As many will know, before Ebony made the big move to Japan and fell
head-first into accidental craft celebrity, she worked as Deputy
Art Director for Vogue Living. But in 2010 she followed her heart to
Tokyo, where she now lives, working on various freelance design jobs and
inspired extra-curricular crafty projects! Her very first published
BOOK is out next month through Japanese publisher BNN books.
As you might expect, the Hello Sandwich Book
is filled with insanely cute craft projects (40, to be precise!),
covering paper craft, fabric projects, and more.
Whilst the text is in Japanese, the step-by-step pics and sweet styling
will I’m sure result in many Australian readers too.We asked Ebony a few questions about the making of her book
Can you tell us how did this book come about?
BNN made contact with me not long after I moved to Japan in June 2010 and asked me to be featured in their Girls Zine
book. Since then, I have been featured in a few BNN books and kept a
lovely ongoing relationship with them. I hosted a few workshops with BNN
and mt tape and started regular craft workshops at Kusakanmuri
(a florist and zakka space owned by BNN in Ebisu, Tokyo). One day,
after working with BNN for a while, I asked if I could show them my
design work in the hope that I could design a book for them, at the same
time they had also received a copy of my Hello Sandwich Gift Wrapping Zine
from my printer, and during the meeting they told me that rather have
me design a book for them, they would like me to make my own book for
them. I was blown away!
The book features so many of your intricate handmade delights, which begs the question – How long does a craft book like this take to produce?
I had been working on the projects for a about six months, but the
majority of the book was made in about three months. I shot all of the
‘how-to-make’ images myself in my mini-me apartment, but my photographer
shot the full bleed images and the rest of the book in about four days.
Can you tell us a little bit about the Japanese crew/publishers behind the book?
My first meeting with my editor was incredible. She spoke in
Japanese, I spoke in English and a tiny bit of broken Japanese but
somehow we got through the meeting with only looking up one word in the
dictionary.I had worked with my photographer and designer on other book projects
and so when my editor asked me if I had anyone in mind to work together
with on my book I was able to suggest them.
What are you looking forward to?
I am about to head off on a book promotion tour around Japan
including Kyoto and Osaka. We are getting ready for a book launch party
in Tokyo too! My publisher was talking about ordering cute Hello
Sandwich cookies! Also coming up is the Tokyo Art Book Fair,
a Hello Sandwich workshop at Tokyu Hands and then I am starting work on
my next book. I’m also working on a new Hello Sandwich Tokyo Guide!
A limited number of signed copies of the Hello Sandwich Book are available now from Ebony’s online shop, and will be shipped next month as soon as they’re back from the publisher!
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![Ebony-Hello_3](http://thedesignfiles.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Ebony-Hello_3.jpg)
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