Earth to Dorcas

We had a wonderful time last Saturday hosting our first run of the Living Storybook!

When .pui and I were putting together our book, “The Three Hungry Microbes”, one of the gardens that inspired the illustrations in the book was one that Cuifen frequently visits and tends to - Boon Lay Nature Garden! Which was why we wanted to bring art back into the garden and invite people to have some fun in their day, while learning more about nature.

Here’s a rundown of what we did:
🧩 Some light puzzle activities as a warm-up (from !)
📖 Live storytelling with our book, “The Three Hungry Microbes”
🌳 An exploration of Boon Lay Nature Garden, where participants could find artworks co-created with the community, including
🌼 A nature mandala led by .experience
🍂 Compost-making demonstration & activity
🎨 Doodling artworks on a travelling canvas

Sign-ups are still open for our second run this Saturday, link to sign-up is in both and my bios. See you there!

It’s been…8 months since our children’s book was launched! 🥹✨🌸

It’s crazy how fast time passes by. Since February 2023, .pui have been on a journey to figure out how to put together a children’s book - from forming the idea to how to go about publishing it. Many of you may know that we spent almost a full year figuring out the angle for the story, another just to find a publisher, and then quite a few more months to refine it to its final form.

We’ve embarked on so many adventures since, and have been actively figuring things since, especially as first time authors. It hasn’t always been easy figuring out this landscape together, but I’m grateful that we’ve always had each other’s backs from the beginning 🥹 From sharing laughter, conversations, occasionally compost and color pencils, I’m really glad to have come on this journey.

Tomorrow will be when we are piloting our “Living Storybook” experience! We’re trying this thing out where instead of offering just a storytelling session, we bring the story to life right in the very garden that inspired many of the illustrations in the book. Where people can come and discover whimsical artworks, learn about nature, and just be able to have fun ✨

Sign-ups for tomorrow are closed, but we still have our sessions on 25th April, 9.30am-11.30am or 4-6pm! Link in mine and ‘s bio :)

For those that signed up for tomorrow, see you soon!

It truly takes a village to publish a book, but it is so worth it 🥹 Thank you for being part of our journey.

Join us for our living storybook - a fun-filled, whimsical adventure in Boon Lay Nature Garden!

pui and I have been working hard, going to different communities and co-creating artworks to add to Boon Lay Nature Garden. It is one of 3 community-centered gardens in Jurong Central Park, where people get to encounter and experiment with nature-based gardening practices outside of their everyday experiences :) It is also one of the many nature spaces that Cuifen tends to around Singapore!

I first visited Boon Lay Nature Garden when we were taking visual references for our children’s book, “The Three Hungry Microbes”. Many of the illustrations inside are inspired by this particular garden, including the trees, flowers, animals, etc. So one day, Cuifen suggested for us to do the reverse - why not we bring the garden to life through the magic of stories too?

That’s when we had the idea to transform the current garden into a whimsical, adventure-filled space filled with little magical moments to find. And we would love to bring you to the garden as well to experience it with us! That’s why we have organised 4 sessions across 2 Saturdays for you to come and join our Living Storybook!

There will be storytelling with our book, a scavenger hunt (With artworks co-created with and .experience ), a nature mandala activity as well as a large community artwork at the end where you can doodle things that have inspired you throughout the session!

Details:
18th or 25th April (Saturdays)
AM Session: 9.30am - 11.30am
PM Session: 4pm - 6pm
Location: Boon Lay Nature Garden

Link is in my bio as well as the QR code on the second slide. In case of wet weather, we will postpone the session on the day itself with 1.5 hour prior notice.

See you there!

This event is supported by SG Eco Fund

Join us this Sunday afternoon for a casual and relaxing time making art!

As part of .pui and my project to create a Living Storybook in Boon Lay Nature Garden, we are adding a travelling, community artwork into the garden to add some joy and color into the space (More details about the Living Storybook to be revealed later) 🎨 The artwork is meant to reflect what we love about nature and what it means to be connected in an ecosystem, and will be in a form of a long canvas scroll where you can draw, doodle, or write. This Sunday, we will be bringing the artwork over to .hyc , who has kindly sponsored and provided a beautiful space for us to hold this event :) We would love for you to join us anytime between 2pm-5pm, no art experience required, and all materials will be provided. Just bring yourself, and a spirit of play 😉

For the first 30 participants who join us and complete a survey from SG Eco Fund, we will also be gifting a complimentary copy of “The Three Hungry Microbes”, a story about compost-making told from the perspective of our smallest beings!

Sign-up via the QR code, the link in our bios, or feel free to walk-in on the day itself.

See you this weekend!

Our book has travelled to…Taiwan! 🇹🇼

I recently went back to Taiwan to spend time with my sweet grandma and parents, and also to celebrate my 26th birthday there (yay!).

In both sides of my family, there is a history of education, working with children, entrepreneurship, writing, and being creative! When my grandparents moved to Taiwan, they started a kindergarten within their home. My grandma nurtured the kindergarten to life through her sharp business acumen and teaching, and my mom often helped out in teaching and looking after the kids, even when she was a kid herself. My mom loved writing chinese essays and won lots of writing competitions when she was younger. My grandpa was a pastor, and spent many hours of his day in his beloved study room, reading, writing, and thinking about how to express God’s love through his sermons.

On my dad’s side, my father gave us a deep love for learning from a young age and always took us to the bookstore every Sunday. No matter how much money we had, me and my siblings were always allowed to pick out one book to purchase, and it was something I looked forward to each week. My grandfather on my dad’s side was also a beloved school principal, and my grandma started many small businesses over her lifetime!

Going back to Taiwan always reminds me of my roots and how my gifts have been nurtured and passed down to me. And seeing my grandma get to hold the book .pui and I wrote together was surreal moment - because the published book felt like a physical representation of all the accumulation the love and sacrifice passed down from each generation to the next. The seeds that get to live in me were nurtured from the fruits of their labour.

None of this would have been possible if .pui hadn’t reached out and given me an opportunity to create a children’s book about compost-making together! I’m always inspired by the creative energy that she carries and how generously she shares her love for nature and life with others. It is that magic that has made the publishing of our first children’s book possible, even though this was a new experience for both of us.

To many more stories and adventures in the future :)

We had a wonderful time reading to the children from on Tuesday! Although it was 1st April, we were actually gathered to celebrate World Book Day 📚📒💭🌌! This was actually also my first time hearing that there was a whole day dedicated to book around the world. It was really adorable to see the kids dressed up as their favorite characters - some came as an apple 🍎, some as Spider-Man 🕸️, a fireman 🧑🏻‍🚒, Elsa ❄️, and even a lama 🦙 😂

It was really nice to be able to read to the kids in the outdoor area in front of the garden they tend to morning! As we flipped through the book, many children could identify things like millipedes, butterflies, and other plants and animals, and it really goes to show how impactful it is to have children connect with nature from an early age. After storytelling, we actually had a Q&A session with the kids which I particularly enjoyed. One of the questions struck a chord with me in particular:

“Why did you choose to become an author?”

This question was particularly poignant to me, as I’m currently incubating my debut author/illustrator book that will be released later on this year, and stepping fully into my own voice. I started thinking about what reading stories meant to me when I was their age - and I remembered the feeling of being immersed in another world. I remember the exciting feeling of picking up a book and wondering what was going to happen. What kind of adventure I could embark on that day? Who would I meet? How would I grow? I remember finding it so cool that authors and illustrators could tap into something that didn’t exist in real life, and somehow bring that vision to life in the form of a story. It made me feel like for a while, I could step into someone else’s shoes and imagine what it was like to be them, and it helped me learn about life in a way that was fun and meaningful. I hope that’s what we got to do that day, and I hope to write many more stories in the future.

Beautiful photos by Hwee Ling & Xuan, the teachers from Preschool by the Park :)

When .pui and I decided to write our story, we wanted kids to feel like they could be immersed in the world of soil 🌱🪱🍂🐛🦠 So instead of writing the story from the human’s perspective like we initially wanted, we decided to write it from the (very) hungry microbes’ perspective instead! Compost-making is not a common topic in Singapore, so this was our way of making learning exciting through a fun story 📖

Over many conversations and laughter, we had a lot of fun imagining what might be happening as the microbes munch on the food scraps! What would they look like as they are tossed? How would they interact with the earthworms? What kind of Easter eggs can we sneak in? Swipe to see some of the inside pages! ➡️

What has been really heartwarming for me as an illustrator is when we receive feedback from parents that their kids would flip the pages over and over again to find more details! Such as the different expressions on the microbes’ faces, or the different kinds of food scraps! It makes the work all worth it when I see them being able to derive both joy and learning from this story.

This book is published by , supported by SG Eco Fund , and can be purchased at (webstore and Takashimaya outlet) as well as borrowed from our national libraries

And if you would like, .pui and I would also really appreciate if you could help us leave a review on the Kinokuniya webstore too! Feedback is always appreciated, and will help to affirm our efforts and let us know how to grow as storytellers for future books too 🪱

Choosing to be an artist comes with its own set of “What ifs” everyday. Even now, there are many days where I question the financial stability, whether my art is good enough, where I am making the right choices.

But putting this together made me realise that younger me - the one who secretly wanted to just write fun stories and paint on walls but felt like she couldn’t - would have absolutely freaked out in the best way possible that this is our life right now. So thank you for not only giving me the space to share my art with the world, but to do it in a way where I can continue to prioritise my rest, my health and my joy everyday.

This is who I’m making art for 💕

Hehe really love this illustration that I did last year - it was when I first started experimenting with using watercolor textures and brushes within my digital art! I was inspired to draw Mei (my OC) and Ming (a little acorn boy!) sitting in a flower, munching on some grapes. I imagine that it may be early morning, and a light rain has just passed, leaving behind little dewdrops on the plants! I particularly loved the details that I added in here too.

A reminder to take the time to find joy in the everyday!

Dropped by Cuifen Pui and Earth to Dorcas's storytelling session at Sangeetha's beautiful .experience space. The Three Hungry Microbes is indeed and it felt like I attended a composting crash course after reading the book!

Get your copy at major bookstores or if you're lucky, you may find autographed copies on our shelves in the coming weeks!

Happy Chinese New Year!! 🐎

Took me a while to get into the spirit of CNY 🍊 I wish I had these Ang Paos printed to give out in time 😂 but never late than never right haha. Here’s my design for the year of the horsie!! Wishing everyone a year of fiery year in all the best ways 💕