Shintaro Miyake

















Shintaro Miyake is one of my favourite contemporary Japanese artists. Miyake-san often dresses up in costumes such as sweet-san, a beaver or a rabbit and engages in live performance drawings. He believes that dressing up in character helps him to engage with the viewers, saying it's something like meeting the real Mickey Mouse at Disneyland. Cute! Performance drawing aside, I am also enamoured by his delicate pencil lines and kawaii (cute) subject matter.

Miyake-san is represented by my favourite Tokyo gallery, Tomio Koyama Gallery. For more information, please click here, here or here.

Point! If you are heading to Tokyo and wish to visit Tomio Koyama gallery, please message me and I will happily send you a foreigner friendly map as it can be very tricky to find (but well worth it)!

Hello Sandwich's lovely new friends


Above: A pretty two year blog anniversary picture on Pink shirts and carwrecks.

In just three short weeks I am so thrilled to have found so many lovely Hello Sandwich friends! I would especially like to thank some very special people for making Hello Sandwich their new friend too. 

Ii-ne-kore
A lovely Melbourne based girl by the name of Bree. Although we have never met in person, I secretly think we must have been sisters in a past life. There are just too many similarities!  Ii-ne-kore posts about Japan, Design and Food. She even has a vegetarian Japanese food section where she updates her own recipes. Yum! Today she wrote a divine little post inspired by my bento post and has also added Hello Sandwich to her favourite links.

The Design Files
The amazing Lucy (also from Melbourne) of The Design Files whom I think must be my other sister in a past life.  Amazing amazing amazing! This is one super dedicated blogger who seems to never miss a thing. Thank you little Lucy for adding me to your links - I am honoured!

Pink Shirts and Car wrecks
The lovely Pink Shirts and Car wrecks who has recently added Hello Sandwich to her links.


Above: Some super cute post-it note illustrations by Inside Out's talented designer Grace Lee. (Note 'Hello Sandwich' - cute!)

Inside Out
The lovely Inside Out magazine team who are just too cute for words have also added Hello Sandwich to their links on their new blog.

Souzou and Le Petit Flaneur
And some old favourite friends; the lovely Emma Japan who has now turned French with Le Petit Flaneur and the gorgeous and super talented Yumi from my art school at Souzou.

Design for Mankind
And last but not least, clever American blogger Erin from Design for Mankind whose blog now features blog TV! Erin will be featuring my artwork in the next issue of her online magazine called Mankind magazine. That's right, not only does she have Blog TV she produces a blog PDF magazine too! Sigh! More on that later.

Thank you to all of you lovely little sweet peas for your support and encouragement.

Love love
Hello Sandwich
xxx

Stationery love








I am in love with Korean graphic designers O-check (above) who have an online stationery store called And Spring. How sweet are these little love themed stamps! O-check is stocked in Australia through the lovely people at Telegram.

At the Life in Style fair recently I saw the new collections by  Me and Amber, Lox+Savvy and Specklefarm. Just lovely!

A few of my International stationery favourites are Linda and Harriett, Good On Paper and Present & Correct.

Oh! and no stationery list is complete without Emma Japan's favourite Carrot & Stick press.

If you are still in the mood for more stationery, check out Love Jenna . Or if letterpress is more your thing (oww I love letterpress!) have a look at Moontree Letterpress or Swayspace or Wilkintie or Studio On Fire.


Also sweet is this selection of stationery from Tas-ka who I wrote about here.

Isn't it nice to receive a handwritten note sometimes!

Easter












A Swedish Easter tree

Polish Easter eggs



I am half Lithuanian and so it is tradition to paint eggs at Easter time.

I spent my childhood Easters at our beachside holiday house dying and then hand painting boiled eggs. I remember running around the garden collecting interesting shaped leaves to use as a relief pattern when dyeing. We would wrap the egg with the leaf and then tightly cover the egg with a stocking before dipping into the dye.

My uncle Gediminas would spend hours designing the one egg usually using a fine point black felt tip pen to draw a family portrait. My aunty Nijole on the other hand would create many wonderfully coloured abstract eggs. I was always somewhere in between - I admired the patience of my uncle Gediminas and yet yearned for the immediate results of the eggs created by my aunty Nijole.

Whichever way you paint eggs though, I promise you hours of fun and some very special family memories. I encourage you to dig out some food colouring and textas and get creative this Easter!

Rosie Flo
















Rosie Flo colouring books are the brainchild of UK Graphic Designer Roz Streeten. These gorgeous books with editions such as Garden, Kitchen, Animal and Night-time are so sweet that even big kids will want to sit down with a cup of tea and a pack of textas and colour in all day. The books have a lovely mix of collage and drawing elements printed in an unexpected sepia toned ink.

Roz says about the books "The paper quality is thick enough to avoid showing through or damaging the picture on the next page. It is sturdy enough to withstand a few journeys without falling apart and small enough to fit in a child's hand luggage. The lines are intentionally not too thick, as this makes it look like it is only for preschool children. The age range is between around 4 to 12 and beyond."


Rosie Flo has also been released in Japanese thanks to publishing company Magazine House.

You can watch a video of Roz's daughters Sasha Rosie and Sophie Flo colouring in some of their mothers amazing colouring in books here.

Rosie Flo books are available in Australia through Lark Handmade and internationally here. I can't wait to see which edition will be next!

Special thanks to the lovely Roz for taking the time to send me the images and video link for this blog post!

Mimashou!



Looking to pass the time before your next trip to Tokyo?

Try watching some Japanese drama or a Japanese movie (with English subtitles thank goodness!) on Korean site My soju. I am a fan of Lunch Queen (the best Omurice story ever), Tokyo Friends, Slow Dance and Zettai Kareshi!

Or, for an old time favourite, why don't you re-watch Lost in Translation while we all wait for the Australian release of Tokyo The Movie. Exciting!

POINT! Mimashou (見ましょう！）translates from Japanese into 'Let's watch!'.