Personal brand

Seen & Felt

Seen & Felt is a personal non-commercial brand for a collection of passion projects designed to explore my potential and with a goal to process feelings and emotions through art.

How it started

Capturing memories

I started Seen & Felt while working at Disney. It was my life-long dream to work there and once I finally got in the amount of happiness was overwhelming. I’ve always made art as a way to reflect on life, so I started going to the parks after work and paint watercolors of my favorite places. Through my drawings I discovered that I was deeply attracted to the aesthetics of the Victorian era - it felt like home to me.

Building a brand

As my collection of art projects grew, I started seeing a strong theme and color scheme throughout my work. I became obsessed with the warm Victorian aesthetics and flowers. One sleepless night, I made a website to host my artwork and named it Seen&Felt. The name alludes to the mediums I work in (visual and felt), as well as a mindset of observation and reflection.

A nook on Main Street U.S.A at Magic Kingdom, my first Plein Air painting

Felting flowers

At the same time I got into felting. Felting is a process of tangling sheep’s fiber with needles or just water. I made my first flower lamp out of an IKEA lamp because it was too bright and the felt dispersed the light really well. I had my very first photoshoot at an Anthropologie store. Besides becoming my go-to night lamp, this Enchanted Rose was also a metaphor of my passing days at my dream company.

felt Flower Lamps

Reflecting on beauty

These roses are made of organic wool sourced in California. Each petal is hand-dyed and hand-felted with love. The lamps emanate gentle light, alike that of a candle. It lightens the room without waking up. Perfect for bed times and mood-setting.

Peach Rose

Wine Rose

Cherry Rose

Garden Rose

Tea Rose

About the lamp

The petals are hand-dyed with avocado pits and other natural dyes to achieve the dusty pink color. Delicate, but not fragile, the lamps feature a flexible stem and fully adjustable leaves for customization purposes.

✦ Built-in LED; 25,000 hours of light, nonflammable

Process

The creation of flower lamps is very intricate and usually takes multiple days.

It all starts with a good old watercolor sketch and a plan.

For the petals, I color wool with natural dyes (like avocado pits).

Then, I use wet felting to turn raw wool into felt strips.

To shape the wool into the leaves, I use a needle felting tool.

Then I wet felt them them with hot water and soap.

Finally, I wrap the stem, attach the leaves, and sculpt the flower bud

photography

Watercolors

What is Plein Air?

Plein Air means painting outdoors and from observation, as opposed to indoors from reference. The movement originated in 19th-century and became a central feature of French impressionism.

For me, painting Plein Air is both a challenge and a meditation. I started doing it while working at Disney where I often went to parks after work. Since it was my life-long dream to work there, I wanted to absorb every little detail of that magical experience. I soon discovered that painting is the best way to solidify memories and train my eye to see beauty and balance.

My portable watercolor set and paper have now become my loyal companions on every trip.

invitation design

It was a pleasure to illustrate this whimsical wedding invitation for Hina and Chris. When developing the overall look and feel I was inspired by Haas-Lilienthal, a Victorian heritage house where the wedding took place. I integrated the pink balloon as a reference to the couple’s proposal story.