Tag Archives: Chinese

Origami Wishes

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Today I’m working on my New Year’s ‘cards‘ that I will send to some close friends. I don’t do xMas cards anymore, call me a rebel but I try to make a difference and not follow the crowd blindly so I craft my own ‘cards‘ and try to turn it into something special each year instead of the regular stuff that is out there in the supermarkets. I want those that are special to me to receive something special, it’s about making the effort…

I’ll use my favourite paper that I bought in London at the Chinese wholesaler where I used to get my Asian groceries. I bought loads of the coloured kind and only a few sheets of the paper I’m now using for the ‘cards‘. The girl at the till asked me why I bought that much paper so I said to her that I’m a graphic designer and I just love the quality of it. She just responded with a quiet ‘oh…’ but I realised what she was thinking.

You see, this paper has a totally different meaning to the Chinese than it has to me, to me it’s ‘just’ another piece of beautiful paper that I can use to design something special. Paper made of rice or bamboo fibers with a beautiful coarse texture of ‘laidlines’. To the Chinese it’s ‘ghost money’ and used as an offering to worship the ancestors and to ensure that the spirit of the deceased has all the good things in the afterlife.

I don’t see why I couldn’t use it for another purpose: I think I’m only complementing this beautiful paper. I’ve chosen to hide my New Year’s wishes inside a cute Origami design and since it’s all handmade I’m only gonna send a few to a select company of people. Only those who will appreciate the effort, so instead of the ‘usual’ twenty five xMas New Year’s cards, I’ll reduce that to ten this year. Why only ten people?

Because I’m limiting some friendships… It’s time to shift the focus from others to myself and some of these so-called friendships simply seem too unbalanced so I’d rather nurture the more rewarding ones. I’d like to thank those who sent me a (digital) xMas message, some came as a total surprise to me *happy smile* Mine is -as you can read- still in the making and soon on it’s way around the world *wink*.

‘This above all: to thine own self be true.’

~Shakespeare

©Zesty Gal Beautiful paper… waiting to be cut and folded

©Zesty Gal Beautiful paper… waiting to be cut and folded

Old Treasures

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When you’re young you have different values so you don’t always notice the treasures that surround you. Twenty years later you might see things in a different light and the items that were taken for granted at the time start to become of great value for no particular reason other than the fact that you’re older (and hopefully wiser as well *wink*).

Sentiment might be the reason, perhaps you’d like to bring back the past, memories, a link to your childhood or the stories that are attached to a certain item or object. Me, I like really old things: old lettering, books, labels and package design. Objects that were once loved and used by their previous owners, objects that tell their own enchanting history.

Like the beautiful fifties tea set that I got from M. and W. or the tea cups and hundred-year-old books that I found at Greenwich Market. This time I found my treasures close by and I only needed to mention the fact that I absolutely adored the dark blue one and the brown one magically appeared… Hidden for years in the back of a cupboard.

To my surprise I was told that I could have them. Out came a few others but not as nice as these two which I chose. I just love the drawing on the blue one, it reminds me of fairy tales, cozy fireplaces and cold winter nights. The design of the brown one is just gorgeous simplicity, there’s (export) text on the sides in e.g. Chinese, Indonesian and Dutch.

Time is a strange concept that seems to add value to otherwise ordinary things…

Aren’t they cool?

I love the design! Chinese text on one side…