Each year I make a small souvenir to carry on my travels and trade with people I meet along the way. This year's edition is a tiny die cut envelope packed with a business card, a paper sticker, two vinyl stickers, and an iron on embroidered patch. A little pocket sized hello from wherever our paths happen to cross.

The 2026 special design is an open box of Zebra matches, something that I also plan to have tattooed later this year.

The idea comes from a story my grandmother told me about her parents. They lived in the mountains of southeastern Serbia, near the Bulgarian border. One winter, they were caught in a blizzard while walking home and spent hours wandering through the snow, unable to find their way. By the time they stumbled across an empty cottage, my great grandmother was already suffering from frostbite and drifting into delirium.

What saved them was a single box of matches my great grandfather happened to have in his pocket. They lit a fire, waited out the storm, and survived. Without those matches, I wouldn't exist.

I've always been fascinated by how history can hinge on something so small. An ordinary box of matches quietly altered the course of my family's story.

The design is based on the iconic Zebra matches that seemed to be in every pocket across the Balkans when I was growing up. It's a small nod to nostalgia, and a reminder that seemingly insignificant things can have extraordinary consequences.