Printing, Book-Binding, Light-Up Brooch

It was fun to meet people with the same interest and doing things together during these workshops.  There are some regulars like myself whom I meet now and then.  And guess what, I actually found someone staying in the same block as me now and she turns out to be an old neighbour (I don't know her previously, though my parents do)!

I have not printed with leaves before.  I picked quite a number of leaves, but discovered fern is one of the most hardy and give interesting print compared to most others.

This was something new for us, incorporating a LED light bulb into our sewing. Remember electric circuit, + and - of a battery, closed circuit and stuff like this in your Science!?! Felt like I'm back in school! 

My third attempt at lino print.  I carved tatted rose stalks for this piece.  My carving skill still needs much improvement.  1 new element though - we did multi-colour printing rather than just mono black!

I signed up for this workshop thinking about fashion design in term of fabrics and clothes, but guess what, we did jewellery - earrings and bracelet!

Went for a 2nd round of the seal engraving workshop.  After the workshop last July, I have wanted to get my own knife and stones to try more on my own, but it didn't happened. Anyway, this time round, I did an auspicious phase rather than my name. 

Sep ATC Session in Bishan Library - Found Poetry

Do you always admire those who can write poems? I do.  From some international ATC swaps I did previously, I found out about haiku and found poetry. Now I'm writing my own. That aside, I'm eager to share such poetry writing with more. 

I hosted and introduced participants to found poetry in our Sep ATC session.  Initially, all focused hard on the pages from an old book, then we had scissors clipping away.  It wasn't hard and we were all so impressed with each other's creations and found poems. The children did really well too (those marker pen backgrounds which they did on the spot)! 

In between, they were tracing and cutting some ATC sleeves with a template I did.

I did my "Autumn" ATCs with a quote I like.

Swapped for Autumn ATCs by Jessica and Selina.  I did the "Artists" ATC, but not as impressive as the found poem "Canaries" done by little girl, Zi Yue, during the session - "he looked skyward and unseen canaries began chirping".  Lovely!   

The theme for Oct session is "Halloween". No real eerie or religious stuff though.

Festivals, Movie Preview and Teachers' Day

I don't go out often in the night, but you will have to go in the night for these 2 events in order to see the lights, and lots of them!

First time I decided to catch the Night Festival, but it was a bit too crowded.  Never see so many people in our museums before! 

Had 2 servings of the famous Taiwanese 臭豆腐 "smelly tofu" at the Food Street set up in the Gardens By The Bay for the Mid-Autumn (Lantern) Festival, though not everyone appreciates the dish. My father has to keep a distance from the stall and from me when I was eating!  But couldn't help noticing the queue was the longest at this stall and moving reasonably fast too.

More lanterns - Joey and classmates built this lantern with recycled materials for this year competition.

And this was done last year with 2 classmates, which won 2nd place in the Radin Mas Primary School competition.

Yesterday was Golden Village Movie Club 7th Birthday bash with preview screening of "The Maze Runner" at GV Grand. A very exciting show, just the type my boy loves to watch, and I had to grasp his arm in a number of the scenes. Since this is based on the 1st book of the young-adult post-apicalytic science fiction trilogy of the same name by James Dashner, one can expect sequels? 

We worked hard last week for the annual Teachers' Day presents. Now that the children are older, they could manage better on their own, especially my boy, he baked his own cupcakes.

Collage Works, Some New Swaps and Old

Postage stamps passport book swap - thanks to Nancy Slaby for organising this swap!  From loose pages we sent her, she bound them into a passport book with blank note pages in-between, complete with cover and a fabric passport holder.  How I wish I have actually travelled to all these countries, but never mind, it is still a sort of thrill to hold and see all the amazing collaged works.

Another Paper Traders swap - paper painted collage done in 5" x 7" size.  Here's one famous artist doing this artworks - Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson.  I did mine  from a photo of Vanda Miss Joaquim - our national flower.  How's my 1st attempt?  The 1st piece went to Pam Prosser in Australia.  Before I started on the collage, I did the lino cut and print based on the same photo, so I mounted the print on the back of the collage work!

The last swap over at ATC-ArtDolls group was in Apr 2014.  We had another dress swap - Flower, a Flower Fashion Paper Doll swap and another April fairy.  But more mishap in the mails :( 

My April fairy went to Lynette McNamara (New Zealand), but I never heard from a "Elaine" for my April fairy. Cindy sent all 3 to me, but they went MIA. And a shocking news came ... Cindy passed away late July. 

I'm one of the last person to swap with Cindy in Apr, but she wasn't as active since, though she didn't drop us any hint of trouble with her health then. I'm not sure if she received my Apr flower dress and fairy doll, though hers didn't arrived here unfortunately. Although we were not direct partners for a number of the swaps as most of the times, I sent to Cindy while someone else sent to me, there were a few direct exchanges between us. Cindy's junk mail paper doll done in Jul 2010 has been one of my favourites.  We will miss you, Cindy.

Wabi Sabi? Domino Books and Rainbow Loom

First time I joined Paper Traders Speed Round ATC Swap  (#4 Wabi Sabi/Jun 2014), mine were done with weaved tea-stained background, white tatted flower and fabric scrap.  What is wabi sabi?  This is what I understand - nothing is permanent, nothing is perfect, accept imperfections and finding beauty in imperfection.

Wabi sabi ATCs received from Jo Murray(Australia) [left] and Beckie Holso (USA) [right].

I never know how to play dominos, and it never is popular in Singapore, I had a real hard time trying to find standard domino tiles.  Guess Toys"R"Us is the only place here that sells them.  I'm not learning the game still, so why am I searching high and low for them?

Before this, I didn't know people altered these tiles into books among other uses.  I cramped 7 haikus (of which I composed 5) to accompany each and every of the cancelled postage stamps. This went to Connie Holso in USA.

Did another similar book for myself.

My swap came in from Donna Authenreith (USA). 

Donna also did a mini-domino pendant for me.  I was wearing it right after receiving it!  Thanks,  Donna!!!

And since I am composing haikus these past months and planning to compile them into a chapbook, I put the 5 haikus into ATCs.

My girl got a rainbow loom for her birthday earlier, but I think those rubber bands bracelets are too childish even for her age, until I saw the owl she made.  That caught my attention. I borrowed her loom and made 1 for myself too!

August ATC Session @ Bishan Library - Papercutting

I explored another craft with our participants in Aug ATC session - papercutting.  Although I have done some papercutting on my own previously, I have never really read up on it.  This time, I read a few books and did more online research, and shared the history and characteristics of papercuttings from different cultures and more importantly, tips on papercutting.

Some time back, we did round robin ATCs during 1 of our sessions, we are doing it again but this time, 7 of us are doing them for swap and for 3 consecutive months. The 1st month (Round 1) is completed - all different and a number of interesting backgrounds! 

Here are my new papercutting ATCs. 

The theme for our ATCs was "Red & White". Couldn't resist doing the merlion. I crocheted a small little red heart and placed it on the white merlion done by layering paper.  And guess what, the background was done with food colouring!

I tried to drop the colours on this particular paper, but it didn't absorb fast enough, and my girl played with it behind my back (more like messed with it). Ruined for a background as I originally intended it for, but amazingly, I just saw it as another intuitive drawing as the colours dried!

Swapped for some fantastic cards - Country Side by Doris, Potted Plant by Maureen, Red & White At the Beach by Cheo Hiang, and Red & White Kit Kat by Selina. 

The theme for Sep session is "Autumn".

Library Workshops - Duct Tape, Batik Art, Lino Print and More

There were again a number of interesting workshops at the libraries, so I was literally running around different places on my weekends. Great that most of our public libraries are relatively near the MRT stations. 

My girls are usually too busy with their school work and CCA to join me, but they managed to come along for this duct tape workshop since they just finished their mid-year exams in May.

I don't know how I managed to piece together this collaged parrot  within the 2-hour workshop, but I know I was one of the last to finish! 

Wondered why I decided to do the roses at that moment, should have worked on my favourite bird - the owl.  Someone in the workshop did an impressive one, and we couldn't resist taking a shot of it!

I was thinking of making this into a cover for all the haikus I have composed so far.  Will need to touch it up and arrange my haikus into a chap book.  Another project to work on! 

My children have all done this in school.  I only did it once last year at a school function, but without any introduction or instruction.  I can now appreciate this batik art better.

I always think I'm lousy in drawing.  It was an eye-opener to see Mr Han drawing so effortlessly all the illustrations.

Yet another workshop on leather craft.  We didn't need to sew for this one, so it was quite easy. My alignment was slightly out though, but hey, this is what handmade means!

Another lino printing workshop, but this workshop was longer and the lino was larger.  It was more organised than the previous one, and perhaps also because this was my second attempt, my lino print turned out much better.