CREATING EXTRAORDINARY BEADS FROM ORDINARY MATERIALS

FOUND IT!!! This is the book i borrowed umpteen times from the library when i was a child. : ) Am going to borrow it again from NLB later to show it to the PMU team during meeting.

paper beads made from readymade argali paper

Argali Paper Beads made from readymade argali paper
the one still on the toothpick is stuck, proof that vaseline
is needed to coat the toothpick before making in order
for an easy, gentle release of a finished paper bead!

Made some paper beads on behalf of ash for samples to take to our final meeting at SMU on Tues evening. This will be an alternative method, creating beads from readymade stained argali paper, rather than the previous post on paper pulp argali beads.

The ones I have made are from the scraps from the creation of artworks for The Sustainable Shop exhibition. These beautiful pieces of argali paper had been prestained with plant dye , probably during the process of making the pulp, and the colour don't seem to run unlike felt tip markers.

I really miss making random little trinkets. The last time i made a bunch of these was when I was 12 after PSLE and doing drawings and other recreational stuff. I also remember borrowing the same beadmaking book more than 20 times in 3 years- sometimes i borrow it and let it sit at a corner of my room until it's due without flipping through it, just because I loved it so much!

I actually have some conical purple ones around the house(this reminds me, i should make a conical one with instructions from the back of my mind!)

Little Humble Handmade at AWARE Community Day Market

I met z and josh at Dover MRT at 10.45am but the rest haven't arrived, so i took off alone with cin's white tablecloth. There were many stalls and people were busy setting up their spaces, filling it with food and drinks and other goodies. I had trouble finding our stall. I am neither good with speaking up in such occasions and struggled to find the empty stall, not knowing how to contact the person in charge amidst the crowd. I walked thru the stalls and finally, settled down awkwardly when I saw the stall no 21 at the bottom right corner of the table. I dared not look at anyone at all, but just concentrated on displaying the only items i had on the tablecloth i had just laid out. I was going to start book binding again when there was a tap on my shoulder and.. MALISA came by! :)

stall 21!

from left to right(ok not really) :
on standing chipboards are Malisa's bracelets $12.90 for a bunch/ box of postcards and bowl full of assorted beaded bracelets1 for $2.00, 3 for $5.00 and 1 for $2.00/ standing piece that holds Puspita's toadstool keychains $5.00 each, 2 for $9.00/ Lena's painted pots $10.00 for the smaller ones, $15.00 for the bigger ones/ handmade canvas bag, stencil screenprinted text by Nia $10.00 each/ far left, rings displayed in a box by Mingrong $4.90 each/ hairbands by Zoey $5.00 for plain ones, $8.50 for those with bows/ pouches by Cindy $4.00 for teeny tiny one, $8.50 for larger ones/ a shoal of piranhas handprinted fabric by MichyWitchy $10.00 for shorter lengths, $20.00 for longer lengths/ sacrifice notebooks stapler bound by Mandy $2.00 each/ piranha softcover A6 blank journals $7.90 each/ Santa Kitty xmas cards by Malisa 5 in a pack for $4.00/ Box of Rings by Malisa too $6.00 per ring, 3 for $15.oo/ earrings by Mingrong ??/ other bracelets by Zoey, Nia and Mingrong at assorted prices

from left to right:

piranha pocket and the abandoned child canvas bags by Michy Witchy $15.00 each/ below the bags are handmade books by Mandy T and Michy Witchy A5- $15.00, A6 - $7.90, A7 - $4.00/ japanese cotton cloth bags by Mingrong Huang$9.90 each/ mixed fabric and canvas bags by Amanda Lee $10.50 each/ below the bags are smaller bags and pouches also by Amanda Lee(diff prices for diff sizes!)

at the end of the day, I didn't make much. but it was a good day catching up with little friends : )

a6 blank hand bound journals, $7.90 each

These handmade journals with original illustrations are finally bound and ready for sale along with other handmade items! (did i say handmade in one sentence twice? of course i did!)

Come on down to the AWARE Community Day Flea, Fun and Food Market to celebrate AWARE's 25th Birthday Party, as well as to support our stall. All 11 of us girlies will be there to welcome you with smiles and HANDMADE!!!

p/s: i've also just finished a blank journal for our PMU team leader, aluraneo who's granny's just kicked the bucket. don't have a pic of it right now

a shoal of piranhas: hand printed fabric pocket on canvas bag

making three of these piranha pocket canvas bags for sale at the AWARE flea market. $15.00 each! I take orders too : )

AWARE COMMUNITY DAY! SEE YOU THERE!

Our Stall number is No. 21 ! Come join us with fun, and our handmade items : )))
website here

ni two

eleventh hour spells: blog banner swap

After so many years, I've just only learnt how to use the Pages function here in blogger.
Eleventh Hour Spells has finally been revamped, and the little froggies of the past can now be forgotten(I've been wanting for the right picture to swap it for, but for now, I guess we'll just use plain, old & simple- type.).

the day the gerbils paid a visit

SURFACE 1°22 : the opening

a shoal of piranhas: hand printed fabric packaged!

a shoal of piranhas: handmade bag complete!

made this bag to carry my belongings to the exhibition opening : )
will be producing a limited number to be sold at the AWARE community day flea on 27th Nov! They will go for $20 each

SURFACE 1°22 : creating packaging material

I've decided to package the leftover hand-printed fabric like how ink & spindle does at the art markets, and put them on display too with the other journals.

SURFACE 1°22 : creating an accordion-fold journal

* post coming soon!

POPIN: i've joined in the fun!

POPIN is a group of artists, designers and creative individuals, who enjoy working with their hands, using methods and materials traditionally associated with craft. Based in Singapore, the group meets on an ad hoc basis to spend some time together to make work in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Through sharing ideas, knowledge and imagination, the group celebrates the joy of 'making' and aims to bring its fascination with the handmade to the contemporary art scene. The group also aims to spread its passion to the wider public through creative workshops, community projects, collaborative art shows and other exciting creative events.

SURFACE 1°22 : sneak peek of set up

vinyl stickers installed!

Maria installing with Emily overseeing

combination of machine and hand embroidery by Susie Rees. She teaches embroidery class in the Fashion
faculty. I really love what she is doing. Never done hand/machine embroidery before and would really love
to learn all these wonderful techniques! : )

got an elongated pedestal and Emily suggested for me to cover the top surface with one of my full length hand
printed fabrics. loved the idea, so ironed it then stuck double sided tape at the edges to secure the sides down.



some folded scrap hand printed fabric on the surface of the pedestal

a shoal of piranhas: book series complete for SURFACE 1°22

Lego Sack by Earthgirl

check out this lego sack!

i think i am obsessed. i bought more fabric todayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy .... in different shimmering shades of silver, blue ..........

i'm really really very inspired by harvest textiles and ink & spindle, i am still looking at their stuff- especially how they conduct textile printing workshops from scratch, then make toys from the instant hand-printed fabrics like these:They call it Softies class!

Ink & Spindle

After viewing countless posts by Harvest Textiles, i chanced upon Ink & Spindle, their textile design friends, and some photos of them conducting an open studio and creating a print run of their textile entitled, " Chalk in Snow" . Here's a snapshot of it from this entry


I'm really intrigued at how they print and register on their beautiful textile, makes me excited about creating more more more and more of my own textiles! : )))))

I also admire them for being eco-friendly. They have a whole list of ways they try to sustain this under the eco-friendly section of their website. LOVELY!!!

to end off, here's a picture of their stall at Finders Keepers - a design market( sigh, we don't have it here in Singapore... )
LOVELY LOVE IT LOVINGLY!!!!! AAAA these are driving me mad. I LOVE I LOVE I LOVE!

Coralie Bickford-Smith

XY recommended these really beautiful screenprinted covers to me today.



Check out more of Coralie Bickford-Smith's works here.

It was a good day of screen-printing. I have to thank Emily and Maria for allowing me access to the textiles workshop. If not for their assistance, I would have never been able to produce my own photo-silkscreen, and an opportunity for its prints to emerge on fabric (my first time!!) .


i'm starting to accept that i cannot help the imperfections that turned up during printing. hence, i'm not feeling that stressed at all. : )

the screen had problems again, while coating in the morning, the emulsion was very jelly-like with clumps of thick,hardened portions. had to deal with it.

here's the tiled width , one out of the
full length of 3m of brown polyester i got
the parts that didn't show up/are too
dark was due to the fact the the long
squeegee i usedhas been worn out at
the sides and hence,was unable to evenly
push ink through the screenprint's edge.

anyway, even though i'm disappointed, a positive consolation is that i was able to tile only width wise. also, ive decided to create fabric journals as the final pieces so i'll just use the good parts.


Marrick took baby Pachunkoo home and I'm glad!

found a little baby pachunkoo!

she was alone, big blue eyed, and wandering shakily outside Old Chang Kee near the Little India Staion carpark area. Mommy was not around, brothers and sisters were nowhere to be found.

Have researched and this baby's about 3-4 weeks old. We're lucky because at least she will be able to regulate her own body temperature from now on and will be no fuss as we won't need a heating pad

Harvest Textiles

http://harvesttextilestudio.blogspot.com < my current inspiration!!!
Thank you Cindy for sharing their beautiful textile design, prints and processes in their amazing blog : ) ) ) ))

mixing inks: want to get a print that looks
close to black but is actually dark chocolate brown

i didn't check my screen, didn't realise that
the coating was uneven, leading to this. . .
more of the right portion had too much ink
throughbecause the emulsion layer was too thin
as compared to the other areas zzzzzzzzz......

only the left part works for now
where printing is concerned.

my intention of printing a full 3m length of fabric for display in the surface design show cannot be done, unless i redo my screen again, and hope that it will work out. : ( that'll have to wait... till wednesday.

bought these beautiful polyester and cotton fabrics to print on. got them at $2 per metre for polyester and calico(6m), and 3m at $3 per metre for cotton.

washed and coated screen at 11am, got my digital print done at 1.30pm on tracing paper(A0=$10 at NAFA's printing shop) before heading back to have my screen exposed at 3pm.

they've installed new yellow lights at the washing
area, which really helps in preventing over washing
at the unexposed areas on the screen. :)

Paper Bead Making, Updates

Paper Bead Making, Updates and Painting


Ash'd do a better job than these samples.

finished reading After Dark and started painting these.