WORKING HANDS: Jenny Kwok

As a stationery brand, we are always curious how and what people use our stationery goods for. With this blog series, focusing on the hands at "work" and beyond, we ask five questions about the usage and meaning of the stationery tools to our friends in Los Angeles.

For the twenty-second post of WORKING HANDS, we visited Jenny, an operations manager based in LA, at her Glendale home. She works for an apparel company.

Jenny Kwok in a red dress writing at a round white table by a bright window, with a potted plant nearby.

Q1. How do you use your Hightide goods?

I’ve been using them to keep my craft projects organized! The penco Storage Containers are perfect for keeping small doo dads safe so I don’t lose any pieces and can take them on the go! The small office supplies (scissors, pocket knife, ruler, cutting mat) are the perfect sizes to work on my miniatures.

Jenny Kwok in a red dress works at a white table spread with a cutting mat, tools, notebooks and craft supplies.

Hands steadying a ruler on a cutting mat while cutting paper, beside scissors and an orange storage caddy.

Hands using scissors to trim paper over a penco cutting mat, with a metal ruler and craft tools nearby.

A fingertip beside a miniature dollhouse kitchen with tiny table, open book, teacup, stool and tiled floor.

Jenny is showing us one of her miniatures she assembled –– she literally puts together each of these *tiny* things inside of the house, for example; a book, flowers in a vase, a coffee bean bag...everything!

Q2. In our online / tech driven world, what does it mean to do things by hand to you?

It means everything! My day job has a lot of screen time - emails, spreadsheets, reading. And I’m sure, like most people, time spent off work also includes lots of phone and screen time. Doing things by hand keeps me connected to the present moment. Whether it’s writing a letter or card or doing some craft, I think it’s a very therapeutic way to tune out and into oneself and the act of doing! There’s also something very touching receiving a gift by hand - knowing there is a physical mark of that person that shows in the work.

Hands holding small scissors over a printed felt craft panel, with red, black and green felt pieces and a tin of red, green

One of Jenny's current craft projects is making Snoopy Christmas ornaments. She says that a Hightide's Tiny Container is perfect for keeping her sequins and embroidery threads.

Felt Snoopy holiday wreath ornament with gold cord, resting on a desk beside printed sheets and an orange case.

Jenny Kwok in a red dress cuts a printed sheet at a white table, with orange pens and papers nearby.

Hand holding a tiny printed miniature label above a craft sheet of paper food and drink cutouts.

Hands placing a lit miniature Japanese sushi shop model on a white table beside a potted plant.

A miniature sushi restaurant she built. It involves with some electric wiring for the restaurant lighting.

Q3. Pen or pencil?

Pen! I like the permanence and record of mistakes lol.

Hands writing a note in black pen on a pink card, beside a white envelope and star-patterned boxes.

Handwritten letter on pink paper beside a white envelope and a pink star-patterned notebook.

Q4. What’s in your pen case, if you don’t use a pen case, how do you organize and store your stationeries?

In my pen case are writing pens, small ruler, xacto knives and blades, small pencil, scissors. All very utilitarian basics! My paper stationary I keep in small storage boxes.. one for notebooks, one for cards - I keep a box of different occasion and blank greeting cards I pick up so I’m always ready for an occasion!

Craft workspace with an open orange Storage Caddy of pens and blades, shears, cutting mat and green tin.

Q5. What is your most favorite stationery?

Moleskin notebook - I was gifted one and used it as a journal. Since then the size is perfect for journaling and taking when a travel. I’m an occasional journaler but these notebooks I keep because it’s like keeping a written record of a period of my life. It’s interesting to go back and read and think about how much things and I as a person have changed. Also lots of long term memories I forget so it serves as my memory photograph.

Woman in a red top holds a stack of notebooks, one open to handwritten pages filled with cursive.

Orange notebook stacked on a dark notebook at the edge of a glass table above a textured woven rug.

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Jenny Kwok works as an operations manager at an LA based apparel company, Hansel from Basel. When she's not handling lots of pairs of fluffy socks and sweaters, she travels and works on her miniatures.