Ida is a hedgehog and the inspiration behind Ida & Ink. (And she runs our social media content too!)

Casting your eyes back to your childhood, you might remember that one special friend who accompanied you on all of your adventures - near or far. Whether visiting family a continent away or following unicorns in rainbow-soaked dreamscapes, my best friend was a hedgehog named Ida.

She stands around 8 inches tall on a good day and sports a round belly (depending on how much popcorn she has eaten) which sometimes gets in the way of her completing somersaults in the forest. She is very picky about food. She is self-conscious about her prickles. She gets extremely irritated when she is not the center of attention. She tends to snore (and makes other at times unpleasant noises throughout the day) and is one of the most impatient hedgehogs you will ever meet.

Additionally, she has the biggest heart of any creature great or small.

When I was 10 years old, I lost her on a flight returning from the summer holidays. I was absolutely distraught by my own recklessness and spent the next 6 weeks making “Missing” posters and strategizing how in the world I could ever find my beloved Ida. After many sleepless nights, for whatever reason, I stumbled across an early 2000s version of eBay and searched hedgehog puppet.

By some unexplainable miracle, once the webpage loaded - there was Ida! She was on the other side of the country and it was a good samaritan who found her on the airplane and posted her on the internet in hopes of reuniting her with her family. We placed our bid (much, much higher than the asking price) and 3 work days later, stuffed inside a cardboard FedEx package, she returned home. I looked at her right paw and there were my initials - faintly drawn in marker. It was her.

A hedgehog puppet isn’t just a bundle of fabric. A labrador isn’t just a four-legged hairball. A pair of shoes isn’t just something that protects your feet. What makes something extraordinary are the stories we attach to it; for me, an important act of celebrating the magic of the everyday.

Inspired by Ida, Ida & Ink creates bespoke art by celebrating such stories, hoping to make the world smile.