I’ve loved being back in Hong Kong after so long. Just seeing all these ordinary things, with fresh eyes, is making me so happy…
I had my first real dim sum in over a year!
I even managed to spend a relaxed and nostalgic day on Lantau, taking the slow ferry to the island…
…and wandering around, reliving the days when it was my home, surrounded by ginger marshes and local gods.
For my last few days here, it’s mostly work now!
I’m off to HK, for a week of meetings. Also, having a private sale of my Japan Toile Ceramics Collection…
It’s a lovely fine bone china design, in indigo blue, with the sake set having gold details too. I’ll be at the Sale on March 13th - if you’re interested in attending, please contact me via e-mail.
Every weekend my wonderful husband bakes sourdough bread, and I have recently been trying out some interesting patterns in the dough. I’m getting the hang of it and find it makes the bread look even more delightful than usual!
Hope you had an enjoyable Valentine’s Day, whether you celebrate it or not. Here’s a fun illustration of a Valentine’s bear on a penny farthing…
All my love, Mariko x
A very Happy Lunar New Year to you! This is the year of the Wood Dragon, and may it bring prosperity and happiness and magic to you all.
Here’s the illustration I made for the Keswick Foundation charity this year.
I’ve realised that over the years I’ve illustrated many dragons, usually the Chinese kind: from ceramics and book covers..
…to watercolour sketches and brush drawings.
I especially like this simple slightly abstract dragon I made as part of the Chinese Horoscope interior decorations for Pacific Place in HK a while ago.
I’ve always loved the magical dragon, and look forward to creating many more in the future. Here’s more of a Japanese dragon, made as a greeting card…
I’ve had so many meetings this week! I usually try to sketch people as they talk, as this helps me to focus.
I attended a Creativebug seminar with all these artists, it was great!
I also joined a COPE meeting, about our new book - I’m already working on this one…
And a smaller and more casual meeting with Katie and Yoonmi about our brand new wood+paper+box project, also starting right now!
So many meetings, and so many opportunities to sketch…
The weather has been all over the place this year, and I’ve been photographing the glorious skies and clouds I can see from the balcony, mostly in the afternoons.
The fog sometimes settles on the hills in the distance and you can see it gently rolling.
There has been a lot of rain, but there’s often a quick break with sudden blue skies and quick moving clouds.
I love the dusk, and the tinge of oranges and pinks that appear in the blues.
The moon in all its phases is always a bonus in the late afternoon sky.
My favourite fluffy clouds, at any time of day, make me so happy!
The end of the day, with intense sunset reds, is often glorious after the rain…
I went to a grown up dinner dance last night - super fun, and a refreshing change to have a sociable weekend.
I did dance, but also took much enjoyment from watching everyone else dance, and even managed to sketch a bit. These dancers were totally into it, I loved it!
Here’s the full page of sketches - dancing dancing dancing…
This week, I went down to Santa Cruz with a friend, to enjoy the sea air, and see the butterflies at the Monarch Butterflies Natural Preserve . They come to a specific little valley where the climate is exactly right, and cluster together to spend the winter. I’ve been once before, but it was off season, and only saw a few here and there, but this time there were so many!
The butterflies cluster together on the branches of the trees, and as the sun shines on them, and they warm up, they all start fluttering and flapping in a magical way.
The grove itself is beautiful, made of tall eucalyptus trees, and I thoroughly recommend a visit!
We got back to California in time for New Year’s eve, and spent the day making a simple osechi - the Japanese New Year meal.
It was delicious, and my favourite part, the black beans, came out surprisingly well. I hope 2024 will be a year of hope and trying our best for us all!
It’s been a short but lovely Christmas time back in London with the family. Here is our little tree that we take outside every year and bring back in for Christmas, a bit wonky, but full of love, and our traditional decorations.
I spent a few days in the city itself, looking at the Christmas lights and doing a spot of shopping…
I made my traditional wreath by collecting holly and ivy from the back of my parents garden. It wouldn’t feel right without this.
Hope you had a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year!
I’m in London with all the family, enjoying some cosy Winter times. Hope you’re doing whatever makes you happy too. All the best for a peaceful, bright, and hopeful end of the year, wherever you are.
It’s that time of year again, and I’ve been getting ready: making mince pies, decorating the home, and wrapping gifts.
I made mince pies with home-made dough and 3 different types of mince meat. It took all day, but was totally worth it! I decoreated them differently so I could tell which flavour was which.
And here’s our tiny, tiny Christmas tree - we decorated with our smallest ornaments, and happily the golden fox still fits ontop.
I put some of the larger glass baubles we have in a decorative tray on the table, and added some small decorations around the apartment. We’re ready for Christmas, and I hope it’s going to be a good one…
For this weekend only, I’ve put some of my packs of Christmas cards up for sale in my online shop. I love these little watercolour robin illustrations I made!
There are 2 different robin designs, and the cards are blank inside, and sold in packs of 5. They would be perfect for a little note to say hello to a friend you haven’t seen in a while…
The COPE picture books I’ve been illustrating over the last few years have become one of the most important projects in my life - they are going out all over the world, and helping to save lives. Climate Change is such an everpresent issue these days and the books are giving kids the tools with which to prepare for the natural hazards that they will inevitably face.
Our connection with the WMO has given us a huge leap in our reach, and in collaboration with them, we are holding several events at the COP28 conference being held in Dubai right now.
The first event was at the 18th UN Climate Change Conference of Youth (COY18) held just before COP, which brings together passionate young minds dedicated to addressing climate change and its challenges.
COPE showcased its Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) books and hosted a panel discussion as a side event during the conference. This explored the crucial role of children in DRR, emphasizing the importance of preparedness and early warning action. Our fearless representative, Lina, is seen here with her co-presenters, and the full team on the ground.
In a world where climate-induced hazards are rising, it is crucial to equip our youngest generation with the tools they need to understand and navigate the challenges that lie ahead.
Lina hosted another session, this time at COP28, where she explored innovative ideas and strategies to enhance disaster resilience with the audience. It was an opportunity to share, learn, and contribute to shaping a more resilient future.
COPE’s third appearance at COPE is at the WMO side event at COP28 - Communicating around early warnings: from disinformation to acceptance
We are excited to invite you to a COP28 session at the WMO Pavilion. COPE Creator and Author, Martha Keswick will be a panellist and share insights on how our books effectively communicate Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and early warnings. Discover children's unique role as powerful channels for driving this vital information through communities. The discussions will cover topics like understanding values in climate decisions, leveraging social media for early warnings, and addressing disinformation challenges.
Be part of this vital conversation aimed at developing better communication strategies for early warnings in the media, on social platforms, and in society.
Session: Communicating around early warnings: from disinformation to acceptance
Date: December 9th, 2023
Time: 10:15 am -11:15 am
Location: WMO Pavilion
You can stream the event remotely here.
I’m incredibly proud of these books, and hope they will in some small way, help us to deal with the environmental changes the world is going through right now.
I’ve just sent out a newsletter to my subscribers listing all the places you can get products I’ve made and designed - here’s a mini version - please do subscribe if you’d like to be updated on all my doings!
A gift subscription to Creativebug would be a lovely gift - I have 2 classes: an introduction to illustration, and keeping a sketchbook daily practice. The sketchbook class is an inspirational class for anyone who just wants to learn how to be relaxed about starting and keeping a sketchbook. Everyone, basically!
There’s a special offer on gift subscriptions from Nov 27th (50% off), and this weekend there’s a deal for signing up yourself. As it’s all online, this can be gifted from anywhere in the world.
The extra special w+p+b hand-made baren pin is the perfect gift for mokuhanga fans. There are only a few still available - for more information, please DM our w+p+b instagram.
I had a very small run of holiday cards printed a few years ago, and still have some available. They’re sold in packs of 5 for US$20 plus P&P. Please email me if you’re interested. US only due to crazy international postage, sorry.
If you’d like some original artwork, the lovely SFGallery in San Francisco has several of my prints available, including these from their Delicious show, as well as some dim sum prints.
My own Hong Kong ceramics will always be top of my gifting list - these sparkling festive mugs with gold and silver highlights, and the set of red coasters, are my number one choice for this season. You can buy them direct from faux, or visit my website retail page for a list of outlets that stock them.
note: Faux does ship internationally too.
Hopefully you’ll have fun doing your gift shopping!
This week I made an impromptu visit to the San Francisco Botanical Gardens with my friend Maybelle, to do some sketching.
I realised I haven’t done any outdoor sketching for a while, so it was good to get my hands dirty. I worked in pencil to draw this view of reflections in the pond, looking for texture and shape.
It was lovely to wander around and be surrounded by so much green!
We had a picnic lunch and I tried out a colour pencil sketch of the layers of trees.
The early evenings mean early sunsets, and on that day, it was particularly lovely.
I just got back from Kansas, where I was visiting our wood + paper + box exhibition with my friends and collaborators Yoonmi Nam and Katie Baldwin.
It was amazing to see the large banner showing our work on the side of the museum. I really felt proud of what we’ve achieved with this project!
Our four boxes have been displayed beautifully - each in its own specially made wooden cabinet.
The works are shown in a changing display, in a variety of ways, just as we had always intended them to be…
The museum also produced a brochure, explaining the work that had been specially commissioned. Our fourth box Mise-en-Scene, made in a limited edition, is the Museum’s Gift Print for 2023.
The first cabinet in the exhibition shows this box and all the elements within it.
We gave a presentation with the curator of the show Aileen Wang, in which we discussed how we met and started our projects, and what the future may hold. We invited everyone to come and try out the handling copy of the Mise-en-Scene box.
I loved that Aileen used some of my zoom sketches for our profiles in the show! Here’s the handling copy on display for all visitors to the exhibition to try out for themselves. They can upload their photos of the arrangements they make to instagram with the hashtag #woodpaperbox and become part of our ongoing artwork.
When I think about it, we started wood + paper + box as a way to keep in touch and keep our friendship going, and it has grown to become a really important part of my life. I treasure the connections and experiences we’ve shared as we’ve continued to develop these projects together.
From one experimental box of prints, we’ve now become an established collective, and I’m already looking forward to working on our next box together.
I went to Denver last week to visit my friend, the wonderful artist Hadley Hooper. It was extremely cold, but lovely and autumnal and I took so much joy from the crunchy leaves and beautiful golden tones in the trees.
It snowed overnight and the day I left was magical but even more chilly! I’ve never seen cactus with snow before…
As usual, an all too brief visit, but it was amazing to visit Hadley’s studio and talk non-stop about illustration. I just don’t get to do that enough!
I’m super excited that I’ve designed some phone cases with Topologie, a hipster brand in Asia.
There are 3 designs, and you can choose from a selection of case colours to go with each of them. You can also add a variety of straps, and I love that!
There’s a simple design with my maneki neko mokuhanga print, which adds some great texture to the shiny case, and then 2 patterned designs with cats and dimsum that are super cute!
