BEYOND / A PERSONAL ARCHIVE

My practice is shaped not only by formal education, but by adventure.

Things I have carried, repaired, drawn, photographed, taught and begun—often before I knew they would become part of my design practice.

Scroll to wander ↓
Xiao Chen with students during teaching in Tibet

A classroom, a plateau, and the beginning of learning through encounter.

Teaching in a classroom
A child and a dog photographed in the street

Adventure is not a separate chapter. It changes how I look, what I notice, and what I choose to make.

A historic painting during restoration
Detail of a historic painting under restoration
Working with time

Restoration taught me to slow down: to read material traces, respect authorship and understand that care can be a form of design.

Handwritten field notes and calligraphy
Chinese gongbi painting of a guardian figure
Chinese painting of a seated figure
Chinese painting of a guardian figure
Ink portrait study
Chinese ink figure drawing
Figure painting on paper
Traditional figure study
Ink, mineral colour, paper, patience.
Digital fashion illustration
Digital portrait drawing
Drawing moves between hand and screen.

I return to the figure through different tools—sometimes as observation, sometimes as costume, character or imagined identity.

Independent clothing experiment

careless
move

A personal fashion label created as a space for graphics, garments and attitude to meet.

Careless Move independent clothing brand

One garment image remains as a trace of a self-initiated label—an early experiment in turning attitude into something wearable.

Before an object becomes polished, it lives as a line, a question and a possibility.

Jewellery design sketch collection
Technical jewellery drawing sheet
Technical jewellery drawing sheet
Technical jewellery drawing sheet
Gold jewellery colour and composition study
Chinese calligraphy artwork reading Hou De Zai Wu

Not a résumé of side interests—an unfinished record of how a practice becomes a life.