Yosemite

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Last weekend, we went to Yosemite National Park. It was awesome. All the views were glorious, with constant unbelievably blue skies.We explored the valley and watched the clouds, and marvelled at the incredible waterfalls and towering rocks.I did some sketches, but mostly gawped!We walked amongst the giant sequoias at Mariposa Grove and I admired the structure of the trees and their sideways branches. I loved the sculptural roots of this fallen giant...We also drove through the Stanislaus National Forest, where there had been the fire last year, and it was eerily all brown and burnt, but still strangely beautiful.I can't wait to go back and experience a different season...

workshop tours

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As part of the SGCI conference last week, I went to visit several local print workshops. It was amazing to get a tour of their facilities and wander around. I have a bit of a thing for paper (can you tell?) so here are my photos of the various studios' paper storage areas. The first is Crown Point Press,and I also loved this huge roll there...   and the flat and roll combo at Kala in Berkeley ...I have to say these tape dispensers at the Compound Studios also tickled my fancy...One day I will have my very own paper shelves!

exhibition weekend in San Fransciso

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Thank you to everyone who made it along to see our printmaking studio exhibition in the Mission this weekend. There was an amazing selection of prints on show, in all sorts of techniques.The opening on saturday evening was super busy and the bookshop/gallery ambience was relaxing and unusual!

Mission Art Walk exhibition

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I've recently joined a co-operative print studio in San Francisco, called Graphic Arts Workshop, where I can do etchings and hopefully spend some time making personal work. The studio has a group exhibition in the Alley Cat Gallery as part of the Mission Art Walk in conjunction with the SGC printmaking conference in SF city next weekend (on saturday and sunday only), and I'll have 2 pieces on show there. The gallery details are:

Alley Cat Gallery, 3036 24th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110

and there'll be an opening reception on Saturday March 29th from 6.30pm - 9pm. Please come along!

slice of pear

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This year I'm working on a collaborative mokuhanga project with my friends Yoonmi Nam and Katie Baldwin. We're going to give a presentation and hold an exhibition of the work we produce at the International Mokuhanga Conference in Tokyo in September. It's very exciting! Here's a preparatory sketch for my first piece of work for the project...and a test print of the colours.You can follow the group's progress on our blog woodpaperbox.

ice hockey

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I went to see the San Jose Sharks play ice hockey recently. It was pretty amazing. Especially when the players all skated into the rink through a huge shark's head!I tried to sketch them as they played, but they moved so fast! Especially as they slammed into the walls. Here are my first sketches of ice hockey players in action...

pizza cake

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We went to a friend's pizza party last week and made these amazing dessert pizza cakes! The bases are sponge cakes, with coloured buttercream for the tomato sauce, white chocolate ganache for the melted cheese, fruit leather pepperoni, hollowed-out liquorice allsort olives, dried pineapple, gummy pepper pieces, and grated white chocolate for the parmesan. We used real pizza boxes from Pizza my Heart et voila!Kind of messes with your mind when you bite into it, but super sweet and tasty!

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

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I designed 2 different sets of adorable lai see red pockets for clients in HK this year. The first were for BEYORG, celebrating the year of the horse, with cute horses doing various traditional New Year things, in lucky red and shiny gold. . .The second were for Grand Century Place shopping mall. They asked for a pattern incorporating Chinese New Year elements, but also fashiony things like a dress and jewellery. I love the coppery gold colour they used for the foil highlights, to match the pink. They also made a promotional fabric ipad mini case for VIPS with the same pattern.Have a wonderful year of the horse everyone!

Morocco

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I've just spent a wonderful five days in Morocco with my best friend, relaxing and seeing the countryside. We arrived in Marrakech, and stayed in a beautiful riad to the NW of the Medina. It was calm and soothing, and even had a hammam.We wandered around the souks, buying babouches and a rug, admiring the wonderful details of life in the bustling city.We then went on a three day trip into the mountains, with Desert Majesty. They were super helpful, and our guide Said was very sweet. Here's a map showing where we went.We drove up into the Atlas mountains and down into the valleys. Our first notable stop was at Ait Ben Haddou, a stunning UNESCO world heritage site. It was exciting to find that it has been used as a location for quite a few movies and TV shows, including Gladiator and Game of Thrones.We drove and drove, past huge vistas of mountains...and into an endlessly blue, blue sky...We explored an ancient Kasbah, and found an old display in one of the courtyards, like a lost moment in time...We stayed the second night in a Berber tented camp, and rode camels into the sunset, and in the evening, sat around a campfire listening to songs and drumming.And then on again, into the dusty, red and pink landscape.We drove through Rissani, where the Moroccan king's family comes from,and back again to Marrakech, to get the Saharan sand out of our shoes...All through the trip we were welcomed everywhere with hot, sweet Moroccan mint tea in beautiful little glasses, and invariably, a pretty silver teapot. Yum.