We’re already months into 2022 and well past Chinese New year but I am finally getting a few products with a special design on them and I wanted to share with you! As many of you know, this year is the year of the Tiger! When I go about designing different products, I usually am sparked by something in my life. This could be a plant I see, a color palette I like, how I am feeling etc. I rarely create designs based on holidays or other seasonal trends, this is mostly because since I am still growing, I need a larger window of time to sell my products. This is one reason why I haven’t made any designs based off of the chinese zodiac before for example.

When I found out that 2022 was going to be the year of the tiger however, I knew that I might need to make an exception. You see, four of my lovely family members are tigers! How fun to have so many tigers in the family :) My mom, older sister, brother in law and younger brother are all tigers. After some nudging from my mom I decided to make a year of the tiger design. But what I decided to do was to make this design in their honor.

I thought this would be the perfect design to include on my gaiwan series to honor the Chinese roots of the zodiac signs. In the process of designing the tiger, I thought of my family. I went for a contrast that I see in all of them. In their own ways, they are fierce and passionate which is displayed through the tiger’s sprawled body position and open/growling mouth. But just as much as they are all bold, they are gentle and beautiful like the camellia sinensis leaves and flowers that surround the tiger.

I will have a couple if items with this design but the first one will be this enamel pin which will be in my shop on 4/14 ! You can see the design below and find it here when it hits the shop!