October 2013 – Jo Cheung Illustration

The Crafties

Today I was supposed to be at The Nesbitt Centre for my volunteering work. Somehow, I had completely forgotten it was ‘Golden Week’, which means the students get to go out and do fun stuff. I wasn’t updated about it so I turned up at the centre and nobody was in! I spent about half an hour trying to get in contact with the co-ordinator so I decided to have a wander around Sheung Wan.

I had read about The Crafties from an article by Sassy Hong Kong (I love it by the way!), so I decided to check it out since I was around the area. I thought I would never bother with illustration as I assumed I wouldn’t have the time for it, funnily enough being here has inspired me to make new work.

The Crafties is a studio space, co-working space, shop; a place for creativeness. The space itself is lovely, homely and very cosy. Bearing in mind space in Hong Kong is a rarity so I was really taken aback when I walked in! My flat in Fanling is really small so sometimes it feels quite claustrophobic; not an environment you want to be working in especially if work space is limited. I was thinking about hiring out a desk for a day or so during the week, which is perfect as it’ll work around my work schedule.

Lots of lovely things for sale!

The Crafties sell craft supplies as well as handmade products by local artists and designers. They also hold regular workshops from screen printing, knitting classes to lantern making. I asked Sky, who runs The Crafties, about the screen printing workshops and she said that the guy who runs them can do private group workshops (by appointment of course). I really want to do some small runs of screen prints so if anyone wants to join me feel free to get in touch!

Loving the displays.

The perfect place for a meet-up and a coffee or two.

I also asked Sky about holding a pop-up exhibition as I’ve been looking into it and she said that it was do able; providing I give them a bit more information as I was really vague at that point. I think it would be really nice to have a solo exhibition before I leave Hong Kong (not long now, two months to go!)

Address: 1/F, Sing Kui Commercial Building, 27 Des Voeux Road West, Sheung Wan.

ByJo Cheung

October 30, 2013

Illustration, Miscellaneous

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Society6: Together

Hello there! I can’t believe it’s been almost two months since I last updated my Society6 shop. Now that I’ve started to settle down I’ve been doing a lot more illustrations; far more productive than ever before!

Together is a new piece of work pretty much inspired by Sam and I. Can you tell? My biggest influence has been our relationship and experiencing something new and wonderful each day in Hong Kong. I guess much of my most recent work has been about us but in each piece we take on different animal forms… don’t ask me why, not sure if it’s because I’ve seen so many temples, but for the first time in a while I’ve had an emotional connection with my work. Making new work has also been a bit of a distraction with the long distance relationship thingy 🙁

Anyhoo, I’ll be updating my Society6 shop as my Etsy is currently closed- boo!

New Illustrations

I’ve been busy with some new work over the past couple of days. I’m making new cards and prints for Dave’s shop (for Christmas) so I’m trying to get everything done as soon as possible. Since I’ve stopped looking for full-time work I feel a lot more relaxed now, hence being more productive with illustration. Doing something different and experiencing new things each day has been motivating, inspiring and has pushed my creativity and energy into making new pieces of work.

At the moment, I’ve been using SketchBook Express, which isn’t as good as Photoshop in my opinion, but it’s free so for now I’ll just have to put up with it! I’ve also resorted to using Pages to print my cards out… yup, improvising to the max here! There’s been a few wee obstacles in the way but I’ve managed to overcome them.

In other news, I’ll be volunteering at The Nesbitt Centre in Sheung Wan twice a week as I need more experience working with adults with learning disabilities and communication difficulties. I’m currently applying for a place at City University London!

So the next few months I’ll be keeping myself busy with lots of things!

Mister Bear

Mister Bear! Mister Bear!

Where are you going today?

I’m going on an adventure!

I don’t know where,

I don’t know when I’ll be back,

But I’ll see you very soon.

Sketchbook Work

I’ve been a busy bee and I’ve been working on a a couple of new sketches. I think when I go back home I’ll finish them off in Photoshop. For now though, I’m pretty pleased with them although the paper is a bit annoying as the ink bleeds, which is really annoying!