Porto, Portugal

in , ,

I was in Porto last weekend, and loved its faded charm. It's run-down, but in a delightful way. We had tea at the Majestic Cafe...and I had a very tasty eggtart, with toasted almonds on the top.I love the blue azulejos tiles covering all the walls.We spent a rainy sunday in the museum and church. I like this carved lady holding a sign. I wonder what it could be for...There is good design everywhere, and I especially admired the typography in the metro system.

lavender sachets

in , , , , , ,

I've decided to make one special limited edition Mariko Jesse product collection every year. Welcome to the very first! I've designed and made some fabric lavender sachets that feature two of my ceramic etchings printed on the front. The reverse sides are made from a selection of pretty vintage materials. This sachet is 14 x 11cm, with a dark purpley-brown etching of a white jug on a floral background. As well as the lavender, it contains rosemary hand-picked from our garden.This sachet is about 11cm square, and has a specially created image of a Chinese teacup decorated with lavender flowers. The lavender inside is from Provence, and both sachets contain some rice to give them a bit of weight. I've used vintage fabrics and ribbons that I've collected over the years for the reverse side. Most are cotton, though there are also some linens and silks. Thank you to my friend Karen for helping me with the actual sewing! They're packaged in a little card box with my new shiny gold sticker, and a paper description inside.They're available exclusively in Hong Kong from Mingei Antiques in Central, or online directly from me. E-mail me if you'd like to buy one, or pop to my etsy shop here.

chocolate packaging

in , , , , , , ,

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.

Bob Foundation wrapping book

in , , , , , , ,

My favourite bit about Christmas is wrapping the gifts. I often wrap other people's gifts too! My friends Bob Foundation in Tokyo have just published a new book about wrapping. I love wrapping!  They asked me to demonstrate my wrapping powers, and here I am in the book, with my specially wrapped Bob gift.I used to dream about being the gift-wrapping person in the department stores in Japan....

show continues this weekend...

in , , , , ,

Thank you to everyone who braved the cold to make it to our private view last night! Helene Turbe makes delicate jewellery, Aude Van Ryn makes decorative ceramics, I have etchings and woodblock prints on show, and Romilly Graham has bold colourful ceramics. The show continues this weekend, 11am-5pm both saturday and sunday. We'd love to see you!

Three Good Things again...

in , , , , , ,

I've just seen this lovely little video of Hugh, talking about his new book. You can see some of my illustrations as he flips through the pages, and there's even a nice close-up of the endpapers. Enjoy!I've been cooking out of this book for a while now, and have to say it's superb. Might make a good gift for a chef in the family!

Lane Crawford shopping weekend

in , , , , , , , ,

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!

Hong Kong teaset

in , , , , , ,

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.

moon bear merchandise

in , , , , , ,

My charity project this year was for Animals Asia, which is devoted to the welfare of wild and urban animals in Asia, and also works towards the conservation of endangered species. Because I love bears, I specifically worked with them on their Moon Bear Rescue campaign, where they save and support bears rescued from bile farms in China. I've designed four products for the charity, and all the proceeds go towards helping the wonderful moon bears. The collection has just been launched in time for Christmas orders. My personal favourite is the ladies large scarf, featuring four lovely bears in pretty patterns,and this is my most favourite bear of them all...Moon bears have that name because of the distinctive crescent of lighter fur on their fronts. I've played with this 'moon' symbolism in my designs, placing the bears in the night sky, like constellations, for both the scarf and the foldable bag. I did a simple solitary bear on a moon for the ladies t-shirt, and a sequential drawing of a bear being let out of a cage to freedom, for the folding umbrella.You can order everything from the Animals Asia website shop, and they'll ship worldwide. Help us save the moon bears !

Sweet Anthology

in , , , , , , , ,

I love sweets. I've always loved sweets, and I'm fascinated by unusual and exotic confectionery everywhere. So when a friend asked me if I'd like to collaborate on a new venture for her sweet company Chorley & Baker, I jumped at the chance! Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce 'Sweet Anthology'.To suit this high-end brand, I created the illustrated label and hand-wrote the name for the identity in a classic, slightly baroque style, but kept a modern feel. The colourful sweets are packaged in high-quality designer jars, and the label needed to work with each variety of colours.We've created the brand to have collections, like a fashion house, and we're launching with an A/W collection of 42 varieties, focusing on traditional British sweets. We'll be refining these, and adding new flavours each season.The website for the brand is full of gorgeous photographs, and I created a muted leafy background to highlight the bright jewel-like sweets. I also drew some fun little illustrated characters interacting with the sweets.We're doing a soft launch on achica that starts on monday (29 October), with the prices slightly discounted (let me know if you want to buy them, I have a discount code for first time buyers). After that we'll be selling through our online shop, and in fancy stores near you soon! Give them a try, they make the perfect gift...