Last year, I had so much fun painting this birthday card for my friend Wendy. This time around, I decided to make her a set of Russian dolls in outfits worn by Eleven in the Netflix show Stranger Things. And as an extra surprise, I added an inspirational quote from the show for Wendy to find as she opened each layer. I think they turned out so cute!
When I heard that my dear friend Kylie was pregnant, I immediately began to brainstorm baby gifts ideas. As I toyed with different things to make, Hong Kong kept coming back to me as my subject matter. It is where Kylie and I met and Kylie’s birthplace. I eventually decided to create a set of memory game pieces featuring icons that celebrate the city that Kylie loves so dearly.
This felt like the right gift as it is something that hopefully Kylie’s son can play with many times over. Over the past few of years I have made an effort to buy less things and surround myself with items that spark joy. That thought process has trickled its way into my creating – I try to make things that are thoughtfully made and that will be really loved and appreciated by the recipient.
So, I began by figuring out what icons to illustrate – a nice balance of things that would resonate with a tourist and others that only someone who lived in Hong Kong for awhile would know. It was hard narrower down from so many options, but I eventually settled on twelve motifs.
I tried to draw directly on the round wooden tiles I got from Woodpeckers Crafts, but the drawings were not to my liking. I remembered a technique I learned as a kid that would hopefully make things a lot easier. On one side of a piece of tracing paper, I drew an icon and on the other side I heavy-handedly scribbled with a pencil over the drawn icon area.
I then flipped the tracing paper so that the drawing was facing up again and centered over a wooden tile. As I retraced the icon, my pencil’s pressure left an impression of the icon on the wood from the transfer of graphite on the underside. This technique sped up the drawing process and ensured that the icon was centered on each piece and that each pair looked the same.
Once all the drawings were done, I moved onto painting each piece using acrylic paint. It was much more tedious then I thought it would be as the illustrations were pretty small and detailed. Even as my hand and neck started to hurt over the couple weeks I was hunched over painting, it was so exhilarating and rewarding to see each piece come to live in color. It also gave me the time to think back on old memories during my time in Hong Kong, from taking the 101 or 104 bus home with Kylie to our many conversations at our old office on Mody Road.
The set of memory game pieces came out even cuter than I could have hoped for. Kylie, I hope your son loves playing with these and may they serve as a storytelling tool and conversation starter for teaching him about all the things you love about your birthplace.
