In the quest to continue to create something new I had an idea to work with local tattoo artists I randomly met one day through my dear friend Li Peng of Reflector Band fame. He introduced me to Wang Ke and her husband, they have their own tattoo studio on Bei Luo Gu Xiang. I spent several hours with them giving them ideas for Plastered tattoo I wanted to create. The results so far have been spectacular. Working with local artists has been a theme for Plastered since we started back in 2006, its particularly nice when they live 400m from your home and you don’t have to leave the hu tongs.

The idea for this tattoo came from revolutionary opera, something I’ve always wanted to work on, I explained to Wang Ke, who drew this particular bit of artwork, that i wished to have two sexy ladies holding guns a mention of my home Beijing and the rest was pretty much down to Wang Ke. We have 3 more tattoo inspired pieces in the mix right now, we also have a special Plastered tattoo logo. I will post them here as soon as they are finished.

Here are some pics of Wang Ke and her husband and the artwork.

Notably Mirch Masala the Indian restaurant closed its doors after the rent went up to 600,000rmb a year, the boss from Indian closed up and moved to Ri Tan to open another in a cheaper location. Fish Nation also just closed its doors, probably Beijing’s best fish and chip restaurant, I’m not sure about their rent but I know its gone very high. Then today saddest of all Grifted closed shop, probably my favorite brand on the street, they actually created something new rather than copying Plastered, which was very refreshing.
 
Its going to be hard to keep the street cool, traditionally the small creative brands are not always the best at business, so as rents go up they have to leave and in their place all too often open up generic tourist shops doing nothing but resale which is boring. So as the street become more boring the rents will go down again, its much like the landlords are committing suicide going for the highest possible price only to ruin the streets feel and then the rents go down again.

Here are a few pics taken in 2004. I’m certainly not going to be closing shop, I feel passionate about creative new products and designs to inspire our much loved customers, I also feel passionately about Nan Luo Gu Xiang, where I started my business and where my 3 daughters have lived since they were born in Beijing.

I’m feeling British today! Which is strange because after spending half of my life here in Beijing I sometimes forget where I’m from. The reason I’m feeling more British than usual is because of the chap in this photo, the new British Ambassador to China, Sebastian Wood CMG. A couple of weeks ago I was invited to attend a function at the British Embassy to meet the new Ambassador, and that I did: a really nice bloke. We talked very briefly, I gave him my card, and then invited him round to my humble home for a cup of tea. What I didn’t expect was for him to actually give me a ring and come over on his bicycle over Chinese New Year and visit our rather chaotic home on Nanluoguxiang. We spent a great afternoon with Ambassador Wood in the hutongs, where we live. Royal Britannia!

Here is link to trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwNdwpvjs0c

For those of you without access to youtube in China will post a youku link soon.

The glorious set of stain glass icons is nearly finished, here is the last member to the team of 4. Zhou En Lai, designed by French/Chinese artist Tian Tian I can’t wait for this one to be made into a glass window. The stain glass makers are all the way down in Jiang Xu province so it’s another 3 weeks till I get my hands on him. I will be showing off all these stain glass windows in April so keep an eye on this blog for when and where.