Mei Chen: The Art of Tiny Hands and Big Concepts

Mei Chen makes tiny hands. She makes hands in all poses, with skin and nails of all colors, and all kinds of accessories. And in that simple act, although she started out with the goal of making something cute and memorable, she makes a big impact. 

“I started out making them as sculptures and not earrings, and they were bad,” she says, laughing. “And then, years later, I started doing it again and trying to force myself to get better at it. I was like ‘If I just keep doing this, they will look less bad.’ I happened to have earring accoutrement, and I decided to do earrings.” 

Realizing that tiny sculptures, while cool, aren’t exactly huge sellers, she decided to make the hands in pairs and turn them into earrings, and they caught on. 

“When I first started doing it, my friends were like, ‘Oh, can I get one of those?’ and I was like, ‘You really want that?’ And it just kept going like that and became a business, which was not what I had intended at all.” 

Despite their simplicity, the hands, crafted with different skin tones, empowering gestures, nail colors, and other additions appealed to people who saw themselves in the art. From Black hands with rainbow nails to hands giving the middle finger or holding vibrators, there was something for everyone. 

“When I started making them, I wanted someone to look at the hands and go, ‘Someone made this for me; they had me in mind when they did this,’” Chen says. “That was the whole point of doing this.” 

She also identifies proudly as a bipolar, queer, and BIPOC artist, celebrating the intersections between her marginalized identities. 

“I think that a big part of what makes my hands special is that I am specifically making them because I am very open about my identities as a bisexual, bipolar, Asian woman, and because of that, because I’m proud of these things, I wanted other people who have these identities to be proud too. For mental health, I made this piece that I call ‘remember to take your meds,’ and tried making miniatures of the pills I actually have to take. My intention was to have medication to be normalized because I think a lot of times when people think of medications for mental illness, they think of it as a crutch. I need my meds to live, and I’m not going to make myself or anyone else feel bad about that.” 

In addition to these ideals, Chen puts her money where her mouth is and gives back to the community when she can. When she first started making hands, she included Black Power fists and gave money to the George Floyd Memorial Fund. She also gave back on Native American Heritage Day and has donated to help end violence against Native women. And, as an Asian American, she wanted to participate in the movement to stop Asian hate. 

“I looked up a bunch or organizations to donate to, and trying to pick one was kind of hard because, unlike over the summer with George Floyd, who was the biggest name in that movement, Asian people keep getting murdered in batches, so there isn’t just one face,” she laments. “So, I didn’t know which person’s family to give to because there are literally so many, which is fucked. But I settled on doing the Asian Mental Health Collective because Asian people don’t like talking about mental health. So, I thought it was so important to help get to a place where we can talk about it more.”

Now, despite starting the business as a way to make art, make others feel included, and give back, she is able to spend all her time on creating and selling her jewelry. She has been able to grow her brand organically by reaching out to the community. 

“It’s so funny, because people ask me if doing TikToks is part of my marketing strategy,” she says. “I have found if you make a really messy story, like something you read that you found online, people really like that. And I make YouTube videos that are just me talking, which isn’t really marketing, but people like those. And I reach out to magazines like this and share my story.” 

If you want to help Chen continue to make a living off of art and still find a way to give back, you can find her tiny hands at etsy.com/shop/TheMeitriarchy.