motif, in two slightly different colourways.
The first illustration showed two flying birds, with the bride and groom's names interwoven into the design. This was used on the Save the Date notification and formal invitations, in the traditional Chinese wedding colours of red and gold.
The next version of the illustration showed the story growing, and included a little landscape, with a tree and butterflies. This was used on the first stage backdrop used at the actual wedding, in soft pinks, with a watercolour textured backgoround.
The illustration developed, with clouds and a golden moon, for the next stage backdrop in red and gold...
And the final development of the illustration included musicians outside a cosy house, and a little golden nest in the tree. This was used on a specially made china teacup, given as a wedding favour to each guest.
I adore this cup, it's such a lovely gift to remember the wedding... 
My HK toile design has again been adapted by Lane Crawford, the high end department store in HK, in new neon brights, for their summer collection electronic gift card.
You can purchase it on the Lane Crawford website...
I gave several printmaking workshops recently, at an International school in Hong Kong. I showed the students various techniques for mono-printing (handy as no presses are needed) and we used the table surfaces to print from.
I encouraged them to experiment and explore, and they were so enthusiastic it really inspired me. I taught the IB students (16-18 years old),
and also some primary classes (9-11yrs old)
and they all produced amazing work...
I hope they enjoyed the classes as much as I did!
Here are two of my exclusive, limited edition Peony rugs, available from faux in Hong Kong. They're hand-made to order, and I think they're gorgeous! Well, I would...
They're made from the highest quality silk and wool, and the designs are based on my series of Peony etchings. See my previous blogs for images of the Peony collection silk cushions also!
These are the new lights by thinkgadgets, in production as we speak. They're made of delicate ceramic, and hand-painted (my pattern design!) to give off a lovely vintage-y feeling warm glow. They'll be available this year. But not yet...
I've been interviewed in the current issue of AERIS, a China-based online cultural lifestyle magazine. You can read the whole issue online, or take a sneak peek at my pages here...
My HK toile teasets have been getting a lot of press in Hong Kong recently, thanks to kapok in Wanchai, where you can buy all the ceramic pieces in both colours...
A very happy, prosperous and lucky Chinese New Year to you all! May the year of the dragon bring you everything you wish for...
I have some prints in a special Christmas show at Amelia Johnson Contemporary Gallery in HK. It opened this week, and will continue until the first week of January. Hope you can make it!
I've designed some festive season, electronic gift cards for Lane Crawford, the exclusive luxury department store in Hong Kong. They are the latest in their 'artist series'.
There are three designs to choose from, the first is a simple reindeer on a metallic aqua background, the second is a selection of winter holiday sketches on silver...
and the third is a special Christmas gold and red version of my HK toile...
(You can still buy the toile teasets at Lane Crawford by the way). Happy Christmas shopping!
