Yu&Me Books Bookmark Collab!
This year I had the honor of collaborating with Yu & Me Books to create custom Spirited Away themed bookmarks for the shop!
Storytime
Growing up in NYC, during my early childhood years my mother ran a small gift shop in Chinatown to help make ends meet. The hours were harsh and unforgiving — with tourism business always a constant unknown variable.
Despite best intentions and dedication to keeping the shop open — after a few rough years (and even one gang related incident) she eventually sold the shop to another owner. She went ahead to pursue other business ventures — but this period of struggle was especially poignant and gave color to her success later on.
It just so happened that her gift shop was located on Mulberry Street — the same street as Yu & Me Books.
172 Mulberry Street
Standing outside what used to be my mother’s gift shop!
To have the chance to sell bookmarks in Yu & Me Books, on the same street my mother used to sell souvenirs at her gift shop was a particularly special and meaningful moment — almost as if life had come full circle in a way.
Creating the bookmarks
One February afternoon I worked with Yu & Me Books staff Theresa to draft bookmark designs — while sharing coffee and tea. Hanging on the wall near the counter was a small No Face figure from the Spirited Away movie, which gave us an idea to design a bookmark that featured him reading.
No Face key charm for inspiration
After brainstorming with Theresa, we decided the final design would have on No Face reading on the front side, with the back side featuring “Yu & Me Books” ♥ “@kintsugi.print”
Once the design was finalized, I spent roughly 5 hours carving both the front and back sides of the bookmark ♥
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4” x 6” rubber block (split in half)
Carving kit with blade sizes #1 + #5
After the carving was complete, I then went ahead and printed 25 bookmarks (and another set of 25 charcoal spirit bookmarks) for a total of 50 bookmarks as the first official order!
As a final touch, when dropping off the first batch at the store, Theresa and I sat together and laminated the bookmarks.
After trimming each bookmark, they were officially displayed in the store and ready for sale!
A few weeks later…
I was pleasantly surprised to find in my inbox an email from Theresa letting me know people were loving the bookmarks! And in just 3 weeks they were nearly sold out, resulting in a new batch request of double the size.
As I write this, I am sitting at home after just dropping off the second batch.
I’m so touched by all the encouragement and support from the Yu & Me Books community — while the bookmarks may seem like a small step, for me this was a major milestone. One day I hope to be a print artist full time, and having the bookmark success means that I am one step closer to my dream.
I can’t express enough how grateful I am to Lucy, Theresea, CJ, and Yu & Me staff who have helped bring this to life! And to everyone who bought a bookmark — thank you, thank you, thank you!!
- Helen ❤️
