The Cloud Laundry

The soul of this piece begins with that humble wooden ladder standing at the center of the frame.

Before my younger son was born, a dear friend who knew my passion for miniatures gave me a DIY model kit as a baby shower gift. It wasn’t a gift for the baby, but one chosen specifically for me. She hoped that amidst the whirlwind of motherhood, I would still have a "creative sanctuary" of my own—a way to ward off the shadows of postpartum depression.

However, life soon cast a heavy shadow. Shortly after birth, my younger son fell gravely ill and was hospitalized. It was the darkest, most agonizing period of my life. In the midst of sleepless nights and suffocating anxiety, I turned to that model kit. As I focused every breath on assembling that tiny wooden ladder, the act of creation became my refuge, allowing my restless heart to find a moment of stillness.

When my son finally recovered and life regained its rhythm, that little ladder remained a constant reminder to cherish the beauty of the present. I noticed a curious coincidence: both of my sons, at the same age, shared a fascination with watching the washing machine spin for hours. Their innocent wonder moved me, sparking the concept for this entirely handmade "Cloud Laundry." I wondered: if two children ran a laundromat, what would they wash? During a long rainy spell when we were stuck indoors, the boys imagined washing the dark clouds clean to make the sky bright again. That was the spark for this vision—a laundry room floating among the clouds, washing away the gloom that confines us to let the light back in.

And so, this scene came to life: the younger son watching the washing machine while the older brother hangs the freshly laundered clouds to dry. This space, at once surreal and deeply visceral, captures a fragment of their childhood—a quiet, enduring light that will forever illuminate my heart.