London Rubbish Bin

Digitally manipulated image was photocopied on a sheet of film, then placed on top of oil pastel drawing on paper.

Cans of Inks

Collage
Oil pastel, magazine cutout, coffee filter and charcoal pencil

Cells

From "Body" experiment series.
Used watercolour and ink.

Coral

This experiment was made based on a theme "body" at first but it looks like "coral" as the title shows :)
I painted acrylic gouache with painting knife on papers then cut it out and made some holes, put it on top of another.

London Street

Collage based on a photo taken in London.
I used pencil, pen, photocopy and oil pastel.

Trial and Error

I made a white background for photo shooting of some of my small products. It is made out of cardboard, white paper and parcel tape. The white wall should reflect the light around the object better and catch more details. I need to improve my photo skill now :)

Beautiful Brooches from Kimba

The other day, a really nice follower of this blog called "Kimba" sent me this photo. These beautiful and exquisite brooches were made by her ! She 's been recently thinking of setting up an Etsy store of her own , so when she does, let me introduce the shop on this blog :) Thank you so much for your useful information and the picture!

The Outcome

I'm really happy with the design!

The Process

Exposing the screen. Watch out for the UV light. Not really good for your eyes.


Developed screens for the two-colour pattern.


Printing the first colour... a bit worried!


After printing the second colour... a best bit!

The Birds

Well, the dog has nothing to do with this but the new pattern design will be coming soon...!

Tedious Part of My Job

I'm not really good at stretching screen on the frame... maybe it just needs years of practice for me...
At least my dog takes away my stress :)

Moodboard

I love the idea of moodboard. And I love seeing other people's moodboards because it can be such an inspiration.

An old ELLE DECO UK article says,
"At its simplest, a moodboard is a collection of pictures or things you like. It just helps you make sense of all the ideas floating through your head. The trick is not to over-think it. Let your intuition guide you and, as your board (of wall, or scrapbook, or vignette) takes form, so the unconscious threads that weave together your personal taste will come to the fore."

Exploring Colour

I just can't stop thinking of colourways for my new pattern design. Always fun and exciting to find colours I like but exhausting at the end...

Playing with Colours

I just don't like throwing away those fabric remnants...
so today I decided to make another cushion cover out of remnants of making cushion covers...


Cutting the fabrics and making slips.


This is on the back after sewing, reinforced with another piece of light weight fabric on top later.


Here's the result! Not bad? I will take some proper photograghs tomorrow and list it up on my Etsy shop :)

Planning, Preparing and Printing

More printing for some custom orders. It's the screen for "Tatami" design.


This is a sort of my "mood board" as of today. You could probably find some original hand drawn sketches for previously posted digital designs. Now I'm really eager to print multi-colour patterns!! It is technically a bit difficult in my studio but I am preparing for it. So hopefully you could see some new stuff soon :)

Full of Roses

These are not perfectly manipulated and/or repeated patterns but I like the bold design :)

Being Playful

I haven't done much digitally manipulated patterns but here's one.

Wish she worked for me...!

My friend made a bag out of my "Tatami" design fabric and sent me these pictures. Lovely, isn't it?

Dancing Colours

An experiment I did before.
1. Dropped some ink on the paper.
2. Held the edges of the sheet and made the ink run on the paper.
3. Put slips of tracing paper on top.

Beautiful Shoes

A pair of shoes made in Vietnam.

Favourite Bit

The other day I was looking for a right "red" for order from BUK & NOLA. It's always fun to do this kind of job :)

Something Traditional

From hallway carpet in a hotel in Tokyo.

New Gallery

I have renewed the Gallery page of my website, it is now powered by zen PHOTO. It seemed to be a nightmare at first to integrate the script into the website by myself but I did it...! I am also surprised at how amazing this free software (unless you donate) is - managing images is easy, simple and flexible, it's just so beautiful. What I need to do now is to upload as many images as possible!

Big Mistake

The other day I was packing quite a lot of bags and towels for a gallery shop at Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago. But what I found about on this shipping date was that I forgot to make one more granny bag...! So I explained it to the buyer and she kindly told me to send it just when I make one...

Fingers Crossed

Today I decoated a screen and mended the wooden frame.


I could never get rid of this ghostly mark... annoying...!!!


This is photo-emulsion I use, it's from Germany. Getting a bit old though... 5 months after the pot was opened. Let's see how it works...!

New Tea Towel Design

I was designing a pattern for tea towels and first started with pencils (you can see it just by the scissors above). But I soon realised my hand didn't draw the lines I wanted so did it by paper-cutting. I made several layers of circles and the result is...



These are pieces of paper which I keep from magazines, gift wrap, etc. It is very useful for making collage and finding interesting colourways. I also use them when I don't want to be "skilful" and just feel like playing around with colours and shapes using scissors like a child.

Improved? - At Least I Like It Better

Just found the old original papercut for my "Mari" pattern and the below is the new (now old too, though) re-designed "Mari".