Atsui Cards is dry printed without solvents, inks, or vapors. These cards are pressed by our local printer on FSC and Green Seal certified paper from renewable resources and alternative, treeless fibers such as sugarcane or bamboo combined with post consumer recycled paper.
Everything is designed from an environmentally conscious mindset. The words are timeless and designed to be used for many occasions, preventing waste often generated by seasonal trends.
When my father (Chun Shing Tsui) passed away a few years ago, I went to Hong Kong with my sister and mother to tie up some loose ends. We met up with his best friend during our last day there and after dinner, he surprised us by bringing out a box of my father’s letters.
In that box, on all kinds of paper, we quickly, but very delicately, picked apart his letters and slowly poured over each word. We read about how he wanted to improve his English by writing frequently and only in the language. We noticed how quickly his grammar and vocabulary got better when the letters were actually weeks and months apart. His handwriting revealed his hesitation, excitement, and hardships. We read about how he struggled financially and needed to borrow money to continue his college education in America. These stories all unfolded and led us to know more about the man who became Dad. There, in writing, the new stories we had craved of him were now in this tangible form, unedited and in his own voice. His letters contained a truth that his best friend would never be able to fully convey.
We were offered one letter from that precious box at the end of the night. My sister remarked how lucky we were to find them all written in English. She has that letter today and confided that she takes it out to read every now and then.
My father’s absence made me realize what is valuable in life. I can still feel his presence in the letters we have at home. His legacy lives on in the people he helped build a better life, and in my family and me. I hope to do the same, beginning with this small step to strengthen ties between strangers and friends all over the world.
I’ve heard many stories that gave me goosebumps when I learned that my work inspired people who didn’t expect to write, but found themselves buying one or more of my cards. I met a woman who was attending a fertility clinic and saw my cards as a way to support her group of friends going through the same process (she picked Dream and Luck). I heard about a man who bought five of my cards (each one with a different word) to write his wife, and described that he would present them to her with the last card ending in Yes. There were even stories about shoppers who completed their writing at the store before leaving. Meeting people and hearing about how their lives intertwined with my work have been gratifying. If you have a story you’d like to share and would like them published here, please send an email to: hello@atsuicards.com.
April has always loved letter writing since she was young. She experimented with the combination of alternative fibers and traditional letterpress technology for dry printing. Atsui Cards is the result of her experiment.
Atsui Cards is about the power of a single written word to move the human spirit.
I’ve been fortunate to have found an warm and amazing community here in Los Angeles. After spending some time in solitude over the past few years, I ventured out of my shell because I had an idea that I wanted to pursue for myself. It began with Yes and ended up being a much bigger project than I imagined. I found many people along the way who did their best to help bring this project to life. Thank you.
Copyright © 2009 1 Thess, Inc. All rights reserved.
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