Feb 13: Families with Children from China, Philadelphia, PA, 12PM
Feb 6: Children’s Museum of Manhattan, 2 & 3 & 4PM
Let’s learn how people from the other side of the United States celebrate their New Year. Come and join me in celebrating the Year of the Rabbit. Come make a bunny puppet with me and receive a surprise hong bao.
Jan 29: Asia Society, NY, 1-4PM
Would you like to meet Kat Yeh, the author of THE MAGIC BRUSH? She will be reading her book and afterward, I will be there to teach you how to make a bunny bookmark to ring in the Lunar New Year.
2011
Another decade has gone by and another decade has arrived. I can’t wait for the Golden Rabbit to reign over the new lunar year on Feb. 3. It will be a year for recovery, fill with peace talk and negotiation like the nature of the gentle rabbit. It will be good to take it easy and go with the flow. We have to remember that although Jan. 1 has long past us by, it is still the year of the tiger. The tiger is not going away quietly, just like the way he entered 2010 with full gusto. So please be careful and stay warm until the rabbit arrives.
新年快樂!
Dec 30: Happy New Year!!!
I hope everyone had a great holiday season and looking forward to a new decade. Let’s all hope it will be a peaceful one, fill with love and happiness!
Nov 21: Update
I’ve been very busy cutting, cutting, and cutting to finish the artworks for RED, WHITE, and BOOM. I also forgot to take photos of the origami fireman hat I wore at the Ghouls and Gourds Festival. You can learn how to make one like mine by clicking on the photo. Enjoy and please give me credit for the design if you teach it to someone else. Also, the lighting of the Christmas tree at the Museum of Natural History is happening tomorrow. The origami tables will happen on Nov. 26 to Jan. 6. My husband and I will be there on the 29th from 3-5 PM to teach basic origami. So please drop by to say hello and learn how to make some origami with us.
September 11 & 12: West Side Community Garden Arts and Crafts Festival, 10- 4PM
It’s that time of the year again where local artists show and sell their crafts. On Saturday, there will be children’s activities and theater in the garden. On Sunday, there will be performance by the NY String Orchestra and readings by local NYC writers. I’ll only be there on Saturday this year. Please drop by and say hello.
August 30: THE MAGIC BRUSH
More good news flies in Kat’s and my direction. THE MAGIC BRUSH has been picked up by Penguin Singapore! The Australian paperback edition will be sold there.
Oct 24: Ghouls and Gourds Festival, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 12- 4PM
October 3: Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, MA, 1- 3PM
I am really excited to visit the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, because the very first book I checked out from the library when I was a child was THE HUNGRY CATERPILLAR by Eric Carle. And to honor the visit by sharing FIRE DRILL with the next generation of book lovers is like icing on a cupcake. Paul, Jennifer and I hope to see you there!
July 4: Happy Independence Day
It’s coming soon and I want to wish everyone a great celebration filled with fireworks and magic!
June 28: THE MAGIC BRUSH
Do you know that it takes about 18 months or more for a book to be published from the time the author and illustrator sign their contracts? After many revisions, I’ve finally completed the artworks for THE MAGIC BRUSH, by Kat Yeh. It will be out in January, in time for the Chinese New Year. It will also be published in Australia!
After reading AT THE BEACH, Ms. Castro’s students picked three Chinese characters from the book to describe their puppet. Click on the photo to see some of the puppet creators.
May 12: Ms. Castro’s Class
April 21: Visiting PS 163
April 4: Happy Easter Sunday!
September 12: Children’s Museum of Manhattan, 3PM & 4PM
Would you like to meet the authors and illustrator of FIRE DRILL? Come to the Children’s Museum of Manhattan for a reading by authors Paul DuBois Jacobs and Jennifer Swender, follow by an art activity with me. I will teach you how to make an original origami fireman hat.
June 22: FIRE DRILL debuts. The Kirkus Review says every classroom should start the year with this book!
February 13 - 19 & March 27- April 6: Origami at the Museum of Natural History
Once again, if you live or happen to be visiting NYC around Feb. 13 - 19 / Mar. 27 - Apr. 6, be sure to drop by the Museum of Natural History and learn how to do origami for FREE. The teaching table is from 11AM - 5PM. My husband, Seiji, will be there on Feb. 16 and Apr. 6 from 3-5PM. I will be there on Apr. 5 and 6 from 3-5PM.
February 14: Happy Tiger Year! Happy Valentine!
2007, Fun to be a silly couple.
My silly bats hat.
Seiji’s silly monsters hat.
2008, I decided to make a pumpkin hat with running mice. Maybe I was thinking of Cinderella...
I really love Seiji’s hat!
Would you like fries with your chicken?
My adorable little friends, Natalia and Nico.
In 2009, I made a recycle hat weaved from the pages of a catalog. My friend, Leslie, was wearing Seiji’s origami chicken hat.
Looking back at
2009 The Year of the OX
January 6: Origami at the Museum of Natural History, 3-5PM
January 20 & March 24: Visiting PS 163
To move forward to a set of new goals, it’s good to look back what one has accomplished and has yet to accomplished. I think I’ve made some strides in 2009. Last March, I signed up with Lori Nowicki. I can’t believe my lucky star that I found someone so nice, funny, hard-working, and good at what she does! You can see more of my works on her website, as well as the other illustrators she represented on www.painted-words.com. I’m also part of the licensing group. Last year, HONK, HONK GOOSE debuts with two star reviews. This year, in June, FIRE DRILL will make it debuts. But the one goal I’m most proud of is participating in more events, which is the most difficult task for me. I’m the kind of person who just like to quietly create and stay in the background. This new year, I’ll try harder to push myself to do more. So kids, if I can keep pushing forward to realize my goals, I hope you don’t give up on yours too! Good Luck and Have a Great New Year! The best is yet to come!
Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Ghoul and Gourds Festival
I started participating in this event in 2007. It happens on the last Sunday of October before Halloween. I always have a paper-cutting workshop at my table. It’s a day I get to see my fellow Children’s book author/illustrator friends and the wonderful smiles on the children’s faces when they open up the folds and see the result of their cutting. Click here to go to the activity.
Annual Events I Participate In:
Origami at the Museum of Natural History
In 2008, my husband, Seiji, and I started volunteering with Origami USA to teach visitors simple origami at the Museum of Natural History. The lessons and papers are FREE.
West Side Community Garden Arts and Crafts Festival
In the middle of 2008, I moved back to the Upper West Side after living in Brooklyn for eight years. I started selling my handmade jewelry, paper crafts and books in the neighborhood’s small Arts and Crafts Festival. If you’re ever in the neighborhood, drop by to see the beautiful garden. This event always happen in the second or third week of September.
Feb 12: Childrens Book World, Haverford, PA, 1:30PM
Kat and I will be heading to Pennsylvania for a reading, a craft project, and book signing afterward. Please join us on a magical ride with Jasmine, Tai Tai and Ah Gong!
Feb 5: Dolphin Bookstore, LI, NY, 4PM
Kat and I with Patti and Debbie, staff extraodinaires from the Dolphin Bookshop.
Thank you to Maria Kakoulides at the Asia Society for providing us a beautiful space to share our book/activity with the Lunar New Year visitors.
Childrens Book World, another great community bookstore.
Celebrating the Lunar New Year with the Families with Children from China.
These two beautiful snowflakes were cut out by Jessica and Lia, two artists in the making from the Ding Hao Chinese School.
These gorgeous embroidery were made by Yu Wen Zola Kao, a teacher at the school. I will always cherish your special gifts!
Mar 9, 2011: Photos from THE MAGIC BRUSH events
April 11, 2011: PS 110, The Nightingale School
June 23, 2011: Update & Origami
Everyday I remind myself to update the “news.” I’m a bit lazy in doing so. Summer means down-time. It’s time to visit museums, stroll through the park to get ideas, and experiment with new work. Lately, I’ve gotten back to doing origami. If you are crazy for origami, you must attend the origami exhibition this weekend (June 25 & 26, from 10:30-4:30) at FIT (27th St., bet. 7th and 8th Ave, Building C), featuring the work of International Paper Artists. It’s $5 for entry and kids under 12 are free. For more info, call 212-769-5635 or check out the website: www.origami-usa.org. On Sunday evening, I will be joining my friends, Gay Merrill Gross, Robin Kraut and Patty Grodner for the oversize origami competition! I hope we will do well and have pictures to show you soon.
June 26, 2011: Oversize Origami Competition
Our team, Saru Business made a Tomoko Fuse’s monkey from a 9’ sheet of paper and a super-size banana. Saru means monkey in Japanese.
August 20-28, 2011: Origami at the Museum of Natural History, 11-5PM
Hey kids, it’s the time of the month again to start folding at the museum! The papers and lessons are free! The teaching tables will be located on the second floor, in the Hall of Birds. I’ll be there 8/24 and 8/25, from 3 to 5PM.
August 2, 2011: Creased Magazine & OMG
When I least expected, origami came back into my life in full force. From volunteering at a paper-collating event, I met Talo Kawaski, who introduced me to Gay Merrill Gross, who introduced me to Sok Song, who is the founder of Creased Magazine and OMG (Origami Meet-up Group), where I met a community of fabulous origami folders. Everyone is welcome. It’s okay if you’re a beginner. There are plenty teachers to show you how to fold! Don’t forget to check out the original models created by local and international folders on Creased Magazine. You might even want to subscribe and join in the fun!
Oct 4, 2011: Red, White and Boom!
I received a surprise in the mail- two advance reader’s editions of Red, White and Boom! This book will come out in May 2012, in time for Independence Day.
Sept 2011: Mexico City
There are a lot of museums and old churches in Mexico City and of course, tacos, tortillas and tostadas! I find the street foods the most savory... Hubby and I got re-energize at the top of the Sun Pyramid in Teotihuocon.
I wish I had time to sketch, but with only 8 days, it was difficult to stay in one spot for a long period of time. Even our socks told us to walk, walk, walk!
October 23, 2011: Lillian Oppenheimer’s B’day
Celebrate the founder of Origami USA by learning how to fold some simple models at the American Museum of Natural History. It’s free with admission.
October 29, 2011: Ghouls & Gourds, 10- 6PM, Kids Under 12 Free!
It’s that time of year again at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. Come celebrate Halloween and the joy of readings with me and other local Children book’s authors and illustrators.
October 26, 2011: New York Asian Women Center
The NYAWC.org is having their 29th Anniversary Benefit and Phoenix Award. There will be a silent auction and one of the prize is a copy of The Magic Brush and a school classroom visit with Kat (the author) and me (the illustrator). If you’re interested in helping out this organization, which helps women to live free from violence, please visit their website and make a bid. Thanks!
October 31, 2011: Halloween at AMNH
Hey kids, if you miss learning how to fold origami on the 23rd, the teaching table will be up again on Halloween from 4 to 7 PM. We will be folding bats and pumpkins. I hope to see you there!
November 19, 2011: Park Slope Barnes & Noble, starting @ 10:30AM
Come one, come all to the B&N at Park Slope (7th Ave, bet. 8th & 7th). Join me and the Brooklyn Free Space for a fun book-fest to raise funds for the school. From 10:30 to 3:30, there will be storytelling sessions for children and their parents. At 11. Deborah Pope, the Executive Director of The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation and close friend of the late Ezra Jack Keats will read the 50th anniversary edition of THE SNOWY DAY and share memories of the author. Then at 4, I will be reading/ book signing and doing origami. We hope you will buy books to support the school and if you do buy, please use these vouchers: vouchers.doc
November 24, 2011: Happy Turkey Day Everyone
Hope everyone is having a great family day and by all means, if you must, eat the turkey! ;-)
December 16, 2011: Creased Magazine December Issue
Guess what came in the mail today? Another great issue of Creased Magazine! You can learn how to fold my holiday model, Yuna’s wreath, for Christmas.
December 25, 2011: Happy Holidays!
Wishing everyone peace, love and joy this holiday season and may your 2012 be fabulous!!!
January 23, 2012: Year of the Water Dragon
Dragon is the only “mythical” animal sign in the Chinese zodiac and therefore have dynamic traits- people born in the year of the dragon is charismatic, creative and energetic. So, as a challenge to myself, I created two dragons to celebrate 2012. Happy Lunar New Year!
This Dragon Boat was folded from a long strip of duo paper. May your fortunes come this year!
This Dragon was cut free-hand from a long strip of Japanese paper and then folded to make it 3D. Dragon in Mandarin is pronounced “long.” Wishing you a long and happy life!