This does look a bit scrappy, but we think it is charming too :)

We LOVE re-using newspaper from other countries that comes with deliveries we get. Most of our stock and material comes from Japan <3 so we have a lot of recycled Japanese newspaper that gets re-used in your orders. Before I left Japan I stocked up on newspapers too... especially baseball specials.

We always use MT washi tapes to wrap orders. We sometimes get them from a stationery shop called Milligram, but mostly I just stock up when we go back to Japan from stationery and packaging shops we found there. I used to bring back tape and packaging materials when I would travel to India more often too.

I was very inspired in Japan seeing the beautiful packaging everyday things came in. We visited a pickle shop in Ohara (near Kyoto) called Shibakyu and I really loved the colourful paper & stamps they used on their pickle packaging.

We met Natsuko-san when she used to run a soba restaurant in Kyoto. Not only was it our favourite soba we had ever had, Natsuko-san and her partner Yoko-san were very interested in 'total design' (a term they introduced me to). Total design was a concept they were inspired by after working together at a famous cafe in Mashiko called Starnet. Natsuko-san's soba shop was very beautiful. They spent years refining their craft of hand made soba. They tried to use as many organic ingredients as they could (a challenge in Japan!) & amazingly they did the cafe fit out themselves & made their own clothes & the curtains at the shop, sourced each piece of pottery from their time in Mashiko (a famous pottery town). They also handmade stamps that they used on recycled scrap paper to write down orders or use for the bill.

When we first started Klay (back in 2016) we commissioned my old friends Anna & Harry (who also make the Lunar Calendars) to make us an artwork for Klay that we could use a bit like a logo, to send a postcard out with orders.

At some point in our Klay journey, quite early on, we decided that swing tags (the tags that hang from products/ garments in shops) were not actually needed for the products we make. We thought it would be nicer to send something with orders that people could hold on to, stick to the fridge, or use as a bookmark, or something to write a list on the back, or to be used as a card if gifting Klay items.

Something that was made by artists. We didn't want a photo of our work or someones house - we thought it was a nice opportunity to create something people would hopefully want to hang onto.

Anna & Harry made the first Klay postcard artwork in what has gone onto be a series of postcard artworks we have commissioned from artist friends. This postcard is the one we send with first time orders.

The next postcard we got made, is by another artist friend Ilke Gers. This postcard is the one we send out with third time orders :) Can you see the Klay letters in the postcard? K L A Y

Ilke Gers is a visual artist from Aotearoa New Zealand. She is now based in Rotterdam. She makes site-specific installations and works with text, drawing and publishing to explore the relationship between the body, movement and language. We are really lucky that Ilke made us this artwork!

The artwork of these postcards was made for us by Cynthia Fan. I had been a fan of Cynthia's incredible arrangements via her instagram account for years, so asked if she would be open to creating some artwork for us to print as postcards. She made these when she was back home in South Africa visiting (she now lives in the UK). We were intrigued when she introduced us to the Sausage Tree, which features in this artwork.

The latest postcard to join our collection was made for us by our friend Palestinian artist Amanny Ahmad. We had been planning this postcard collaboration for Klay for a long time. Amanny took this photo in May 2023, when she was cooking for a Palestinian wedding; it depicts a traditional Palestinian dish called "Warak Einab" or "Dawali" (stuffed grape leaves). A longtime focus of her work has been representing Palestinian food-and the struggles and resistance attached to it-to global audiences, while educating about the implications of culinary colonialism in the ongoing ethnic cleansing of her people. I have looked up to Amanny for years and I have learned so much from her. I am grateful to her for inspiring so many of us with the beauty she gives through food, art practice, writing, kindness & truth. We are proud to be sending these postcards with orders. This is the postcard we send out with second orders.

If you ever want anything gift wrapped just add a note at checkout, or send me an email.