Wyrrd Rune Productions

End of Year Event at Republic Polytechnic

2011-12-02T21:52:00.005+08:00

Hey yo people! I'll be taking part in the annual End of Year Event held at Republic Polytechnic on 17th December, which is next Saturday! Do drop by to say hi and support too haha!

Date: 17th December 2011, Saturday

Time: 10am - 7pm

Venue: The Republic Cultural Centre (Theatre), Republic Polytechnic, 9 Woodlands Avenue 9

See you there hehe!

New Announcements

2011-10-21T13:09:00.006+08:00

Hey everyone! Just a little housekeeping here.

As you can see, new stocks have been added in the "New Stocks Collection" section and the "Headdress Collection" section updated with 13 new headdresses.

Also, there's a new section - "Replicables Collection" added, which houses all the replicable new items I made. Do check it out haha!

I know the format of the photos are kinda different from the usual ones. That's because Photobucket.com had been rather uncooperative with me, so I switched to Imageshack.com, hence the new format.

For those who had been keeping track via my Facebook page, Wyrrd Rune Productions already has a new logo installed, in preparation for the "Great Move" - which is the migration of this current blog site to a new one on Weebly.com.

Wyrrd Rune Productions also has a mirror site on Livejournal.com, which is in preparation at the moment as well.

As you can see, there's a lot of site construction and migration going on here, so I hope everyone can be patient with me during this period of time, as site updates and such will definitely be slow as I need to concentrate on making new stocks as well.

But don't worry, I'll still be updating this site with new stuffs as I go along though.

Payment details for postage had been revised as well. Those opting for postage will enjoy FREE Registered postage (for local/Singapore only) from now on, despite the amount of purchases.

I know there had been requests to open overseas orders. That is something within my consideration. However, at this moment of time, it will still be unavailable until I get my credit card or debit card.

Alright, here's a little event announcement as well! Wyrrd Rune Productions will be participating in this year's End of Year cosplay event, where I'll be having a booth there. Just got the approval this morning, so do check out the event details here.

So yup, hope to see everyone at the event!

Latest new stocks release will be scheduled on 28th October 2011, Friday. So do keep your eyes peeled on this page haha!

The Replicables

2011-10-21T12:44:00.009+08:00

Here houses the replicable jewelries and stuffs which either have more than one of its kind (most of the time I'll just make 3 for each kind) or more than one colour of its kind.

Rosetta Heart Keychains in Black, Pink, Baby Blue, White and Red. Only 3 available for each design. Made of "Candy" beads, satin rosettes and silver and gold keychains.

Name of Product: Rosetta Heart (Black)

Serial Number: RERHB011

Type of Product: Keychain

Product Price: S$6

Product Availability: 2 only

Name of Product: Rosetta Heart (Pink)

Serial Number: RERHP011

Type of Product: Keychain

Product Price: S$6

Product Availability: 2 only

Name of Product: Rosetta Heart (Baby Blue)

Serial Number: RERHBB011

Type of Product: Keychain

Product Price: S$6

Product Availability: 2 only

Name of Product: Rosetta Heart (White)

Serial Number: RERHW011

Type of Product: Keychain

Product Price: S$6

Product Availability: 2 only

Name of Product: Rosetta Heart (Red)

Serial Number: RERHR011

Type of Product: Keychain

Product Price: S$6

Product Availability: 3 only

Petite Cross Necklaces in Black, Pink, White and Red. Only 3 available for each design. Made of "Candy" beads, acrylic pearls and silver and gold chains, double jumprings and lobster clasps. Necklaces measures 33.5cm each in full length. Beaded Cross Pendants measures 3.5cmx3cm each in total dimension.

Name of Product: Petite Cross Necklace (Black)

Serial Number: PCNB011

Type of Product: Necklace

Product Price: S$8

Product Availability: 2 only

Name of Product: Petite Cross Necklace (Pink)

Serial Number: PCNP011

Type of Product: Necklace

Product Price: S$8

Product Availability: 2 only

Name of Product: Petite Cross Necklace (White)

Serial Number: PCNW011

Type of Product: Necklace

Product Price: S$8

Product Availability: 3 only

Name of Product: Petite Cross Necklace (Red)

Serial Number: PCNR011

Type of Product: Necklace

Product Price: S$8

Product Availability: 3 only

Horoscope Keychains in Sweet Pink, Dark Cherry Pink and White colour scheme. Only 1 available for each design in the set. Made of "Candy" beads, acrylic pearls and gold keychain rings. Keychains measures 13.5cm each in full length. Beaded Horoscope Keychain Charms measures 4.5cmx4.5cm each in total dimension.

Name of Product: Horoscope Keychain (Pisces)

Serial Number: HRKSDW011

Type of Product: Keychain

Product Price: S$6

Product Availability: 1 only

Name of Product: Horoscope Keychain (Taurus)

Serial Number: HRKSDW011

Type of Product: Keychain

Product Price: S$6

Product Availability: 1 only

Name of Product: Horoscope Keychain (Virgo)

Serial Number: HRKSDW011

Type of Product: Keychain

Product Price: S$6

Product Availability: 1 only

Name of Product: Horoscope Keychain (Cancer)

Serial Number: HRKSDW011

Type of Product: Keychain

Product Price: S$6

Product Availability: 1 only

Name of Product: Horoscope Keychain (Libra)

Serial Number: HRKSDW011

Type of Product: Keychain

Product Price: S$6

Product Availability: 1 only

Name of Product: Horoscope Keychain (Leo)

Serial Number: HRKSDW011

Type of Product: Keychain

Product Price: S$6

Product Availability: 1 only

Name of Product: Horoscope Keychain (Gemini)

Serial Number: HRKSDW011

Type of Product: Keychain

Product Price: S$6

Product Availability: 1 only

Name of Product: Horoscope Keychain (Scorpio)

Serial Number: HRKSDW011

Type of Product: Keychain

Product Price: S$6

Product Availability: 1 only

Name of Product: Horoscope Keychain (Aries)

Serial Number: HRKSDW011

Type of Product: Keychain

Product Price: S$6

Product Availability: 1 only

Name of Product: Horoscope Keychain (Sagittarus)

Serial Number: HRKSDW011

Type of Product: Keychain

Product Price: S$6

Product Availability: 1 only

Name of Product: Horoscope Keychain (Aquarius)

Serial Number: HRKSDW011

Type of Product: Keychain

Product Price: S$6

Product Availability: 1 only

Name of Product: Horoscope Keychain (Capricorn)

Serial Number: HRKSDW011

Type of Product: Keychain

Product Price: S$6

Product Availability: 1 only

"Cursed Blood" Hair Elastics. Only 3 available for this design only. Made of black fancy flowery lace, red faceted acrylic gem button, gold filigreed hexagonal ornament, black hair elastic and backed by black felt for the wearer's comfort. Priced at S$8 each.

Product Code is CRBHE011.

"Subtle Purity" Hair Elastics. Only 3 available for this design only. Made of white fancy flowery lace, white acrylic fern knot and rose button, silver filigreed round ornament, black hair elastic and backed by white felt for the wearer's comfort. Priced at S$8 each.

Product Code is SBPHE011.

"Childlike Innocence" Hair Elastics. Only 3 available for this design only. Made of a choice of white and pink fancy flowery laces, Hello Kitty button, sweet pink acrylic pearl, black hair elastic and backed by white felt for the wearer's comfort. Priced at S$8 each.

Product Code is CHIHE011.

New Stocks and Moving House Notice!

2011-09-23T21:36:00.004+08:00

Hey everyone! How have all of you been keeping yourself? Good? No?

Haha!

Anyway, Wyrrd Rune Productions will be releasing new stocks on the 8th, 18th and 28th of each month. I just had a batch of 11 new stocks freshly released on the 18th of this month haha! Do check them out under the newly added "New Stocks Collection" section.

Alternatively, you can also check out Wyrrd Rune Productions on our newly set up Facebook page here haha!

Also, Wyrrd Rune Productions will be moving to a new home soon, along with a new look for her logo! Keep your eyes peeled yo everyone haha!

New Stocks Collection

2011-09-20T23:28:00.017+08:00

Wyrrd Rune Productions' tri-monthly new stocks collection goes here. The current new stocks displayed are from 1st February, Wednesday.

~ Blackshire ~

"Home to the Sanctuary - folks of the sea."

Type: Wristcuff

Materials: Recently, I've been playing with the guys the game - "Heroes VI", which is a turn-based strategy game. Amongst the races of heroes, there's one named as "The Sanctuary" - which is a race of seafolk consisting of a range of beautifully named classes like "The Coral Priestess" and "The Kappa". This wristcuff is made in the image of their beautiful sea town - Blackshire. This wristcuff is made of a range of black and aquamarine blue fancy floral laces, accompanied by black velvet, aquamarine and sapphire satin ribbons, black, aquamarine and sapphire acrylic pearls, a black faceted gem centre crowned with a silver border, aquamarine and sapphire glittery fancy chains, a burnished silver rose vein cross charm and backed by black velvet for the wearer's comfort. This wristcuff closes with rhodium razor clasps, lobster clasp and extension chain.

Length of Wristcuff: 30cm (inclusive of extension chain)

Product Specifications: Goes perfectly well with office wear, casual attires, clubbing outfits, Gothic and Victorian dresses and get-ups.

Quantity: 1 only

Price: S$25

~ Fate Spinner ~

"The Undead's ultimate weapon."

Type: Wristcuff

Materials: "Fate Spinner" is the ultimate unit of the undead race - which kinda looks like the humanoid version of the Black Widow, where it comes in the form of a woman with a spider's body, accompanied with humonguous fangs dripping bright emerald venom and acid.This wristcuff is made in the image of this unit, where it is made of a selection of black and green floral fancy laces, black satin ribbons in varied widths - both thick and thin, green glittery fancy chains, silver glittery fancy chains - both thick and thin, black satin rosettes, burnished silver cross spacers, an olivine green faceted acrylic bezel, genuine olivine green Swarvoski crystals, a burnished silver spider-in-a-web-with-skull charm and backed with black felt for the wearer's comfort. This wristcuff closes with rhodium razor clasps, lobster clasp and extension chain.

Length of Wristcuff: 30cm (inclusive of extension chain)

Product Specifications: Goes perfectly well with office wear, casual attires, clubbing outfits, Gothic and Victorian dresses and get-ups.

Quantity: 1 only

Price: S$26

~ Haven's Advocate ~

"Duke Slava's personal Inquisitor - a servant of the light, blessed and acknowledged by the angels."

Type: Wristcuff

Materials: In the "Campaign" mode of "Heroes VI", you can see the story of the various races in the game. "Haven", as suggested by the name, is a race of the light, where there's "Sisters", "Sunriders" (basically your literal "Knights-in-shining-armors") and their ultimate unit being "Angels". This wristcuff is made in the image of the mage serving the duke in the story mode of "Haven", where it is made of a selection of white and maroon red fancy floral laces, black velvet, black chiffon lace, silver satin ribbon, a maroon red satin rosette with leaves, maroon red and silver glittery fancy chains, a genuine ruby round Swarvoski crystal, round silver and black faceted acrylic beads, silver radial cross charms, a burnished silver antique beaded cross charm, a burnished silver rose vein cross charm and backed with black felt for the wearer's comfort. This wristcuff closes with rhodium razor clasps, lobster clasp and extension chain.

Length of Wristcuff: 30cm (inclusive of extension chain)

Product Specifications: Goes perfectly well with office wear, casual attires, clubbing outfits, Gothic and Victorian dresses and get-ups.

Quantity: 1 only

Price: S$24

~ Seeing Red ~

"Were my expectations too high? Or perhaps, climbing up that high had made you corrupted? And not to mention, soft?"

Type: Wristcuff

Materials: Sometimes, it just makes me wonder. Do we have more power as we climb up the ladder of ranks? This wristcuff was made with that thought in mind and it is made of a selection og red and black fancy floral laces, red velvet, black and red satin rosettes in varied sizes, red rounded fancy chains, burnished silver bat charms, a burnished silver spider-in-a-web-with-skull charm, a red acrylic bead and backed with red velvet for the wearer's comfort. This wristcuff closes with rhodium razor clasps, lobster clasp and extension chain.

Length of Wristcuff: 30cm (inclusive of extension chain)

Product Specifications: Goes perfectly well with office wear, casual attires, clubbing outfits, Gothic and Victorian dresses and get-ups.

Quantity: 1 only

Price: S$22

~ Spellbinder ~

"Choose your path well, mage."

Type: Wristcuff

Materials: You can choose what type of mage skills you want to have in "Heroes VI", when you are a mage class of course. One of them is a series of arcane spells indicated in purple. This wristcuff is made in the image of those purple-toned skills and is made of a selection of black and lavender fancy floral laces, royal purple and black satin ribbons, black chiffon lace, a silver satin rosette, a string of grape acrylic bicones, black safety pins strung up in the guise of a chain peppered by acrylic pearls in a series of purple hues and varied sizes, silver faceted acrylic beads, a burnished silver Crown Clown Allen style mask charm, burnished silver Cross of Maltese charms, burnished silver floral cross charms, burnished silver rose charm, burnished silver fancy heart charm, burnished silver antique beaded cross charm, lavender faceted acrylic teardrop, black stretchable grosgrain and backed with black felt for the wearer's comfort. This wristcuff closes with rhodium razor clasps, lobster clasp and extension chain.

Length of Wristcuff: 30cm (inclusive of extension chain)

Product Specifications: Goes perfectly well with office wear, casual attires, clubbing outfits, Gothic and Victorian dresses and get-ups.

Quantity: 1 only

Price: S$27

~ The Inquisitor ~

"That's what you'll become, when you're that blood-thirsty."

Type: Wristcuff

Materials: In the game "Heroes VI", if you're a Haven mage hero like myself, you get to evolve into two ultimate forms - the Inquisitor and the Confessor. To turn into the Inquisitor, you need to accumulate "Blood" points, which can be obtained if you keep going into battles, even to the point of pursuing enemies who choose to flee from you. On the other hand, to turn into the Confessor, you need to accumulate "Tear" points, which requires you to spare your enemies as and when possible, while avoiding head-on combat as much as possible. So, if you are wondering, what did my Haven mage hero become? An Inquisitor of course haha! This wristcuff is made in the image of my Inquisitor, clad in impressive regal robes of the finest red and gold brocade material. This wristcuff is made of a range of white and red fancy floral laces (white leaves design lace is from Japan), red velvet, red satin ribbon, red chiffon lace, red and gold threaded woven satin rope, gold satin rosette, white acrylic pearls in varied sizes, a burnished silver dual-image key charm, silver and red glittery fancy chains, thin gold rounded chains and backed by red felt for the wearer's comfort. This wristcuff closes with rhodium razor clasps, lobster clasp and extension chain.

Length of Wristcuff: 30cm (inclusive of extension chain)

Product Specifications: Goes perfectly well with office wear, casual attires, clubbing outfits, Gothic and Victorian dresses and get-ups.

Quantity: 1 only

Price: S$26

~ Black Magic ~

"Like black magic, like a curse, it's been six years since my soul had been sold to this master - the master of my Fate."

Type: Choker

Materials: Sometimes, I find it a really odd thing when you become...somewhat deadly loyal to someone you deem as "the master whom you are willing to serve". It makes me wonder where did all that unchanging loyal came from. This choker was made with that thought in mind. This choker is made of black glass beads, an assortment of irregular-shaped hematite nuggets, black opalescent seed pearls, black faceted acrylic beads, black acrylic pearls, black acrylic teardrops, genuine Swarvoski jet crystals, a black faceted gem centre crowned with a silver border, black satin ribbon, black chiffon lace, a black satin rosette, rhodium seashell clasps, lobster clasp and extension chain. This choker is backed with black felt for the wearer's comfort.

Length of Choker: 43cm (inclusive of extension chain)

Product Specifications: Goes perfectly well with office wear, casual attires and Victorian sun-dresses and get-ups.

Quantity: 1 only (RESERVED)

Price: S$28

~ Eternal Coffin ~

"Be frozen. Forever."

Type: Choker

Materials: This choker is modeled after the spell which Chrono cast with the magical intelligence device named as "Durandal" in the anime "Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's" - "Eternal Coffin". This choker is made of aquamarine blue glass beads from Bangkok, blue lace agate nuggets, white acrylic pearls, aquamarine blue fancy floral lace, white velvet, rhodium seashell clasps, lobster clasp and extension chain. This choker is backed with white felt for the wearer's comfort.

Length of Choker: 43cm (inclusive of extension chain)

Product Specifications: Goes perfectly well with office wear, casual attires and Victorian sun-dresses and get-ups.

Quantity: 1 only

Price: S$28

~ Grey Saviour ~

"Like a shard of silver, a thrilling silver starlight, you've changed my life, oh Destined one!"

Type: Choker

Materials: I made this choker in the image of Crown Clown Allen from "D.Grayman". This choker is made of translucent grey and glittery silver Japanese glass beads, a selection of grey-hued acrylic pearls in varied sizes, white acrylic beads, a silver acrylic bead, a small white satin rosette, silvery grey satin ribbon, silvery grey chiffon lace, genuine grey-toned Swarvoski crystals, grey faceted Czech glass beads, burnished silver crown charm, rhodium seashell clasps, lobster clasp and extension chain. This choker is backed with white felt for the wearer's comfort.

Length of Choker: 43cm (inclusive of extension chain)

Product Specifications: Goes perfectly well with office wear, casual attires and Victorian sun-dresses and get-ups.

Quantity: 1 only

Price: S$28

~ Ties That Bind ~

"No matter where I go, how far I go, you're always that closely behind me, watching my every step, my every move. You've already caught my fall before, my friend. It's my turn now, to be your Hope, your one and only one."

Type: Choker

Materials: This choker was made in tribute to someone close but not that close to me. One thing I wanted to say all these years is, "If you hadn't been there and had left me to rot and die as the others had done, I wouldn't be what I am today and this path that I am on now, would have remained in the dark. Now that you're in a tight spot, it's my turn now to give you that helping hand which you had once offered to me unconditionally." This choker is made of black Japanese glass beads, silver acrylic beads, silvery grey acrylic pearls, black plated fancy chains, glittery silver round link chains, genuine jet Swarvoski crystals, black safety pins, burnished silver flat rose charm, burnished silver floral cross charm, burnished silver antique beaded cross charm, black fancy floral lace, rhodium seashell clasps, lobster clasp and extension chain. This choker is backed with white felt for the wearer's comfort.

Length of Choker: 43cm (inclusive of extension chain)

Product Specifications: Goes perfectly well with office wear, casual attires and Victorian sun-dresses and get-ups.

Quantity: 1 only

Price: S$26

~ This is Steampunk ~

"Recycled, in all its glory."

Type: Necklace

Materials: This piece was inspired from this wonderful chainmaille maker - theKANGcrafster(https://www.facebook.com/theKANGcraftster). I found it real fascinating when he recycles old parts and gives them a new life in the process, especially when he makes his own chains from raw parts which seldom come to mind for most people out there. Here, as you can see, this steampunk style necklace is made of a simple ensemble of silver and gunmetal jumprings, chains formed from gunmetal filigreed teardrops and hehe, rhodium lobster clasps, gunmetal round link chains, a huge and beautiful faceted acrylic clear round crystal given to me by Grace - a fellow handcrafter, a silver round filigreed plate - a raw part used for most pendants but never used before in its original form, a burnished silver antique beaded cross charm, black chiffon lace and finished off with silver razor clasps, a rhodium lobster clasp and extension chain.

Length of Necklace: 51cm (inclusive of extension chain)

Product Specifications: Goes perfectly well with office wear, casual attires and Victorian sun-dresses and get-ups.

Quantity: 1 only

Price: S$18

~ Ravenwood ~

"The sanctum to 'The Sanctuary' - seafolks, both the epitome of beauty and lethal."

Type: Necklace

Materials: A year or so ago, I received a bag of wonderful beaded installations, jewelries, beads, odds and ends from Amos - a guildmate and friend of ours. These items came from the charity shop which he was in charge of and they had been left un-appreciated for a long time since then. There were these beautiful green Murano glass beads amongst those odds and ends, and I thought they'll look wonderful on a piece dedicated to the town of the seafolk in "Heroes VI" - "Ravenwood". And as you can see, it's my first time, after such a long time, attempting a beaded string piece like this necklace. This necklace is made of black and emerald Japanese glass beads, frosted lime green acrylic beads which my aunt got for me from Bangkok a few years ago, emerald faceted acrylic flat-backed gem, emerald faceted acrylic teardrops and triangle-shaped green Murano glass beads salvaged from the odds and ends given to me by Amos and rounded off with rhodium seashell clasps, lobster clasp and extension chain.

Length of Necklace: 51cm (inclusive of extension chain)

Product Specifications: Goes perfectly well with office wear, casual attires and Victorian sun-dresses and get-ups.

Quantity: 1 only

Price: S$16

~ Charmlicious ~

"Delectable, though inedible (I'm sorry), sweets."

Materials: Also assembled from those salvaged parts I got from Amos, this bracelet was a fun one to do because I decided to just randomly throw in stuffs together and tada! this is how it turned out. Not bad, if I should say so myself haha! This bracelet is made of a silver and platinum gold intertwined fancy chain, vintage beads with gold bead caps in the basic colours of RGB, with a dash of orange for the sake of variety, bronze acrylic beads sprinkled with silver and gold spangles, mandarin orange acrylic beads, genuine sea blue Swarvoski round crystals, siam red Czech glass beads, turquoise and sodalite beads and gunmetal grooved beads. This bracelet closes with a rhodium lobster clasp and silver round-links extension chain.

Length of Bracelet: 28.5cm (inclusive of extension chain)

Product Specifications: This bracelet is a contemporary and vintage piece, which makes it very versatile to go with office wear, casual wear, gothic and victorian dresses.

Quantity: 1 only

Price: S$25

MAAD Pyjamas

2011-09-07T09:17:00.004+08:00

Hey everyone! I'll be taking part in MAAD Pyjamas, which will be held at Red Dot Museum from 5pm all the way till 12 midnight!

This is my first time taking part in MAAD's night version bazaar, so yup, you can pretty much say that I'm very excited haha!

Venue: Red Dot Design Museum

Time: 5pm to 12 midnight

Date: 9th September 2011

Admission: Free

How to get there: Take the MRT on the East-West line to Tanjong Pagar station. Use the exit on the right to get out of the station, then turn left and walk down straight. The red building in front of you is Red Dot Design Museum. It's a 5 minutes walk by the way.

Booze alert! Haha! The Artery Bar at Red Dot Museum will be offering Heineken beer at $5 from 5pm to 9pm. Up for a Friday night drinking? Do drop by to get yours haha!

Also, Wyrrd Rune Productions will be having her official re-opening on this Friday's MAAD Pyjamas. 20% discounts for all existing items here on Wyrrd Rune Production's blog currently and there will be new items released during the event as well. Do drop by to have a look haha!

I apologise for the lack of updates of new stocks and what nots on this blog.

But that's all going to change.

Wyrrd Rune Productions will be shifted to a new home soon. I'll announce it officially once the BIG MOVE has been confirmed.

So, stay tuned!

Support

2011-07-04T13:48:00.005+08:00

Long overdue photos, but what the heck, I'm still going to post and write about them, since the idea just suddenly hit me hard in the face just a moment ago.

And of course, inspired from something which Grace told me yesterday.

First things first, what are those two fishes and what's so significant about them? Well, apparently my aunt (eldest from my mother's side, who to put it plainly, is my mother's elder sister) "rescued" them (starting to make my aunt sound like Jane's husband, who has the sense to "rescue" items from his office, including food haha!) from my cousin. For some strange reason, even though we share the same grandfather (and grandmother of course duh), my cousins never inherited his greatest characteristic - which is his shrewd sight and penchant on collecting antiques.

And, for some strange reason, only his daughters and myself have that in us. Other than the fact that Lionel always complains that I have the tendency to hoard stuffs like a rat, just like my Chinese horoscope haha!

So back to my cousin, he and his wife has the tendency of throwing out stuffs. And I mean, ANY STUFFS, including what my aunt sees as "treasures". So, those "treasures", somehow or the other, ended up being ferried to my house and yeah, found refuge here?

It's that "One man's trash is another man's treasure" sort of situation here, to put it accurately.

Like these two fishes which you see here, my aunt bought them from Beijing because they looked really unique and whose craftsmanship was really superb. My cousin was about to throw them out when my aunt brought them over and yeah, I ended up keeping them in the humongous display case in our living room because my mum loves them to bits too.

Recently, my aunt came back from her Hainan trip and brought back these two gorgeous belts for me, which she said I could take them apart if I wanted to. If she didn't tell me that these two belts were made of coconut shells, I would never have known anything other than the fact that they do felt like they were made of wood.

My aunt knows that I'm a die-hard handcrafter and knows how much hardships I am going through because of this, as well as the odd perspective which people (who do not know) have of me. Although she's your typical conservative elder, she was always supporting me very strongly in my handcrafting dream because she was a handcrafter herself and when she was young, she had done tailoring and made beaded purses to make ends meet, alongside with my grandmother who hawks her delicious handmade food in the streets from morning till night.

I really have to thank her for that continuous familial support of keeping me going in striving for my handcrafting dream and strengthening my love and resolve for handcrafting. Many times, it has been very hard to keep things going because of the immense pressure of Reality and the cold hard stares of disapproval which said very blatantly that I am just being a dumb, stupid and stubborn moron. To the point that people did fixate that type of opinion on me and see me as thus, as long as I insisted to plod along my path as a handcrafter.

As what Grace told me yesterday, there are many out there who don't understand why we are so insistent about our handcrafting. It was of no surprise to her that people, ignorant, though not of their fault, that we handcrafters were seen as spoilt wives being pampered by rich husbands, outlaws by the wayside who does not abide to the fixated laws of current society's strong Pragmatism. They do not see us as people who are passionate about our crafts and because of that strong love towards handcrafting, we have that consistent desire to share our handcrafting passion, alongside with like-minded individuals (and not trying to lynch each other on every possible excuse just to out-do each other, because such senseless competitiveness bears no fruit of result whatsoever).

As such, I am really, really thankful for my aunt because whenever she go on her occasional trips, her first thought would be me and that she would always try her best to bring back any exotic materials for me to use (considering that resources in Singapore are pretty much limited).

I will keep pressing on and to all those out there who are also in this handcrafting trade, please don't give up! We are all given a limited life span to do what we want and fulfill, so please cherish it and never allow your dream to die out in the face of Reality's pressure!

August

2011-07-04T00:25:00.006+08:00

Today is the 5th Birthday for Red Dot Museum's MAAD. A significant milestone for everyone in MAAD! Shannon and crew (and Scottie, the white terrier? Haha!), congratulations and a big round of applause for you guys! Well done yo!

Here's the thing, now MAAD is going to change their bazaar image and style in order to offer further aid to all budding and existing handcrafters alike. Grace just told me today that MAAD is going to be changed to a-Friday-per-month event, where the rental comes free. Starting from 12th August, MAAD is going to be from 5pm to 12 midnight on a Friday, rather than per weekend, which is Saturday and Sunday.

It's a great change, which is a welcoming one, but I'm a little skeptical (pardon me, should anyone get offended by my frankness) on crowd flow and the response from the public due to this change in dates and timings, considering that the venue is still going to be kept at Red Dot Museum.

Nonetheless, after great consideration and a lot of discussion with Lionel and our buddy - Ming En, I decided to just take the risk, go ahead and chip in my effort in promoting our crafts and (hopefully) educating the public on the "finesse" of local handmade items, as opposed to (in all truths, crappy) imported "handmade" goods.

And of course, show my support for Grace and the rest of the handcrafters whom I have known from the time I joined MAAD back in 2008. I applaud the spirit of working as a cohesive handcrafter unit to promote our crafts and our love for handmade together! Let us (hopefully) emerge victorious in our painstaking efforts in this seemingly uphill task!

Yes folks, you got that right! I'll be joining the MAAD on 12th August! Do come down and show support for us!

Such a busy busy month! MAAD on 12th August, Summer Festival Haru Bazaar on 14th August and STGCC on 20th August! So many meaningful events! I looked forward to working hard for all of them!

Not to mention, I will also be helping Grace out for her Singapore Heritage Board bazaar event at Fort Canning on 22nd, 23rd and 24th of July. Do look out for my report on it!

Today, I encountered something which made me really happy. A customer from Hong Kong approached Grace and told Grace that she was being referred to her by another booth owner and truly showed appreciation to the painstakingly made pretties which Grace made. She even took her namecard and said she would refer Grace's work (via a portfolio and subjected to an interview) to a sort of established handmade gallery back in Hong Kong. In turn, Grace gave her directions to finding shops which carried genuine handmade items in Singapore, like those in Haji Lane, Bali Lane and even Doinky Doddles at Ann Siang Hill.

I feel really really happy for Grace because of the appreciation the Hong Kong girl showed towards her painstakingly made works of art and that, in a way, get the chance to spread her wings beyond just Singapore. All the best Grace!

Who's this little cute gal here? She's Sonja, Grace's daughter and bundle of joy/trouble (depending on how you look at her, haha!) This little girl was having such a bad flu today that Grace was helping her to blow her nose non-stop. Bevan, her husband, was even worst off with a flu, a fever and a sore-throat. Poor guy, hope he really gets well soon because he looked really really under the weather today!

Sonja really made my day today because of the amount of smiles and laughter she elicited from me just from her natural antics as a kid. I may looked like a stern "aunty" to her now because I actually, in a way, "coaxed" her to listen to her Mummy by telling her with my really "natural" stern look, "Sonja, listen to your Mummy." The little girl looked terrified when I told her that. Grace was laughing at me and telling me that I probably looked like some scary school discipline mistress figure to Sonja now.

And Grace is, in a way, using me now as a scare tactic to Sonja now. Just now, when Sonja refused to stay still in her pram in the car, Grace just said, "I put you at Aunty Ziru's house and let you stay there. And I won't care." The little girl was quick to answer with a fearful "No" and stayed perfectly still in her pram.

Which is bad because I really had no intention to even instill fear into this little innocent girl. Ahahaha...you can hear sheepish laughter here yes. I never understood why when Lionel told me that when some of my TPJCG juniors saw me at Cosfest this year, they regarded me with a respect and fear for a notoriously fierce senior. Now I know.

Sonja's funny little antic in announcing to the other people in the foodcourt at Cineleisure just now that she was going to take her lunch (which her Mummy was quick to correct her that it was dinner, but not lunch, ahahahaha!) and how we took turns to coax her to eat her dinner and feed her, she really, really made me laugh my burdens and careworn looks away. The way she look at you intently when you are talking to her and when she is trying to figure out what you just said, and then eventually learning to call me "Aunty Zero" (which Grace was laughing till the point of tears when she smsed me that Sonja was asking where "Aunty Zero" was when I got off their car at Lionel's house), she made me feel that Happiness does not just come from oneself, but from the people around you, big or small.

Or perhaps I'm just a queer prick who is acutely aware and sensitive of the little things going around in my surroundings.

Nonetheless, I laughed really hard when I'm being known as "Aunty Zero" to Sonja, because I remembered when I was in Primary 4, I already had this PE teacher, known as Mrs Lim, who made fun of me by using this nickname which sounded pretty close to my real name (though, at that point of time, I took offense of this as a sign of disrespect because I see her as making fun of the name which my parents gave to me).

Thank you Sonja and a big, big thank you to Grace and Bevan for sending me straight to Lionel's doorstep although you guys were already very tired and really, really sick. Please take care! I certainly pray that you guys will recover soon and I'm sure you guys will be as fit as a fiddle again!

And yes Grace, thank you for your advice. It really, really steeled my resolve and you're right, I should be focusing on more important and pressing matters in my life and giving more love and determination to my craft and cosplay in the perspective which is mine and believing in it. I will work hard for STGCC, since you and Bevan may be coming down because your husband likes toys yes haha!

Guess where these delectable and pretty little cute muffins came from? They came from a generous handcrafter of MAAD who baked them for everyone to eat. We couldn't finish it so Grace decided to bring them for the dancers of O School, since she was going to deliver their costumes to them (yes, she makes costumes and takes up costume assignments, for all of you who are not aware). It turned out the dancers of O School were more than happy to take these little muffins and have them for dessert or supper haha!

That concludes my fun-filled Sunday. See you guys at MAAD on 12th August 2011, Friday haha!

Haru Bazaar (2nd July 2011, Saturday)

2011-07-03T12:09:00.005+08:00

I had a good feeling when I saw my mum showing to me her latest creations yesterday morning - colourful beaded beads! Harajuku Decora inspiration?

So yesterday was my 2nd time participating in the Haru Bazaar. All in all, since the event was one week after Cosfest 2011, it was comparatively relaxing and fun in its own little way.

One thing which made me very happy, soon after I finished setting-up and all that jazz, was that my "Ruby Dream" headdress finally found a good home (and a bubbly owner no less). It was one of the first few pieces I created when I first re-started my production and I was really on the verge of phasing out tie-based headdresses because of the poor response towards them.

Though it was my one and only sale for the day, I was already contented. I mean, in all due honesty, I'm one who take it as it goes. And perhaps, more happy thoughts other than just making another sale?

Yes, there definitely was. I got to befriend a few awesome people and one of them was Dempster. Other than having an interesting namecard, he was pretty awesome in his singing. I really enjoyed his performance of Digimon's "Brave Heart". And of course, his cute Agumon (did I get your spelling right?)

Visit him at Masaki Ryodo and give your support to this guy who loves singing and who has a flair in writing his own songs! I'm always a big supporter for local talents, so let's give Dempster an extra push of positivity towards his singing dream!

Here's the video of his performance during the bazaar. Hope you guys like it!

Brave Heart @ Masaki Ryodo

The rest of the day was catching up with old friends as well. I got to meet Luel, who was on the job for Movie Mania for the Mascot Parade (whose parade point was at Orchard Central). It's been a long time since I last saw her. Nostalgic!

Kim came around to help out for Haru Bazaar after his video assignment in the morning. I got to catch up abit with him as well. Dan and her friend, Valerie, dropped by as well. Really happy to see you guys!

I saw Jason and Joey in their awesome World of Warcraft rogue get-ups as well. Charles and Lay Peng (Gasp! Kanna-chan!!!) were in the area looking for me as well, but didn't manage to find me. Aw guys, should have just called me man haha!

Lionel came around the evening and we sat around looking at him play at our newly-acquired (just fresh on Friday) PSP game - Tactics Ogre ("Let Us Cling Together"). A little like Final Fantasy Tactics, but pretty interesting in terms of storyline and really tough when it comes to just normal storyline fights (even with small fries).

Overall, I was really rejuvenated after the event. No stress, just fun, laughter, friendly banter, old-school dancing and even out-of-tune impromptu singing (which was perfectly fine with me because of its nature of non-seriousness).

I'm looking forward to the next bazaar on 14th August! Summer Festival! Should I wear a yukata? I've got plenty of MOS Burger's Summer Festival fans at home, which would be apt for the event haha! Or maybe, I should tailor a Kujou Subaru themed amethyst-coloured yukata. Aunty Maggie has a fine selection of yukata and kimono cloths as it is her cloth shop's specialty, for all who know of her!

And for all who loves tie-based cloth headdresses, heads up! I'll be making more headdresses for the Summer Festival Haru Bazaar so do keep a lookout on my blog!

And yes, STGCC around the corner! Please, if you'll be free, do drop by and say hi to a Zhang He and Lu Xun from Dynasty Warriors 6! I know these cosplay plans of ours had been delayed time and again, but this time, we'll be there in our full regalia and weapons! So, I look forward to taking photos with all whom I know who will be attending STGCC! Do keep a lookout for us haha!

*I've seen this Star Driver cosplayer at Cosfest. Nonetheless, I salute him for waiting around for the cosplay competition all day without food! And his costume and overall get-up was good too! You definitely deserved the first prize!

*Luel as the cool and sexy Bat-girl!

*How long has it been since I last saw the Haruhi dance? Back in Cosfest 2007 at Takashimaya I think. Wow, 4 years. Pretty nostalgic to seeing it being danced again!

*This is my booth for the day. And that's Lionel engrossed on his PSP. I was in the middle of the Atrium this time round and it was all good because the lighting was just perfect in catching the shiny accentuates of my works and Grace's works on my booth table!

*I decided to put out all of Grace's works because they were deprived of that chance in the last Haru Bazaar (due to space constraints and still is) and I really felt bad about it because they were really so pretty and I would really like to share these shining epitomes of a handcrafter's painstaking labour of love!

The Replicables: New Release!

2011-06-23T14:17:00.005+08:00

Hey people! How are things going for you in Life? And for cosplayers, how are you guys coping with the upcoming Cosfest preparations?

Well, for me, I'm preparing for Cosfest too. Well, at least for Day 2. And in the midst of it, I decided to prepare for the new stuffs I'll be releasing specially for next weekend's Haru Bazaar on 2nd July 2011 (Saturday). Here's one of them, from my Replicable series - the Rosetta Heart Keychains!

Well, as you can see, there's 5 colours to this series of keychains. I'm thinking of adding one more colour, but that will come later if I can find the beads of that colour which I have in mind!

Alright, I've decided to do a pre-release of these keychains and open them up for pre-order. S$6 per keychain and only 3 pieces available per colour!

Email me if you are interested to pre-order. Collection will be done at Haru Bazaar itself (at Scape Shopping Centre's Atrium).

Here's a close-up of each colour.

I decided to take another photo of the Red Rosetta Heart Keychain because it is not that flaming red in the photo above this one (too much exposure from the camera I think).

So, you guys know the drill haha! Do email me if you are interested to order!

Haru Bazaar

2011-06-06T12:44:00.001+08:00

Well, here's my belated report for the Haru Bazaar, which happened last Sunday.

My very first cosplay-themed bazaar as a stand-alone production. My previous ones were back in Cosfest 2006 and Cosfest 2007, when I was still working with another production as one.

It was refreshing indeed to see a bout of new faces, though personally, I feel the costumes qualities could be further improved. As for the props as well.

There was also a singing competition incorporated into the event as well. It was interesting to hear a medley of songs sung by different individuals, though some of the song titles appear to be unfamiliar to me. Perhaps they were too recent, I guess.

One comment about the singing competition was that the sound system could be improved. The feedback loop occurred once too often, which was jarring as much as it was uncomfortable.

As you can see in the booth photo above, I didn't manage to put up everything I brought with me, with me deciding to put the more outstanding pieces out instead.

Though, I feel I could have done better with my booth display.

The day was rainy, cold and clammy, and with the upper half of Orchard flooded, business was dismal. Though I was glad that two of my regulars dropped by and purchased a haircomb off me, with a 20% GSS discount which I have promised on my blog.

Rather than saying I was there on business, I find the aspect on making new friends more pleasing to me. I am glad to say that I met a few new friends and even made contact with some of my friends whom I have not seen for a long time as well.

All in all, the event wasn't half-bad and I look forward to take part in their August edition.

And to all who came to visit at the end of the day - Sagara and sibling, Anu and Ashley, a big thank you to all of you!

*Booth owners setting up while spectators - friends and family members of the cosplayers competing and singing for the day, sat around to wait for the event proper to take place. It was around 11am plus when I took this photo. The event grounds looked a little quiet because people were most likely detained by the heavy rain and probably, the flood at Orchard area.

*Haru personnels setting up their booths.

*The "live" Angry Birds game booth set up opposite me. Here are their personnels testing out the shooting game while waiting for the main crowd of cosplayers and spectators to stream in. As far as I could see the whole day, this booth was the most popular because of their interesting game concept.

*The main crowd for the day - gathering around to watch the cosplay competition, which started around 1 or 2pm. I couldn't really move around to take event photos because I didn't have anyone to take over my booth shift and I was pretty much stranded at my booth the whole day. As you can see, there's a main bulk of Katekyo Hitman REBORN! cosplayers (Yamamoto Takeshi in hakama version on the right, as you can see) and Vocaloids (Miku and Cantarella Kaito on the left.) And not to mention, there were a number of booths left empty, probably the booth owners decided to forfeit them the last minute, so I had an empty table right next to mine. Extra leg space no doubt, but it feels kinda weird somewhat.

*Cantarella Miku and Kaito and Night version Nura from "Nurarihyon no Mago".

*Sales were dismal for the day, but I was happy to have met new people at the event. Here's Muna in her sub-culture get-up, which looks really cute and I find her bag to be pretty unique too! She was selling second-hand sub-culture outfits at the event. Hope to see her at the next Haru Bazaar!

*And pretty Ranka! Nice to have met you too, Sabrina! Hope to see you at Cosfest (on Day 2 that is)!

*Anu came to visit after work, when I was packing up at the end of the day. She came bearing gifts! I was voraciously hungry because I didn't have breakfast or lunch the whole day, so I pounced on these egg tarts like one who was at the brink of starvation. Thanks girl!

*Lionel and I went to our favourite Hougang Avenue 8 kopitiam for dinner. I so very wanted every single of my favourite dishes, but I picked the sambal lala because they do it best at this kopitiam!

*Not to mention, Chicken Chop! Bon Appetit!

Knock Knock! Anyone home?

2011-06-03T02:26:00.005+08:00

Yo yo yo yo yo! Anyone here? Honestly, I do wonder if anyone drops by here anymore. The traffic to this blog space is really pathetic pfft.

Anywhooo, a bazaar! Like finally, it's about time! Been ages yo! I'll be having a booth space at the Haru Bazaar at *Scape Shopping Centre this Sunday - 5th June 2011. 11am to 6pm, do drop by if you are free yo! Or come in your best lolita or gothic get-ups or even better, favourite cosplay costumes! Performances and merchandises galore! Do come to snap photos yo!

So you ask, any new stuffs to see at my booth? Heh, you bet! Many people had been asking me if I have replicates for my items, well, guess what? Your wish is heard my good people! I have specially created a new collection for replicable jewelry only! They are still handcrafted by yours truly one and only here, but for those who love simplified designs, this collection's your spot yo!

I'll be launching this brand new replicable collection this Sunday, so if you wanna grab the hot stuffs, do drop by yo!

And oh, in conjunction with the Great Singapore Sale (GSS), 20% discount on selected items! So if you wanna pick up your favourite wearables at slashed prices, here's your chance! So don't miss it and definitely, don't miss out on the event fun too!

Oh, before I forget, I'll be setting up a new webbie on Weebly.com soon. Better and more flexible interface there, which suits my jewelry production better. This bloggie won't be deleted of course, it will be kept as a space to blare out my handmade jewelry-making thoughts in my infamously, un-intelligible scribbles hehe.

The Handmade Disaster

2011-03-15T10:53:00.002+08:00

Cross-posted from my Deviant Art account.

This post was made pertaining to recent events which had just taken place, in particular, the Iluma Arts Market just the last weekend.

Normally, I would not be making such an open entry, since the contents are going to be downright caustic. What I comment will directly reflect to customers the image and reputation of my Wyrrd Rune Productions - which is my jewelry production. Anything negative will directly affect sales and of course, like I had already mentioned above, the image and reputation of my jewelry production.

As well as reflect on what type of person I am. Note, they will most likely get a wrong impression, seeing that they will never be able to know me up close and personal.

It's precisely that I know the dangers of social media that I had been held back by a million of "What If?"s. Like, "What if my customers turn away from me and make my business's reputation go into the ditches like it had once before, when I simply could not bend to the whimsical will of a particularly nasty customer in the past?"

As a result, I turned into a person who simply feared everything, watching her every step for fear of offending someone by accident. I feared to speak up and had to swallow everything down for the sake of my production's reputation. And my own personal reputation. I feared everything around me, refusing to even learn the slightest new notion.

This fear started to grow into me after a disastrous relationship which had almost cost me everything. I turned into everything which I hated, being wary of how the outside world look at me and always trying to keep my real emotions in check for fear of being seen as "immature". Even the unhappiness and anger I felt from the time I re-started my business from 2008 till now, I hid them under well-controlled words for fear of affecting my fledgling fragile jewelry production's reputation and my reputation, since I am, technically speaking, my own jewelry production's maker and boss.

That was the me since 24 years old.

I was no longer that person who had the guts to take on everything, not giving a single damn to how the outside world look at her. The person who spoke out when, wronged or accused, with the singularly glinting sharp sense of self-righteousness. The person who believed that she should be heard and not just be turned a deaf ear or blind eye to for no bloody good reason. I was no longer the person who was a 20 year old girl who is a tomboy, always being so blunt and frank to the point that she was close to being unsufferably abnormal in the timid, closed-up society in Singapore.

So you think that 20 year old girl never came back. Look, even I didn't believe that she would come back. I thought it was just a part of me growing up to that typically submissive Singaporean adult.

Guess what. She's back.

She came back after what trans-passed at the recent Iluma Arts Market. She came back to tell me to stop being so cautious and to stop torturing myself by swallowing everything, including the bullshit which I definitely did not deserve. Hell, I didn't even did anything to deserve that!

She came back and handed her guts to me on a silver platter and said, "Take it, you humji!" (*it means the equivalent of "timid moron")

I was afraid, to be very honest, I didn't dare to take it up at first. The "What if?s were going in my mind again, my adult instincts calling out to me, telling the consequences that will most likely follow if I spoke my mind in full force.

But then, very soon, I had to admit to myself that I am sick and tired of being afraid, being so painfully cautious of what the outside world will think of me and my jewelry production.

So disgusted and aggravated by the nonconstructive criticisms and bullshit thrown in my face by individuals whose lives will never cross mine.

So, I went, "Screw it!" and took up her offer.

There you have it, that 20 years old back into this almost coming to 27 years old shell of a person. And it is this person who will be lashing out in full force the anger and frustration she felt from the recent Iluma Arts Market.

To be perfectly honest, I don't know what sort of screwed up image Handmade goods had themselves portrayed in this little red dot. What I do know is that alot of people are coming on-board as "handmade" just because the common perception of the handmade business, or rather, entrepreneurship is that it brings in good money.

Where in fact, it doesn't.

This Handmade industry is starting to get bigger and bigger and almost close to bursting like the Bubble Tea industry, which was booming a few years back. And when that happens, you know that's when there's a hell lot of screw-ups going around.

There are those who claims themselves to be handmade where in fact, their items are "Korean-handmade" or "Japan-handmade". In other words, imported goods handmade from a factory line and not from their own personal efforts. Wow, what a nice word-play they have going there isn't it?

And as I had mentioned, as the industry gets bigger and bigger, the under-cutting going on due to stiff competition is downright disgusting. Imported goods selling for as low as S$2 for a pair of earrings, that's where the trouble begins. Customers believe that handmade goods should bear the same price tag as imported goods, since handmade goods, to them, doesn't look much of a difference to that of imported goods.

In fact, to be perfectly honest, in this financially driven country of annual GDP, economic growth and inflation daily reports, Singaporeans are, in majority, culturally deaf. With shopping centres sprouting at the rapid rate of how rabbits give birth, where everything is much too convenient to obtain, handmade goods generally lose badly to imported goods, since imported goods are in vast availability in shopping centres which seems to make up the majority of Singapore's land mass. And as a result, most people really can't tell shit between handmade and imported items.

Before you start bursting to retaliate at what I just expressed, give me a moment to finish everything. Rest assure you will have your chance because I am open to CONSTRUCTIVE criticisms.

What made me formulate the above paragraph was based on what happened to me at the recent Iluma Arts Market. I paid a hefty S$100 rental for 2 days for this shit to be thrown into my face for no bloody good reason.

Alright, here's the reason why I went to the Iluma Arts Market in the first place. The first time they organized it was back last year and the results I got from there? It was tremendously good. I have written an event report on it on my jewelry production's blog, so if you are interested, you are free to go have a look at it.

I had people who genuinely appreciate handmade items, as they recognize the value and the heart and effort the maker put into while making that singular piece. These people are truly rare gems in the Singapore society, where we are a society made up majority of people who are afraid of expressing themselves outwardly in terms of fashion and fear of standing out like a sore thumb and be the only laughing stock amongst the usual throng of factory made drones, who look truly alike with each other.

But this time, these people seemed to not exist. Like seriously. Whether or not it was a bad timing for an Arts Market to be going on at the same time when people are generally in the mad rush for a cheap I-Phone or I-Pad at the IT Show at the nearby Suntec City, I have no idea. But to be very honest, the bullshit I received seemed to have no link whatsoever with it.

I had morons (note, aunties with kids and youngsters from the well-dubbed "Strawberry" generation) either walking past my booth or treating my handmade items like a playground saying straight in my face, when I was totally silent all the while, that *AHEM, clears throat in an exaggerated manner*

1) "EEYER HANDMADE LEH!"
2) "EEYER THESE ARE IMPORTED ONES LOH! I ALSO KNOW HOW TO HANDMAKE CAN!"
3) "YOU SURE THIS IS GENUINE ONE MAH? *GIVES SUPER SKEPTIC LOOK*"
4) "HOMGWTFBBQ THIS IMPORTED SHIT IS SO EXPENSIVE!"

The 3rd one particularly came from someone who absolutely still didn't want to believe me when I said the earrings were made by my friend and the Murano Glass stones used on the earrings were absolutely 100% guaranteed genuinely bought on her caravan trip in Australia. Hell, the one thing I didn't think to do at that time was to take out the namecard of the place where my friend bought the Murano glass stones in Australia.

I had China students picking up my items like toys, playing with them and looked at the price and went, *imitates their sickeningly high-pitch voices*

"AIYOH PRICED THINGS LIKE THAT ALSO DARE TO BRING OUT HERE TO SELL ARH!"

By this time, I know there will be alot of bullets and flames coming my way. But I am still going to go on. Because this is the fact. The GLARING FACT that these shit are really happening.

And I really want people to know because most people are really "QIAN DA" (*the equivalent of "people who really need a in-your-face lashing to get the idea to sink into their heads" or basically, in literal terms, "people whom you really need to slam their heads into the wall to get an idea across to them").

And it's really making me very upset because they are true-blue insults in the most pure form. I mean, look, I know it's a racial flaw in all Singaporeans that we are all brought up to "complain" alot. But people, look at it this way, there's A HELL LOT OF DIFFERENCE in just giving CONSTRUCTIVE criticisms and outright insensitive BITCHING.

I am not going to be defensive about this but it's a fact that we people who do and love handmade stuffs, really love what we do alot. And as a result, we really pour our whole heart and soul into every single creation we make. True, the raw materials we use are imported, but the ones on the assembling end are us. We spend time and effort trying to put everything together to bring a concept or an idea or a thought or even an experience across in a physical form of art.

So, showing some shred of respect and appreciation to us and our works won't make your entire skin drop off? Right?

Another thing I want to comment about is the notion of flea and art markets in Singapore. In overseas context, usually flea and art markets are really atas. I went to Germany's Black Forest once and they had this monthly flea market going on. What I saw selling there include antiques, like well-polished bronze ware which really costs a bomb or basically, the price which they were truly worth.

The flea and art markets overseas generally sell items which are not readily available. And an art market, it's supposed to promote art in the most literal meaning right?

But here in Singapore, the notion is twisted. Like I have already mentioned above, everything is so convenient that it affects the value and worth of whatever that is showcased at flea and art markets. The Singaporean's common notion of a flea or art market is cheap goods at cut-throat prices and goods which were claimed to be first hand, but are in fact, of a second or even third hand, foisted at any individual willing to buy it over at a price which dirt is worth.

And when that happens, the value and worth of handmade items were mistaken to be the same and as a result, we are expected to sell at prices which, well, are considered "worth it", like below S$10.

I have already mentioned why handmade items are priced at a range slightly higher. Another reason being, we are also affected by global inflation. When the prices of raw materials rises, you can't say it's our fault for raising our bar a little higher. Otherwise, well, I quote from what I heard from a fellow handmade vendor, who had heard this first hand, from a flea market vendor,

"Why your stuffs are handmade!? For god's sakes, do import! Why make your life so difficult! Import is king now you know!"

Well, I've said my piece. Ask if I will give up making handmade jewelries?

My answer, "No."

I have a lot more reason to continue making handmade jewelries. Like converting the materials my friend gave me for free from his charity shop and transforming them into pieces to raise funds for charity. And, helping my friend with her upcoming final year project, where the jewelries she designed for her game characters will be made by me into physical prototypes for her presentation.

So you ask, "Why do you make such a big hoo-haa about handmade then?"

I already said before, my dear friend, some things just needed to be voiced out. Otherwise it will be, "Let it be known now, or forever hold your peace."

And I already said, I'll stop thinking so much and quailing at every time I am a dilemma on whether I should say this or not. So there.

And also, here are the only photos from the Iluma Arts Market and the aftermath of the event.

This whipped potato from 7-11 tasted really good after having two bad days in a row. It was brought to me by Anu - my friend whose workplace was pretty near to Iluma. She brought me a chocolate churros too, where both food items really made my day. Thank you Anu! And a big thank you my friends who came to keep me company and literally, keeping those tears which are tempting to well in my eyes at bay. Special thanks to Ashley, Jade, Anu and Ming En, who are truly my fair and bad weather friends!

And this is chicken briyani from the prata shop opposite my former university campus - NAFA. I was in a really foul mood after the end of the second day so I had this craving for dinner. It's good, although we'd prefer the one downstairs at Lionel's house because the flavour is not as over-powering as this one. But nonetheless, this perked me up a little.

Iluma Arts Market this coming weekend

2011-03-08T01:35:00.006+08:00

I'll be going for the Iluma Arts Market this weekend! Do come down and support! Or just say hi!

Date: 12th and 13th March

Time: 12 noon to 9pm

Venue: Civic Plaza, Level 1

Treasure Finding for Charity

2011-01-10T13:34:00.010+08:00

Hello everyone! We are already into the second week of January 2011! So how has everyone been?

For me, recently, I met up with a friend whom I had been meaning to meet since last year. Well, he had been wanting to pass me some beads from his charity shop and when it comes to anything that has to do with jewelry materials, I was excited of course.

You might be thinking, "Charity shop?" Oh, my friend Amos works for the Down Syndrome Association (Singapore) as a Programmes Executive. Currently, he's working on a Down Syndrome Art Exhibition which will be held at National Library. Hmm, got to ask him about the date because I am interested to go down there to have a look at the exhibition.

And how did I get to know him? Through World of Warcraft online. Yes, I am a 100% WoW player whose main character is a Bloodelf Fire Mage. It's a male dominated game, I know, and it requires a monthly subscription to play, but I was brought into it by Lionel at the start of our relationship because I was attracted to Lionel's main character - a clumsy looking cow whose class is the mythical druid. So when I joined WoW, I was invited into his guild, which was a guild formed fully by Singaporeans. That's where I got to know my humourous and witty guild leader - Fabian and his cousins. Amos is a close friend of Fabian and the first time Lionel and I got to meet them was during our first IT show promoter assignment at the Funan IT Show a few years back.

Our interaction with each other had been mostly online, but I got to meet Amos again when he ordered a purple necklace from me as a gift. That's when I got to know a little bit more about him. A wee bit, haha! He likes purple.

So recently when we met up, we chatted a little more. He has been up to his neck with work and had been overseas half the time, mostly in Australia. He had been meaning to clear his charity shop's stores of items which the populace there (his shop is in Telok Blangah) - maids, housewives and kids, don't seem to appreciate.

That's when he passed me these beaded items which seriously looked neglected for a very long time. As you can see below, there's hairband-like structures which had beads and chains wrapped haphazardly around them. There's also a wire sculpture as long as my bedroom's corridor. The only thing which was wire-free was the packet of assorted beads which looks like they needed some serious sorting out.

Though the things came to me in this neglected state, I am actually very happy that Amos passed them to me. I, for one, likes to take things apart, especially things which people discard. Putting them together again as something useful is something I love to do.

Although it was a chore to take apart wires, where they turned my fingers black with dust, I was pretty excited when I finally sorted out the beads after two days. I wanted to salvage the wires too, but they were, really, too old so I had to give up the idea eventually.

7 mini boxes of beads and 2 hairbands - one black and the other silver, in perfect condition were yielded from whatever he gave me. If you are asking where I bought those bead boxes, you can get them for S$2 in sets of 3 at Daiso. I got mine from Plaza Singapura's (PS) Daiso because my dad gave me these three clear boxes when he saw I needed something to store the beads and told me that he got the boxes from PS Daiso.

The first box you see here is what I termed as "The Green Box". Basically, it's made up of beads which are green. There's Murano glass, Czech glass beads and Swarvoski crystals in all shapes and sizes. It just makes me excited when I think of what I can turn them into.

The second box contains mainly of beads which are wine and black in colour. I would like to bring your attention to the small egg shape opal black pearls. These are rare because normally you wouldn't get to see pearls in such a beautiful shade of opal black at the shops I frequent for jewelry materials. And I extracted them from the wire sculpture, which I said is as long as my bedroom's corridor. It just makes me wonder, whoever made that wire sculpture must have been really rich.

The next box comprises of beads which are mostly on the earth tone side. What's amazing was, I managed to extract that many semi-precious stone nuggets (the ones which are flat and white with a pink tinge) from the wire sculpture itself.

There's leftover gunmeral wires and hematite beads in all shapes and sizes in the next box. The hematite beads are really beautiful and the off-white translucent beads? I can already think of a chunky piece for them.

What I love in this box best of all? The platinum silver wire spring beads. Most of the time, I only get to see them sold in Etsy shops online.

As you can see, there's so many silver beads mixed with gold in this box. These beads don't come cheap if they were newly bought off the shelf. And there's sodalite nuggets speckled with gold and blue howlite beads, both semi-precious stones that if they were newly bought off the shelf, they don't come cheap either.

The last box is what I termed as "The Funky Box". Well, basically they are made up of beads which are really funky in colours. Big wooden beads in red, blue, green and orange? Assorted gold and gold brass beads in all shapes and sizes? Copper Murano glass beads with silver swirls? That's what I call funky haha!

There's also necklaces and bracelets which yield as a whole from the two hairband-like structures. I have no idea how they managed to get in there, but I am pretty sure that I am going to tweak them to give them a new life haha!

So, these materials, I literally got them for free from Amos. Now, it doesn't make me feel good taking things for free from friends. You can say I'm weird, but that's the person I am.

Therefore, I am going to make jewelry pieces from these materials and whatever proceedings I get from them, they are going into the Down Syndrome cause. That's my way of giving in return. So keep your eyes on the next post!

Temasek Polytechnic CCN Day (19th November 2010)

2010-11-18T10:49:00.004+08:00

Hey people! It's been a long time since I last posted, I know. But anyway, I'm going for another bazaar tomorrow!

It's a Campus Care Network Day bazaar organized by Temasek Polytechnic! Well, second one for this year as far as I am concerned. The bazaar is to help raise funds for the underprivileged students in Temasek Polytechnic.

So I will be taking part in this bazaar selling my handmade jewelries. I always love going back to my former campus. I miss the tea at the Design canteen haha! Anyway, I'm going to use this opportunity to unwind and have some self R&R. Too much on my mind and too much pent up frustration, stress and irritation. Going to dump these emotional baggage into the Bedok Reservoir behind the campus tomorrow haha!

Anyway here are the details of the bazaar.

Venue: Temasek Polytechnic Plaza
Date: 19th November 2010 (Friday)
Time: 12 noon to 5pm

Lionel's going to drive me to Temasek Polytechnic later to deposit my luggage there in advance. So see you guys at the bazaar tomorrow!

New Pouch!

2010-11-05T12:35:00.005+08:00

This whole week had been nothing but a whole bout of stress, but there's something which made my day. I got a new PSP pouch!

Well actually, I had my PSP for a year and more already. But it had been residing in the protective case which it came along with its box. I didn't like the generic PSP cases that were selling on the market. They look too bulky for my liking, not to mention, them being made out of synthetic rubber in outrageous colours simply turned me off.

And there doesn't seem to be any cloth pouches which were big enough to house my PSP. The cloths and materials they come in doesn't seem suitable either.

Or maybe, it's just me being anal all the while.

Anyway, recently, when Suzanne (from "Periwinkle Su") called me up to chat a few weeks ago, it suddenly crossed my mind to commission her for a PSP pouch. I mean, the pouches she made are really pretty. The I-Phone pouch she gave me the last time when my previously store bought handphone pouch went busted, is really pretty and roomy enough for me to not only house my Sony Ericsson S500i, but also my camera card reader and Sony MP3 with earbuds style earphones.

We met up at Sunflower and she bought a number of fabrics for me to choose. The first fabric she had on top of her fabric stack caught my eye - a funky fabric of cute Japanese icons and geishas. I had a hard time deciding between this fabric and another one which is of a Halloween theme. I mean, the Halloween theme fabric's adorable icons of pumpkins and witches looks pretty cool too. And Halloween was around the corner when I met up with her for fabric selection anyway.

But in the end, I settled on this fabric because I like the geishas better. And for some strange reason, the monkeys which were studiously performing with their taikos too.

And oh, because I love the Rilakkuma bear designs, I specially chose a Rilakkuma bear strap in pink to go with this funky fabric.

So when I got the pouch just this week, I was thrilled. The pouch is so pretty! And it's, again, roomy too. Not only can my PSP fit, but I can also add a few UMDs in it so I can switch games as and when I want when I'm on the go!

On a side note, doesn't the geisha on this side of the pouch looks pretty too? Haha!

This is the other side of the pouch. I like the green octopus with the pirate sword haha! And the sakura flowers too! I love sakura flowers! Someday, I hope to have a chance to go Japan to see the sakura flowers in season!

The pink Rilakkuma bear strap! I have a white one for the I-Phone pouch. But anyway, love the cuteness haha!

Suzanne gave two sweets as a gift along with each commission, mine included too! So cute haha! Anyway, support her at http://periwinklesu.blogspot.com/ or find her at Sunflower! She has a load of surprises in store for Christmas, so do check her out at Sunflower where she consigns her works! All her products are handsewn too! I got this pouch from her for S$21.90, it's really affordable for such a one-only design!

Yesterday, when I was passing by City Square Mall, I noticed they had a new archway erected at the mall's front. I wonder if it's for the upcoming Christmas season. I mean, their Christmas tree is already in construction anyway.

A white archway which resembles that of CHIJMES. But I like this one better.

Especially with the Lion head insignia. Looks very Kuroshitsuji ("Black Butler") to me. Maybe we can snap some D.Grayman photos here too haha!

The design on the other side of the archway. I'm a sucker for these royal Victorian designs. And yes, when I was taking photos of the archway, people around me actually thought I was a tourist. I mean, I know I had been mistaken as a China student more often than not, but seriously, I was not pleased by that all. There was these two Malay chaps who swaggered up to me at the traffic light and asked me, "Do you speak English?"

What did I do? I acted dumb and shook my head.

And surprises of all surprises, they turned around and left me alone! Haha! Crazy people, don't even know what are they thinking when they did that.

In any case, I hadn't been productive for the past weeks. Asides from me going to Textile Centre the other day to pick up red tassles for Ashley's Keiji scabbard and then finding a rather interesting find, I hadn't been doing much.

And I had been fretting about the new bout of rashes which broke out on my legs and thighs. How in the world I got them I have no idea at all. When I just sit down and don't move, I won't itch. As a matter of fact, the rashes are not exactly that visible.

But when I just went to temple to pray and walk around abit yesterday, the rashes were glaringly obvious and they were itchy as hell.

Man, I'll be dropping by skin centre for a check on my condition on Monday. I want to recover before Naoki comes to Singapore next Friday! And not to mention, the upcoming TP CCN Day which I want to take part in! Well, I haven't sent in my registration for TP CCN Day yet, so more about it in the next post when I get it done by then!

On a side note, my dream position at TP is open. And I'm not eligible for it...yet. Which, makes me kinda sad.

More Haze

2010-10-24T02:09:00.007+08:00

The haze had been getting unbearable these days. This was what I took two days ago. The Concourse (the spider web like building you see near Arab Street) is totally obscured by the haze.

And I had not been opening my windows like how I do when I wake up every morning. After opening my window on the first day of the haze and gagging at the maladorous odour it brings with it, I had stopped opening my windows in order to not agitate my sensitive breathing system.

Also, I don't want my room to smell like the haze.

And today, it rained. I don't really like the rainy year end season, but for once, I am glad that it rained. And it rained heavily too. The haze cleared up a bit and the heat that it had trapped for the past few days dissipated, making the outside air much cooler. I didn't open my windows like wide but opened a considerable small slit when it was pouring outside.

But I feel glad that I am able to open my windows once again and breathe the relatively cool air outside.

I certainly hope the haze would clear up soon. It is quite worrying, seeing how it might continue to extend. AFA X is coming up and our overseas cosplay counterparts are coming over to Singapore to take part in the Regional Cosplay Championships. At least, there's the Thailand representative I know who is coming over.

Naoki, hopefully the haze would have cleared when you come over to Singapore. I certainly wouldn't want the haze to dampen and affect your experience in your Singapore visit! Also, an advanced good luck in the championships!

Anyway, remember I said I aim to make 20 items before Halloween? Here are 6 more items added to the original 5 in the last post. That makes 11 items! 9 more to go!

The first in the six items is this bracelet made of a white and blue colour scheme. I had it named "Winterscape". It was first conceptualized when one of my friends - Ashley, told me about Aries's (our makeup artist haha) recent photoshoot for her makeup portfolio. The initial theme of the photoshoot was "Ice Queen" but Aries changed it eventually into "Halloween", where the theme evolved around a sort of "Addam's Family" concept. But Ashley and I had been discussing about the colours for the "Ice Queen" theme. I had suggested the traditional icy colours of white and blue. So with that in mind, I had these traditional colours translated into this bracelet and thus its name - "Winterscape". It's a relatively simple piece made of white and sapphire blue acrylic pearls of varied sizes, off white acrylic teardrops, white and sapphire blue faceted acrylic gemstones of varied shapes and sizes and smoky sapphire genuine Swarvoski crystals. Silver chains of varied lengths and widths had been used on this piece too. I am going to stop making more bracelets for now because I felt that it is getting repetitive, since it resembles the previous pieces I showcased in my last post.

The choker above is made when Lionel was suggesting to me to make something which resembles Rachel Alucard from our favourite PS3 console game - Blazblue: Continuum Shift. I was thinking of her default colours when I looked to my stores and found the white lace which Ashley gave me. It was left over from her King of Fighters Kula costume a few years back. The lace is simple with floral prints and I thought that it would suit Rachel's image perfectly, since the centre of the lace is hollow and I could fill it up by weaving black satin ribbon through it.

Here's the problem which I ran into eventually. I hit a dry rut when I finished making the centrepiece for this choker. The centrepiece is made of Rachel's default colours - maroon red and black acrylic pearls of varied sizes, white howlite beads and a maroon hued chiffon rosettes bouquet. It went perfectly with the lace base but after that, I didn't know what to do with it because I didn't know what was missing. The choker felt bare when it is just sewn on with the centrepiece alone. So I literally abandoned it for two weeks.

Until when I was looking for charms in my charms drawer did I suddenly chanced upon a packet of buttons which I had left untouched. These packet of buttons were bought when I first decided to restart my jewelry business back in 2008. I have a bad habit of buying materials and just leaving them there because I do not know what to do with them at the time I bought them.

But here's the thing, there were a couple of pearlescent grey acrylic buttons in the packet and after staring at them for a couple of minutes, I realised that they might just be the thing which is missing on my choker. It turned out that they are really the missing components.

So yup, this choker was completed at last, after collecting dust on my table for two weeks and more. I added two burnished silver tombstone style cross charms to give the choker a finished look. I mean, I was kind of reluctant to use them because these charms were bought back in 2006 from my supplier's but they were kind of phased out. I am just left with a few of them now since I literally "abused" them in my earlier pieces a few years back.

For those who don't know how Rachel Alucard looks like, this is her reference. This is the default colour scheme I tried to reflect with my choker.

This was an unexpected project because I had initially wanted to make this into a bracelet. As you know, I don't really like to bring too many things out but yet, I am afraid of getting bored when I am outside getting a cuppa while waiting for Lionel to get off work. So the basic things I'll bring are beads in varied colours, my roll of transparent fishing line, my trusty pair of scissors, my two seasoned pliers and my equally seasoned cutter. And yes, a couple of other stuffs like silver seashell clasps and my beading books.

I had a habit of making beaded bases, especially for bracelets, and just leaving them there until I have inspirations on what to form them into. This peach coloured project was a half-woven bracelet I made while being at the Open Doors Weekend Market at Orchard Central.

But somehow, I got the idea to weave it into a choker instead after seeing one of my friends - Julia, post a link to victorian and gothic inspired costumes illustrations in art noveau style, a majority of them in pastel colours. There was one particular one in peach and cream, where the peach colour seem to resemble the colours of the beads used on this choker. I decided to translate that particular costume illustration into this choker.

However, that seemed easier said than done. After weaving about halfway from where I left off from the last time, I found it really tedious. The bead weaving process was slow, because I had to weave it one bead by one bead at a time. And because a choker's basic length is 31.5cm, which is quite long in other words, I have a tendency to mis-weave at certain points and have to backtrack to undo the mistakes and rectify them because they are glaring obvious.

In other words, this choker project can relatively drive you up the wall and back. Weaving the beaded base alone took me one day, which in my opinion, is too long. Assembling the beaded centrepiece and other embellishments on it took another few hours, which in other words, extend the creation time by at least another half a day.

One and a half day for a choker, that is far too long, in my opinion. Lionel said this choker looks nice because it has a natural bridal feel to it. To me, I am not going to make another same type of beaded choker any time soon because as I already said, it is too tedious.

After that beaded choker, I decided to take a break from chokers and moved on to rosaries. I had not been making any rosaries from the last time I had my rosary inspirations spree. Now, I bought burnished silver pumpkin charms from my supplier's and it happened to be the last two packets left on the shelf. I guess the Halloween season was coming up that's why it was about to go out of stock. But anyway, I had been staring at them for a few days and was wondering what to do with them when I thought about an orange and black piece. Orange and black are most commonly associated with Halloween, what with the pumpkins and sweets like black liquorice.

Like an excited kid, I started to assemble the piece with black acrylic pearls and citrine beads. I even chose a burnished silver floral cross charm which I had left in my charms drawer for some time as its centrepiece. The pumpkin charms I had decided to use them at the halfway points indicated by the burnished silver ornate celtic knots spacers.

But then, there's a problem - what to use as my centre anchor piece. After thinking for some time, I went to my favourite shop at Arab Street to seek for answers. And there I found it - faceted acrylic oval cached gemstones in champagne gold. It went surprisingly well with the rest of the piece though.

This sweet looking rosary is made from the cranberry red faceted acrylic beads which I bought from my favourite shop at Arab Street. Initially, I was there not just to look for a centre anchor piece for my previous rosary creation but also for mandarin orange faceted acrylic beads for my upcoming Halloween inspired pieces. Well, I found both, along with these cranberry red faceted acrylic beads which I thought would go perfectly with my Bayonetta inspired pieces, especially a piece which I am going to name as "Madame Butterfly". What it is going to be made into, I am going to leave it as a secret for now.

I had always wanted to make a green rosary but never got down to making it until now. Remember the light olivine green faceted acrylic beads I bought to make my Gumi inspired pieces? I thought they would suit perfectly for a green rosary, so I added light green pastel acrylic beads and malachite beads and viola! The rosary looks perfect with a gold brass heart centrepiece, rather than the traditional cross centrepiece because I wanted to try something new.

All these pieces are now on sale in their respective sections. Go check them out!

As I said, 9 more pieces to go! I hope to complete them by next week so I could move on to my next challenge! More in the next post!

Haze Season and Halloween

2010-10-18T01:29:00.004+08:00

Did anyone see this the day before? Well, I did. I was wondering why was it so foggy outside until I looked at the setting sun, which in this photo, looked like a red salted egg yolk, that I realised that the haze is back again.

That explains why my legs were itching like nobody's business a few days before the haze arrived. The itching got so unbearable that I had to go consult my doctor about it. I dreaded her diagnosis - seasonal itch, something akin to hay fever.

Great, just great.

She prescribed me Triderm - a low-grade steroid which was very effective when applied to itchy skin. And Zyrtec-D tablets to combat the itching too. She also suggested me to buy Pinetarsol Lotion, which was the same thing she suggested me to buy when I had chicken pox ages ago. Pinetarsol Lotion is used as a bathing lotion which effectively stops itchy skin. Just that not many people will like its pungent bitter pine smell.

S$44 spent like that. That was a good one Haze, go away soon please thank you.

Itchy skin aside, after a long creativity drought and a great deal of procrastination, I finally got myself going and made these babies just in time for the Halloween season.

"Symphony of the Draconic Angel" was born from an inspiration of Gumi's "Sandplay of the Dragon" outfit. This particular Vocaloid was not as popular as the rest of the Vocaloid family, but it's her striking green hair which caught my attention.

So I had this choker made in her image in this particular PV. In fact, I bought a whole lot of green gems, beads and stuffs just to make inspirations which sprung from listening to her songs. I showed this choker to Anu and Jade, they both commented the colour scheme looked odd because of the striking pink acrylic beads I used. Well, those beads were considered vintage because I didn't buy them, one of my friends gave them to me because she had no use for them. Even Lionel said the choker looks odd. It makes me pretty sad, really, but I still support this choker because its cheery colours serve as a strong contrast against the darb black velvet.

"The Angel's Vessel" was born from watching the "07-Ghost" anime and listening to their theme song "Aka no Kakera" (translated means "Fragment of Red"). I made this in the image of their main character - Teito Klein, who, in some ways, is your typical anime hero whose fate was made tragic due to his past memories being sealed away and a hidden power which resides within him. The green gem I use is the same colour as his eyes and the maroon red acrylic pearls surrounding the gem is the same colour as his hidden power - the red "Eye of Mikhail". This relic hold the soul of the great Archangel Micheal and Teito was bestowed with great power whenever this relic takes over his body. He doesn't remember anything about it after that of course, because he sort of goes into "forced slumber" whenever this relic takes over his body.

The centrepiece was made in the early part of this week but I left it there because I found something lacking in the overall choker design. Until I went to the button shop at Chinatown and saw these gold filgreed buttons with cream acrylic centres did I realise what I was missing. Excited, I bought two of these buttons immediately and had them sewn on either side of the centrepiece, accompanied with ruby genuine Swarvoski 6mm crystals, whereupon then I was satisfied that the choker design was finally completed.

"The Gardener of Eden" was made in the image of one of the three bishops in "07-Ghost" - Labrador. His lavender eyes, which was often filled with warmth and love, especially when he was in the presence of his favourite flowers, whom he has command over. I had this purple and green piece shown to Lionel and he just told me flatly that he doesn't like it very much, because it looked too "glassy". Sharp criticism as always, but this baby is still going on the rack. And personally, I think it's pretty. The silver cross charms were initially not in the plan, until I went to my supplier's did I suddenly got the idea of using these silver cross charms, which were new stocks at my supplier's, on this bracelet, because the cross fits the image of Labrador as a bishop perfectly.

"Witch Time" is a Bayonetta inspired piece. Well, it was especially inspired from a Bayonetta chest time piece design which I saw while browsing through Deviant Art. You can view it here at http://seraphinus.deviantart.com/favourites/#/d2mgu6n I seldom deal with gold brass jewelry parts because I am more of a silver person, but this Bayonetta piece demands for it, since Bayonetta's chest time piece is of gold brass.

"The Last Revolver" is again, another Gumi-inspired piece, especially from her "The Last Revolver" PV. It is a wonderful song, though it tells of a typical love story between justice and evil, whereupon the side of justice dies because the love between them was not supposed to be possible in the first place. You can listen to the song here at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz1-aHL82Cs Actually, those burnished silver revolvers were bought for my Noel Vermillion (Blazblue) inspired piece but ended up I used them here first on this piece.

All pieces featured in this post are all up for sale in the "Bracelets Collection" and "Chokers Collection" section. Go check them out!

I'll be making more pieces this month of course and I won't stop until I hit my 20 pieces quota! It's a way of motivating myself so that I don't slack off!

Open Doors Weekend Market at Orchard Central (18th and 19th September 2010)

2010-09-23T02:25:00.006+08:00

Last weekend, I went for the Open Doors Weekend Market at Orchard Central. I got to know of this market from Jane, when I visited her on the previous one. So I was thinking, why not just give it a go, since it's been some time since I did my last bazaar. I think my last bazaar was at Iluma a few months back.

Open Doors Weekend Market is strictly by invitations only for vendors. But I gave it a try and sent my portfolio to Orchard Central for their perusal. I was quite surprised to be accepted.

For those who are interested to take part, the booth rental for this bazaar is free, with a security deposit of S$100 which is refundable.

Both days were equally uneventful. Day 1 was really not my day. I'm not sure if it is because I had not done bazaars in awhile or what, but I seemed to forget to bring alot of things that day. I forgot to tag my new pieces and forgot to bring my price booklet, which resulted in me not being able to put my new pieces up. I brought all my tools, beads and beading books with me, but I was not able to do anything after that because I actually forgot to bring my most important material - transparent fishing line.

But thankfully I brought Lionel's Lu Xun's cosplay references with me, so I was busy sketching away to distract myself from my growling stomach and, ahem, nature's call. Hmm, the reason was this, my booth was located between the lifts and the other entrance of Orchard Central. The back of my booth, although backed by a pillar, was exposed to the entrance. The only other booth within the vicinity was backed against a pillar opposite me and there was at least a two booths worth of spacing between us. Which means, literally, we both were very far apart from each other. I was on my own, so I was not able to move to go toilet or to buy food and drinks because my booth is literally in an unsecured and exposed position.

I hadn't recovered from my cough and the aircon was making it from bad to worst, although I was wearing Lionel's very thick sports jacket which he bought when we were still studying in UK. And without any hot beverages or food in sight, not to mention that I was not able to take my medicine, hours seemed to crawl by in agony.

Thankfully, Ashley rushed down after she bought her stuffs from Art Friend, after hearing that I could not move to buy food or drinks or go toilet. Thanks girl, you really are my saviour! But it was already 3pm when I finally could go get my lunch and go toilet. While munching on my pipping hot unagi rice burger and warming my lungs up with hot milk tea, I watched Ashley play Patapon 2 on her PSP.

Sally came shortly after that, after she visited Jane's booth. I was really glad to see her. Now, before Ashley or Sally came, I noticed a very strange phenomenon going on around my booth. People coming down from the lifts and from the entrance behind me will, never fail, come to my booth and ask me for directions around the mall. There was not just one person who did that, but more than five just in the morning alone. Some people even came around to ask Ashley when I went for my lunch and toilet break. Even the same phenomenon happened when I was talking to Sally. The count escalated to ten or more people when Ashley and Sally were at my booth.

I feel really weirded out by this because the mall directory was just next to the lifts and people was like treating my booth like some information counter/live mall directory. I can even remember some of the common questions people asked. "Excuse me, where's the foodcourt on the 5th floor?", "Excuse me, where's the toilet?", "Excuse me, where's MOS Burgers?" If I were to vote, the question which people asked most was where the toilets were located.

To tell the truth, this phenomenon was getting really annoying when evening came about. Anu came to visit me in the evening and she was barely there for five minutes when someone came around to ask her for directions. Sheesh, like woah really weird. And oh, that was my official second toilet break for the day when Anu came to visit me after she off work around 6pm. Thank god you came by Anu!

Throughout the day, I hadn't made any sales. Except 1 around 4pm. My "Angelic Heart" necklace found her new home with a very nice lady who had very nice compliments for my stuffs. She even wore the necklace on the spot and told me that she didn't need any bags. By appreciating what I make, she was the customer who really made my day. I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to her for liking what I make and I hope to see her again when I get the chance to go for other bazaars.

Day 2 I was a little more prepared. After watching Ashley play Patapon 2 on her PSP on Day 1 afternoon, I had Lionel charge up our silver PSP the night before and brought two games with me - Final Fantasy Dissidia and Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth. This time, I brought my tags and my price booklet. I brought all my tools, beads and beading books too, this time, with my roll of transparent fishing line with me.

And yes I brought my water bottle too, in the case when I need to take my medicine.

I had my new bracelet and brooch pieces up this time and had to change the booth layout a little. But it was not much of a problem. In the end, I was able to tag all my brooch pieces and one bracelet piece because I ran out of tags. But I had my price booklet to refer to, so not really much of a problem.

While beading a peach coloured beaded bracelet, I was playing Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth on my PSP. Initially, when Lionel bought this game, he bought it for me to play. But in the end, he started playing with it first and gave up when he got stuck at one of the castle dungeons in the game. So now, when it comes to my turn to play it, I got really hooked on to it because I love RPGs since young, especially the part when you get to find rare treasures and stuffs like that. I don't really like the puzzle-solving part of it though, it gets really annoying when you get a step wrong and you have to restart the puzzle-solving all over again.

So the whole day, since 10.30am, I was playing to keep myself entertained and to ignore, ahem, again nature's call. Not to mention, I was still coughing away till my face was blue, although I had a knitted top, Lionel's UK jacket, jeans, socks and boots on.

And me being engrossed on my PSP seemed to give people the impression that I was busy. There were only a handful of people who came to ask me for directions. Other than that, I was pretty much left undisturbed.

Lionel came around 5pm and he bought me lunch from MOS! My guy save my life! It felt great to be able to go to the toilet and bite into my favourite and hot unagi rice burger, fries and sip my hot milk tea.

Anu came around 7pm and we packed up after I picked up my deposit from Elissa. Any sales for Day 2 you ask? Nah, there isn't at all.

We drove to our favourite kopitiam to have my favourite bak kut teh and fried guo tie. We shared the food amongst ourselves and they were delicious. Anu ordered rojak and that tasted just as good too. To me, everything tasted good because they really perked me up.

That concludes my event report. Sleep folks, good night!

*Last weekend, on 18th and 19th Sep, I was at Open Doors Weekend Market at Orchard Central. What I find to be pretty unique? My table is literally a door, the type of door I had for my room in my former apartment.

*Yup, mine's an aqua blue door.

*There were post-it notes on the tables to indicate which table belongs to which owner. This is mine. But I took quite some time to find my table though because it never occurred to me that it will be obscured by a pillar.

*My booth layout on the first day. The first day was really not my day. I could not bring out the new pieces I made because I didn't have them tagged and I didn't have my price booklet with me. I brought my beads and tools and stuffs, but I could not make anything because I forgot to bring my most important fishing line. Maybe because I had not done bazaars in a while. But what a day, really.

*My booth layout from another perspective.

*My booth was located right next to the lifts, with the other entrance of OC right smack behind me. On my left is Goldheart. The only other booth in my vicinty was directly opposite me, leaning against the other pillar with at least a two booths spacing worth of pavement between us. In other words, very far apart. It is indeed a very strange feeling to have two jewelry booths located right in front of a jeweler retail store like Goldheart.

*The other entrance of OC, where the underground entrance to their B2 is located right next to it. My booth is rather exposed because the back of the booth is facing the doors and there were only just two booths here, where we were separated from the booths in the main walkway. It was not convenient or safe for me to move the whole day to get food, drinks or even go toilet because it is a rather exposed area. And for some strange reason, people getting out of the lifts or just coming in from the entrance behind me will come to me and ask where are the toilets, where is the food court, where is so-and-so restaurant etc. Hmm, I feel somewhat like an information counter. On the other hand, when there's more than 10 people coming to you on both days asking where this and that is, where the mall directory is just next to the lifts, it gets annoying after awhile.

*The organizer booths in the main walkway, I think.

*Nuabs booth.

*So how did I pass my first day? Luckily I brought Lu Xun's cosplay references with me so I was sketching away while taking photos of my newly bought materials when I was out shopping with Jade and Ashley. These gold and black chains were so pretty that I couldn't resist getting them. Just so nice that when I bought them, they were down to their last 2.5m and that my supplier told me that these were the last of their stocks for this particular chain.

*Pretty patterned silver and gold square-links chains! But they are costly too though.

*5-holed brooch pins! Been a long time since I got them or use them as a matter of fact. They are pretty costly too. Ashley came after she bought her stuffs at Art Friend at Takashimaya. Ashley you are my saviour! After starving since morning till 3pm and coughing till my face was blue because the aircon was really not that good for my cough, I was able to run down to MOS to get my lunch and go toilet. While having my lunch, I watched Ashley play Patapon 2 on her PSP. Shortly after that, Sally came over to my booth to visit me! Woo hoo! Happiness! It was around this time where I made my 1st sale of the day, where I sold my Angelic Heart necklace to a very nice lady.

*Dinner knives! Charms I bought for my Sebastian Michealis piece. Anu came around the time where I finished taking photos of these charms, which was somewhere in the evening. I was able to go for my second toilet break for the day.

*My booth layout on the second day. Remember I said I saw Ashley playing with Patapon 2 on her PSP? This time, I told Lionel to charge up my PSP and I brought it with me, along with two games - Final Fantasy Dissidia and Valkyrie Profile 1: Lenneth. And yes, I brought my tags, my price booklet, my beads, my tools, my beading books and my all-important fishing line. So what was I doing? Making a peach coloured beaded bracelet while playing Valkyrie Profile 1: Lenneth at the same time.

*Because I put out my new pieces, I re-arranged the booth layout a little. I was able to get my two gold-plated hangers which I bought from Art Friend out and hang my handphone charms on them.

*My new bracelets. The new ones are those which are still untagged.

*My new brooches. The new ones are those which are still untagged. In the end, I was only able to tag all the brooches and one bracelet because I ran out of tags. Oh well, I got to replenish on them when I get to Popular the next time.

*A self-operated airship! I can't resist taking a photo of it since it's bobbing around in front of me.

*Lionel came around 5pm. My savior! I was finally able to go toilet, after like not being able to go to the toilet since 10.30am in the morning after I set up my booth. And I wolfed down my very late lunch of unagi rice burger, fries and hot tea. I was able to walk around a bit and took a photo of the singers on stage. Their voices are very nice, along with their instruments as accompaniment.

Newly released Halloween collection and more

2010-08-27T02:02:00.009+08:00

Hello everyone! Yeah, I know it's been some time since you guys last heard from me.

For those who read my previous entries, I had been making a fair load of noise about my urine tract infection. Yes, that had long since healed up, along with a fungal infection which showed up on my laboratory FEME test results.

But the past week had been tough for me, while I was still healing up from my previous medical conditions, I caught the flu bug from Lionel.

Which was quite a bad thing.

I have a condition called the post-nasal drip, which was the end result of a delay in flu treatment back when I was in JC2. This condition will cause the mucus to go backwards through the nasal passages and drip into my lungs, resulting in a blocked leaky nose, a hacking cough because the mucus chokes me somewhat and a fever caused by my body working overtime to combat this condition.

Not to mention, my monthly dread came at the same time too.

Tough luck eh?

Feeding on so many types of medications just made me feel so sluggish and tired, so much so that I could hardly get any form of decent work done at all.

The lucky thing is, a few days ago, I started to feel slightly better so I decided to work on some pieces which I intend to put in my new Halloween collection. Here are three brooches to head the newly released Halloween collection. More will be uploaded soon but please be patient with me because I am not exactly fully healed up yet, so I will be making pieces a little bit slower than usual.

*The Spider's Embrace, an Alois Trancy (Kuroshitsuji II) inspired piece.

*The Red Madame, a Madame Red (Kuroshitsuji) revised version piece.

*The Queen's Watchdog, a Ciel Phantomhive (Kuroshitsuji II) inspired piece.

And yes, for those who are classical music lovers, there will be an annual concert coming up for Musical Art Studio - the music centre my friend is working at. Details are as follows,

Venue: YMS Auditorium (YMS Art Centre, 54 Waterloo Street)

Date: 29th August 2010

Time: Starts at 7pm sharp

Admission: Free

Do come down to support them! They will also be presenting their school's courses and activities as well, so for those who are interested to pick up piano or violin, do come down to listen and have a look.

Personally, I myself am thinking of picking up my Grade 8 again at Musical Art Studio. One reason being the music centre which I was at - City Music Centre closed down, much to my dismay. I was really upset when recently I went to Peace Centre and found the location of City Music Centre to be replaced by an education agency instead.

Another reason being I had been dropping by to visit my friend at her workplace as and when I am free or just happen to be around the area. The music centre is located at the quiet Waterloo Centre and I like the music centre's environment because it just gives me that soothing and comfortable feeling. Not to mention that everyone there are really friendly with each other.

I will be making another good luck charm for their upcoming annual concert. One of my charms for their previous public performance is already hanging on their violin display haha.

Of course, Lionel and I will be going for their annual concert. So hope to see you guys there!

Of Lab Tests, Discounts and Cosplay Updates

2010-07-20T21:14:00.006+08:00

So I went to the doctor's on Monday. There was a very long queue at the clinic because come on, I was Number 56 in the queue and it was only just 11am in the morning. Saw lots of kids going in and out of the consultation room with their parents and I even saw one of the parents paying S$130 for his kid's meds, where a majority of them was for curing flu and cough. Hmm, flu season amongst the Singaporean kids now I guess?

When it was my turn to go in, my doctor looked pissed. I guess doing consultations way beyond her lunch time was making her edgy. But anyway, the usual dipstick test cannot be performed on me because my mensus was not exactly clean yet. My doctor was afraid that the blood will show up, thus rendering the test results invalid and making me waste unnecessary money. So she treated me based on my symptoms, prescribing me my usual Citravescent to treat the burning sensation in the urine tract and Genurin Semplice Forte - a new anaesthetic which I have not tried before.

I will have to go back to her clinic on next Monday to do a urine test, but this time, they will send my urine sample to a laboratory to culture, so as to determine whether my urine tract infection may have turned out to be an irritated bladder instead.

And I just have to say this, I regret taking the anaesthetic. It makes me feel very drowsy the whole day. And the bad news is, I need to take one tab two times a day. So, it just shows how strong it is.

Onwards to other things, crafters alert! Ok, I guess most of you guys should know already, Spotlight is having a store-wide discount sale now. My friend, Anu, told me just the other day and so we went to the Spotlight at Plaza Singapura to see if we can pick up some good stuffs.

Lots of cloths on discount, some of them really nice too. But we didn't get them because we don't really need them and we are not really into the habit of hording stuffs which we are not going to use immediately.

But I got some real good stuffs from the beading rack and mini blossoms rack! I got two boxes of Simply Divine beads - one metallic purple and the other, a rare Aurora Borealis (AB) purple which I only get to see in peyote tutorials in beading books. I got them for half their usual price, which was a pretty good steal! They even come with bonus re-useable storage containers!

As for the mini blossoms rack, I got a packet of burgundy satin carnations from Vivaldi, whose colour I absolutely fell in love with when I first came into contact with it a few years ago. Anu picked a bouquet of ivory white chiffon and satin rosettes for me because she said the colour looks the most decent and prettiest amongst the other colours. They too were going for half their usual price! Happiness!

Oh, before we went to Spotlight, Anu gave me this packet of metal pieces when I went to meet her at her workplace. Turned out she went to Spotlight the day before and bought these filgreed metal pieces from Blue Moon Beads Global Nomad series because she thought it would be very useful for me since I am into jewelry-making! Thank you Anu! They are really lovely!

I'll be putting these new materials into good use. I received an email from Sally regarding an art bazaar at Marina Square, apparently organized by the organizers of YOG, Noise! Singapore and Marina Square. I'm still considering whether I should go or not because it is a new place and one of its dates clashes with Natsu-Matsuri - an annual summer festival organized by the Japanese Association of Singapore. But nonetheless, I shall be preparing more stocks and as a teaser, there will be most likely a Halloween collection coming up soon. I shall keep the theme of the collection a secret.

There's a new bracelet just uploaded into the Bracelet Collection section. Go check it out!

While preparing more stocks, Lionel and I are both preparing for our End-Of-Year cosplay plans as well. For those who have seen on my Facebook, we have already purchased the first few parts of our costumes already. July to December seems like a long time, but it does not seem much to me, what with giving leeway to possible and unforeseen mistakes in our costumes and weapons making processes. I cross my hands that everything will go smoothly. Wish us luck.

Some quick updates

2010-07-16T20:56:00.003+08:00

I know you guys out there are wondering why my updates are so slow. I'm so sorry! I've been pretty busy over the past week.

Not to mention, still kind of sick of course.

My urine tract infection (UTI) had relapsed for the second time a few days before Cosfest. I went to my doctor at that time but she went overseas, so I consulted her sub-in instead. He diagnosed my UTI as a relapse, gave me the same meds as before and asked me to return on Monday (which is the Monday after Cosfest) for a re-checkup.

So I went back on Monday and yes, my doctor was there. She diagnosed it as a relapse, refused to give me anti-biotics as she insisted I don't need it and gave me the usual Citravescent (which is an effervescent drink to control any burning sensation or unecessary urges to urine, and it tastes like pseudo burnt plastic) and Cranberry extract capsules.

Now, I have finished my Citravescent and am just feeding on two Cranberry extract capsules every morning, but it still hurts and I'm kind of still running to the toilet like more often than needed.

Which was irritating of course.

I'm going to see how this goes. I mean, I don't like relying on meds too much. Weakens my immune system so to speak. I'm turning to our natural way of healing, like drinking more water home-cooked barley water and drinking white carrot soup, which is supposedly the strongest anti-biotic in the whole range of chinese herbs known in this world.

If these still doesn't work, of course, I'm going back to my doctor and this time, I'm going to insist on anti-biotics. As stated in Wikipedia, UTI patients with a tendency of recurrence requires a long period dosage of anti-biotics.

I mean, I had enough of pain every now and then and running to the toilet.

But in any case, I had updated the "Bracelets Collection" section with bracelets from the newly released "Monochromatic" collection. Will be updating with another one or two more bracelets before I stop on my bracelets-making inspiration. I would love to start on my necklaces-making inspiration soon though!

As for the 10% GSS discount, I am still in the midst of deciding which designs should go on the discount list, so please bear with me for a while!

Iluma Arts Market on 10th July 2010

2010-07-16T20:37:00.002+08:00

It had been a long while since I took part in any bazaars. The whole month of June was a flurry of activities for my cosplay stuffs and finally the big day on Cosfest IX (3rd and 4th July 2010), where after all the sweat, the blood, the grievances and last minute accidents, our D.Grayman cosplays came out successfully.

I was contemplating on whether I should take part in Iluma Arts Market or not, since it's like a week after Cosfest. Being a bazaar-oriented person, I finally gave in to my, ahem, "desire", and signed up for it.

The area where I was assigned to was kinda windy, things keep falling off every few minutes whenever I'm not looking. However, I was glad that I got to see many old friends, like Jane and Sally whom I had not seen in a while.

Sales was kind of slow in the early part of the day, but I amused myself with repairing some of my items. My customer from SGCafe came to visit me and bought my "The Black Order" choker from me! So happy! Next was my friend who came to collect the hairclip he commissioned me to do for his girlfriend's birthday. Haha, was lucky to catch up with him because I had not seen him in ages.

After that, while repairing my stuffs and having lots of fun with my newly bought Fabric Glue (S$7.50 per bottle) from Spotlight, I found myself feeling hungry so I got my lunch from a nearby Takoyaki shop. It's a Taiwan-style Takoyaki and I love it lots! The wasabi was spicy as much as it was pungent and it goes really well with the sweet sauce, which had plenty of peppercorn in it! Strongly recommended to try!

Suzanne came to visit! We chatted for a long long time haha! She bought my "Wielder of the Holy Light" necklace! Suzanne you spoil me haha!

Close to evening, a customer who was a fan for unique jewelry came over to my booth and we had a lot to chat about haha! I'm happy she liked my items! She bought my sunflower hairclip and two chokers!

A young lady bought one of my necklaces after that. I'm glad that the necklace I made got a new home haha!

Overall, the sales for the day was mediocre, but I'm happy with the knowledge that there are people out there who appreciates and likes what I make. It's kinda like a great encouragement for me to keep going on and make more new stuffs to share with everyone!

*My booth at Iluma Arts Market. For uniformity's sake, everyone's tablecloths are black, which was fine with me because it had been a long time since I last used my black rose-patterned double-sided satin tablecloth. Lots of stuffs to cram on the table because I accumulated them like say, for about almost coming to two years?

*The Taiwan-style Takoyaki! Must try!

Upcoming Iluma Arts Market, GSS Promotions and Stuffs

2010-07-09T11:18:00.003+08:00

Yes, I know that it's been a long time since I last updated here. It feels good to be back though! Cosfest is over and I have to say that Lionel and I really enjoyed ourselves cosplaying as Allen Walker (Crown Clown claw anti-demon weapon version) and Miranda Lotto (anime version) from D.Grayman.

Anyway, on to the latest news! Yes, I'm taking part in this upcoming Saturday's Iluma Arts Market! It will be held on 10th July and open for business from 12noon to 8pm! The arts market is located right outside the entrance of Iluma, below the Iluma link bridge. A spot you definitely can't miss in other words, haha!

I know I'm very slow on the uptake for Great Singapore Sale as I'm not really into the discount sort of thing (I mean, come on, it's happening all over Singapore almost on a daily basis), but here's my GSS promotion and of course, a launch of a long awaited new summer collection for the month of July.

My new summer collection for July has a rather queer name - "Monochromatic". One would think that it has some link to music or something of that sort of nature. Yes, it is linked to music but it didn't started out from some music inspiration.

I have to admit that I favour dark colours when I first started out on making gothic and victorian jewelry pieces. So much so that it becomes so generic, that almost every piece you see will have a tinge of darkness in it. Ok, to make dark pieces, you will have to be depressed first. So ya, you can see how much depression and stress I was under in my early twenties.

But now, I favour brighter colours. Perhaps it was due to a change in my perspective, or perhaps Lionel played a major part in this, because he made me see life in a totally different manner. But I'm happier, all the while learning to appreciate the brighter and the more vibrant, elements which I have failed to see in the past.

This collection begin when Lionel suggested to me to make pieces which are hues of the same colour, so that it becomes less attention-seeking, but more subtle in terms of blending in with the usual off-the-rack generic clothes which the majority of Singaporeans favour. It is a challenge to me because I had not done such a style before and I am still, pretty much, weak in terms of colour theory.

But here's to the monochrome! The first, considered successful monochromatic piece is "The Monochromatic Experiment", the first in the collection and made up of a selection of red blending in to orange hues. The first few pieces of the collection will be available at this Saturday at Iluma Arts Market. I'll be making more this July, so do keep a look out for them!

Yes, I was mentioning about my GSS promotion. There will be a 10% discount on selected items like bracelets, necklaces and the likes. Check them out at the upcoming Iluma Arts Market!

While I'm typing this entry, I'm munching on my favourite Sunshine bun to perk myself up. It's a Cheese Cream roll and it tastes really good and the cream not cloying to the tongue! I strongly recommend it to everyone. My personal favourites are the chocolate, strawberry and butter suger flavours.

I need to go down to Iluma's office later to submit my payment and registration form for the Iluma Arts Market. I was supposed to submit it before 3pm, but because the guy in charge has a pretty tight schedule for today, I'll go there around 4pm instead to submit it to him. Just nice for me because Lionel gets off work around that time and tonight, we'll be going clothes shopping! Finally, after so long, I get to get some new clothes haha!

See you guys this Saturday then! Tata!

D.Grayman Buttons' Bases tutorial

2010-05-26T14:25:00.006+08:00

Cosfest is coming in another one month and a little bit more. Like all other cosplayers, I'm in the midst of working on my costume and props, not to mention Lionel's as well.

Since I'll be sending in my buttons to my tailor today, I decided to make a short tutorial on making the buttons' bases. It's my first time trying out on making a tutorial. If this one is considered alright, I might move on to making tutorials for my jewelries as well.

So on to the tutorial!

As usual, I'll list out the materials that you will need.

1) D.Grayman buttons. S$6.90 for a box from Pan-in-a-Box at Chinatown Point. Each box comes with 2 buttons only.
2) Silver flat buttons. S$2 for a packet from Daiso at Dhoby Ghaut, Plaza Singapura.
3) Glue. S$2 for a tube from Daiso at Dhoby Ghaut, Plaza Singapura. The glue you see here is for sticking plastics. I favour it more amongst other types of glue because it hardens, rather than remaining slightly gooey after drying up.
4) A pair of pliers. You can either buy a cheap pair off your neighbourhood's hardware store or just borrow a pair from your Dad if you can.

Just want to show you why I'm making this tutorial. For those who buy the buttons, you can see that they are not really buttons. When I first got those buttons, I got a rude shock first hand of course, because they do not come with conventional button holes, but just foldable metal claws like you see in the photo. You will need proper bases to make this buttons usable, so to speak.

So Step 1, open the claws with your pair of pliers.

Open the claws till they look like these in the photo. Make sure they are opened to their maximum length.

Step 2, take out a silver button and spread glue evenly on the surface. Hold the silver button with your pliers if you don't want to end up getting your fingers sticky. Spread the glue on the edges of the button as well.

Step 3, press the button down between the claws. Make sure the edges of the button is resting securely against the claws. Let the glue set for a while.

I'm making for two buttons, so this is how the two buttons look like while I waited for the glue to set.

Step 4 comes in after the glue sets for around 10 to 15 minutes or so. Use your pliers, while holding down the button tightly, to fold in one of the claws like you see in the photo. Apply glue to the claw before clamping it down firmly onto the button. Do the same to the other claw as well.

There you have it, this is how the button looks like after both claws are clamped down and the glue left to set after that.

As I mentioned, I was doing it for two buttons so this is how both the buttons look like. Now I have proper button holes for the D.Grayman buttons, so my tailor will be able to sew them onto our costumes.

Of new inspirations and hungry designers

2010-05-20T14:27:00.011+08:00

It's been quite some time since I last updated here. I had been pretty busy after TP CCN Day, what with settling the upcoming events I will be taking part in and what nots. But it seemed like lots had transgressed within these mere few weeks and it turned out that instead of two events, I will be going for only one event in June, which is Streetfest.

Speaking of which, asides from getting back to me on April 27th regarding my booth registration being in order, there were no follow-ups and whatsoever after that. Hmm, quite worrying.

Nonetheless, I had been working on my next pieces, newly inspired by Vocaloid. I grew to like the songs, after watching the "The Tailor Shop on Enbizaka" video posted by two of my friends on Facebook. I know alot of people, including my friends, had been cosplaying from Vocaloid, due to its overwhelming variety of MV costumes. But for me, I just like the songs, or at least, a selected few.

It is from these selected few that I decided what new charms I should buy. I know buying new jewelry materials can take up quite a bit of time, because making the pieces out of the new charms after that may take at least a fair bit of time too. But the one good thing which came out of it, was that I met a handmade jewelry enthusiast at the supplier's where I bought my new charms from. Her name is Anna and she's a really nice lady who makes earrings for herself to wear. She currently contemplating on the possibility of selling them though, haha! She heard of Sunflower too, through the CHIC magazine. I hope to see her again, most likely at the next MAAD I hope.

As I mentioned, the new charms I bought are inspired by the Vocaloid song MVs I watched. I know not many people can appreciate that style of flat and non-dimensional MP3 quality music, accompanied with what we designers call, "lazy animation". Even Lionel couldn't stand it, pretty subjective so to speak. I particularly like two of the songs because I can relate to them. Although all the songs sounds eerily twisted, I am particularly into the bizzare, ironical and metaphorical elements they never fail to include in each and every song.

Anyway, the burnished silver scissors you see here, it is a charm which will be used for the "The Tailor Shop on Enbizaka" inspired piece. The song is sung in a Japanese story-teller style, where it tells of the story of a seemingly honest and hardworking seamstress, whose husband is unfaithful to her. As you listen further into the song, you will realise that everything related from the seamstress point of view is of her own imagination. Her husband, as she so claims, is a man she loves but whom does not know of her existence nor her feelings towards him at all. The three women she so claims to be his mistresses are in actual fact, his family. She murdered all three women by herself, dressing herself up in the red kimono, green sash and yellow hairpin he once gave to all three women respectively and went to see him herself. However, when he saw her, he treated and greeted her like a stranger, because as I mentioned above, he does not know her at all. Because of his aloof attitude towards a stranger, she eventually stabs him to death with her pair of seamstress scissors, whom she mentioned was passed down to her by her mother before she passed away. You can see the song MV here.

The next song I am going to introduce is one of the two songs which are my personal favourites. It has something to do with poison, as the male antagonist in the song MV pours it into the cup of the woman he is deeply in love with. The poison was contained within a crystal vial, so the closest I could find to a vial is this burnished silver perfume bottle, inscribed with the words "Eau de Toilette". It kind of reminds me of the heart locket inscribed with the words "Queen of Couture", which Aunty Jeanette likes but was going for S$50 at the last FashBash.

The piece where this burnished silver perfume bottle is going to be featured on is a "Cantarella" inspired piece. "Cantarella" tells of a, what I believe to be, metaphorical story of love, where love is a poison to the heart and mind, when the man is on the chase and vice versa. You can say this metaphor had been used on a wide context, including one of the famous Shakespearean works "Romeo and Juliet", where they both died in the end by "poison". "Cantarella" is also, as quoted by the author of the song MV, "most probably a variation of arsenic used by Pope Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia, to poison his victims. The Borgia family were allegedly masters of the use of poison in political assassinations." You can see the song MV here.

As for this burnished silver dagger, where I found there were only last two packets of it left on the shelf, it is going to be used for two pieces. One for the "Cendrillon" inspired piece and the other "Daughter of White" inspired piece.

"Cendrillon" is pretty straight forward. We have heard of twisted tales of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. I believe we have even read these stories written in the evil stepmother's and evil witch's point of view. "Cendrillon" is a twisted story of Cinderella, where Cinderella is an assassin in disguise, armed with the task of assassinating the prince at midnight. You can see the song MV here.

"Daughter of White" is the first of the Vocaloid's own fairytale story. It tells of a white haired girl shunned by her own village because she was not green haired like the rest of the girls. One particular green haired girl, who was gentle and kind-hearted as she look and was well-loved by the village, was the only one who did not shun the white haired girl. Instead, she befriended her and escaped with the white haired girl to the big city, where they both worked as servant maids for a rich lady in town. As the typical fairytale storyline goes, a handsome sapphire haired prince from the neighbouring country saw the green haired girl and fell in love with her. In the process, he rejected a wedding proposal from the queen of an evil country. As a result, the queen, out of jealousy, ordered for an invasion on the country where the green haired girl lives and made sure that every green haired girl was properly decapitated. The sapphire haired prince, incensed by the death of his lost love, lead an invasion with his trusted red haired knight on the evil country and emerged victorious. The evil queen was beheaded for her sins, or so they say.

Back to the white haired girl, after she lost her friend, she escaped to an abandoned chapel by the sea. One day, while strolling along the beach, she found a blond haired girl, looking so lost and forlorn. She took her in and became fast friends with her. One night, she heard the blond haired girl sobbing in the confession room, confessing each and every one of her sin. It was then the white haired girl realised that this blond haired girl was the evil queen, who went fugitive after her twin brother swapped clothes with her and was beheaded in her stead. The next day, while the blond haired girl was, once more, staring out at the sea on the beach, the white haired girl tried to sneak up to her and meant to drive the dagger in her hand into the back of her heart. However, she found that she was unable to do it, as the blond haired girl reminded her so much of when she was shunned by her own village and was as lonely as she once was. You can see the song MV here.

As for this silver envelope locket, it was not in my plan to buy it at all in the first place. I just saw its sample hanging off one of the shelves and being curious, went to open it and lo and behold, I found out it was a locket. It was pretty cute, as much as it was expensive, but I bought it in the end because I really love lockets alot. As for Lionel, he simply shook his head at me at my uncanny ability of always over-spending on jewelry materials. Call it an "occupational hazard" I guess haha?

The weather had been unpredictable lately. I can be at my supplier's buying materials while the sun was beating down mercilessly outside, but the next moment, once I step out of the shop, I can be met with an thunderstorm right in my face.

It has been making the humidity unbearable as well. I'm getting heat rash and humidity rash altogether. However, let me just say, one good thing which came out of this crazy weather was weather phenomenons which we seldom will see. As you can see in the photo, the aurora clouds effect was the result of a thunderstorm shortly after half a day of scorching sun.

As I mentioned, the humidity was unbearable, so unbearable that Lionel and I both found difficulty in eating outside. I mean, it really affects our mood and makes us lose our appetites. Not to mention there's been a lack of variety in outside food lately too.

So, what happens when you have two crazy and hungry designers under the same roof? Instead of exploring anything that is even remotely linked with multimedia design, we start experimenting with our food. Since last year, we have somehow become decent experts in Japanese curry because we both love Japanese cuisine. Onigiri was another matter altogether because we still have problems trying to master the rice. Baked rice was a total failure, but we're still trying because I love baked rice, especially with salmon and Japanese surimi (shredded Hokkaido crab meat).

So what you see here was the result of our lunch last weekend. There's my favourite baked salmon, nicely garnished with chopped yellow onions and garlic, and a dash of soy sauce. I am very thankful for City Square Mall, where there's a huge and spacious NTUC there at the basement for me to get fresh food to cook. We don't have to walk that far to Kovan's Cold Storage, where the food was not as fresh as CSM's NTUC. Ok, more for Lionel to cook because I am extremely scared of splattering oil. I am just in charge of uh, peeling and dicing the food stuffs for Lionel to cook.

The next dish is Shanghai Greens with shiitake mushrooms, with chopped yellow onions and garlic for garnishing. Pardon the blandness in our food because we like them that way.

Alright, got to go out now. Lionel and I will be cooking Japanese curry tonight, since it's been a long time since we last cooked Japanese curry. Lionel wanted to try Shanghai Greens with Japanese curry, I wonder how is it going to taste like because this is officially our first time trying out this combination.

Semi-Hiatus Notice

2010-05-11T23:04:00.002+08:00

The last event I went to, which was TP CCN Day, was really tiring, as much as it was fun, to a certain extent. I have to admit that I was a little slow and slightly awkward on that day, because I was on medication for my jaw ache (hinge problem again second time in this year) and redux (or was it "reflux"?), which was something to do with my gastric juices shooting up to my lungs, thus causing what felt like a chest ache. As my monthly problem was also nearing, I was literally on edge the whole time. The permeating heat made it no better.

My event report for TP CCN Day is up in the "Event Gallery". Go have a look.

As I mentioned, I met Jeffrey - one of the design lecturers who taught me before. We got to chat quite a bit, mainly about my multimedia design degree studies in NAFA. He still remembered my very first poly year one project in Visual Literacy, which was about tarot cards and asked if I am still interested in them. Haha, I am, of course, and am researching into oracle cards too.

But I digress. Speaking to Jeffrey made me think about some things, some very important things which I seemed to have forgotten when I first threw myself into my business and had myself totally absorbed by it. The first question which came to mind was why did I even went on to pursue an honors degree in Multimedia Design, and not like what one of my former poly mates did - pursuing an honors degree in Visual Communications instead. Or even, when on to work in a design firm like how the rest of my peers did.

The answer was, of course, crystal clear. I answered it to Jeffrey myself, when he asked if I will be delving deeper into business. I told him that I still want to return to design and that I want to be a lecturer. All my hard work and toil for that one year in pursuing my course, just for this purpose.

There were, other questions whose answers came out one by one as well, where they too, answered why I planned out my path this way in the first place, ever since I graduated from TP. So now, since I still have a few bazaars to attend to for June and July, I will give myself these two months to revise and re-train on the skills which I have left to waste since the time I started on my jewelry business till now. And then, it's back to job-hunting again and overcoming that fear of not working close to two years now. And also, that fear of my portfolio not being strong enough.

Some will say that I am trying to run away, some will call me a coward and giving myself excuses just because my business is not faring well. True, to a certain extent, I am trying not to face my business as seriously as I once did because it is not working out in the most optimal way I want it to work out, due to certain elements lacking to make it work. To be honest, I don't find it very constructive facing something which had chipped away my morale and is no longer giving me any form of satisfaction. So, in a way, I am going to find a way around this and perhaps, my business will succeed much later in a full-time scale, but just not now.

Of course, it's not as though I am going to abandon jewelry-making, just going to make it casual so that I will be able to concentrate on other things instead. It was a hard decision for me to make, to turn part-time instead of full-time for my jewelry business. But perhaps, to see it in another perspective, I am in my prime, so working, while building my portfolio and gathering financial backing for my business, is the most practical at this point of time.

I was telling Lionel about my decision while having supper at Kovan the other day. Over a cup of Milo Godzilla which was my first time trying it. The last time my friend ordered it, it came with whipped cream drizzled with chocolate sauce. But mine, came with two scoops of strawberry and vanilla ice-cream respectively. The Milo powder sprinkled on top of the drink was good too. Yum.

He had been trying, with no avail for the past two years, to persuade me to find a job to support my business and prepare it for the future, instead of banging my head and getting all depressed about it like what I'm doing now. I was afraid of finding a job because of not working for so long, afraid of letting go of jewelry-making, afraid of letting my dream of having my own jewelry shop die, all the while, forgetting why did I pave my own path out like this in the first place.

Lionel was afraid of going back to do design at first too. He was afraid of the stress and the demanding environment, since he did work in a design firm for a time. But he too, after sticking himself as a temporary administrative staff for a year, made a decision of going to be an IT trainer, so that it will start him on the path of being a lecturer.

Since he could do it, why can't I?

So after he heard my decision of going on semi-hiatus for my jewelry-making, he told me that he respect my decision, but wanted to know if I am happy doing this in the first place. I told him I am, for now, my goal is continuing what I first started out - going towards that path of being a lecturer.

It's close to midnight and Lionel had been literally, tortured by his gastric flu since Friday. I'm going to wake him up and bring him out to eat now.

Temasek Polytechnic Campus Care Network Day'2010

2010-05-07T22:00:00.001+08:00

It was my first time in three years that I stepped into Temasek Polytechnic. I can't exactly remember when was the last CCN Day I attended while schooling, but one thing I can remember about it, was that it was as lively and crowded as it was the one I attended recently, as a booth owner.

The weather was as hot as an anvil and the sales, slow as a snail. The feedbacks I got was the usual I have heard in the other bazaars I have attended. I was kind of tired listening to the usual, but to be frank, I am unable to reduce the prices, so I'm really sorry about that. But I am glad that one of my rosaries went to a filial indian male student looking for a mothers' day gift for his mum. One of my brooches found a new home with a very nice business lecturer. I hope her fractured thumb will heal up soon, it looked real painful to me.

Phaedra bought one of my handphone charms for her mother. I hope her mum likes it!

Despite the despair and disappointment I felt in the earlier part of the day, at the end of it, I am still glad that I did earn a little to be able to donate to the school's fund in helping the more under-privileged students. Moreover, at least, I got the chance to return back to Temasek Polytechnic and got to see one of the design school lecturers who taught me before after CCN Day drew to a close. I got to drink the iced tea at Design Pad too and caught up with the Western Food vendor, where we were really friendly to each other since my schooling days.

All in all, I want to say thanks to Phaedra, who really helped me alot. Thanks for the water too! Those three bottles of mineral water saved my life, literally, on that really blazing hot day! Also, a big thank you to everyone from Student Development and others who made TP CCN Day possible!

*Taken under the white tentage where my pushcart was located at. Lots of students and TP staffs preparing for CCN Day.

*Rows of chairs for people to sit to watch the performances on the stage.

*The left row was allocated to the alumni, whilst the right was allocated to the graduating students. The pushcart next to me was selling facial products, similar to the ones I saw when I was still with Sunflower.

*This is my pushcart. Thanks to Lionel's advice, that it's an SAF habit to bring along a roll of masking tape with you, I am glad I brought a roll of masking tape with me to secure the cloths and displays.

*I took this photo while standing at the side of my booth. The sun behind was too hot for me to stand. It literally burned my back.

*Alumni poster!

*I managed to squeeze all my hairclips and haircombs onto one wooden flap.

*Chocolate ice-cream! Heard it was made by TP students.

*The 3.33pm surprise. A flash mob formed by the students.

MAAD Weekend and Ip Man 2

2010-04-30T01:06:00.003+08:00

Yes people, it's the MAAD weekend this weekend. Also, this weekend is a particularly long one, since Labour Day falls on Saturday, which automatically makes Monday a holiday. Lots of people will be, ahem, utilising this long weekend for short overseas trips. Which means, majority of the Singaporean population will be out of the country.

As I mentioned before, Jo-Ann from "Pitter Patter" could not make it for this month's MAAD, whereupon she called me in to do a collaboration with her. So yup, be ready to see lots of collaboration born hairpieces this weekend. Yeah, they are solely for this month only too.

As usual, MAAD is at Red Dot Museum, which is five minutes walk away from Tanjong Pagar MRT station. 11am to 7pm on both days, admission is free. So people, if you are free, do drop by!

The next event after MAAD is Temasek Polytechnic's CCN Day. Well, the alumni officer I spoke to was a really nice lady and she asked if I could make a victorian wedding headdress (albeit with a dramatic flair) for her sister-in-law, who was due to wed in June. To tell the truth, I did thought of branching out into making wedding accessories, but I didn't really take action in the end because I was wondering if it was feasible or not. I mean, bridal shops have their own packages, as seen from the experience of a close friend's wedding. Even doing wedding videos and animations are not that feasible anymore due to the wedding packages offered by various bridal shops, which literally, includes everything down from the wedding and dinner gowns, accessories, wedding bouquet and wedding animations and videos.

But her request sort of inspired me to look into wedding headdress designs. So far, there are two designs I particularly like from Deviantart. Although I know I don't have the skill nor the tools to create such creations, they still serve as very good references. Both are Lord of the Rings inspired pieces and they are really beautiful. I applaud their maker for being able to make such intricate pieces. These headdresses were used in a Lord of the Rings fan movie - "Born of Hope", which portrays the story of Aragorn's parents - Arathorn and Gilraen. The movie is simply breath-taking. Go watch it here.

http://elnaraniall.deviantart.com/art/Bridal-Coronet-Headpiece-140360273

http://elnaraniall.deviantart.com/art/Headpiece-for-Born-of-Hope-140359862

Ok time to sleep. I'll be catching Ip Man 2 tomorrow. Hopefully, we will be able to get tickets for it. I heard from my friends that the review for this movie is not bad. I'm excited to watch it.

Life Goes On

2010-04-26T16:06:00.007+08:00

Yesterday was FashBash. For those who read my event report, you guys should know how disappointed I am with dismal sales I fared.

I can't blame anyone for poor sales. Maybe the crowd was wrong, maybe my products do not cater well to the mainstream crowd, after all, my products are off-trend, maybe my products do not suit the palattes of Singaporeans, maybe my products' price range is too high, maybe...There's a lot of reasons I can reflect on, as you can see.

One of my friends at the event yesterday commented that she admires me for being able to keep positive. But sometimes, I wonder if I am trying to keep positive, or just merely tolerating.

But when I broke down yesterday at Lionel's house, I had to admit, albeit reluctantly, that I was just merely tolerating. But I really don't know what to do anymore. I don't how to go on from here and whether keeping this production alive is worth it or not. I have shut down my production before, it's not that hard to do it again. I can just hide all my materials away and just take it as though they never existed.

But do I really want to do that? The answer is "No", but yet, my production's earnings is hardly enough to keep my daily expenses comfortable. Do I really want to go on?

Lionel was telling me that the bazaar and flea market culture in Singapore got it all wrong from the beginning. Everything became more of a "pasar-malam" culture than anything else, much like Sungei Road. He already told me that he will only allow me to go to Red Dot's MAAD, since the handmade people had, by far, still fare rather well there. Sounds like what Jane's husband told her haha. Any other bazaars he will discourage me from going, because he does not want me to waste time there. Like what Sally told me, she would rather stick to Red Dot's MAAD, than go to other bazaars or flea markets, because they have the tendency of "cheapening" handmade items. Much as I want to keep my mind open, one part of me had to agree that, to a certain extent, it is true.

Lionel told me to try and keep myself busy, so that I won't think so much. That's what happened when I got home last night. I couldn't sleep, so I ended up working on my TP CCN Day E-flyer till 3.30am. Sometimes, I don't understand why only when I am in a very bad mood do I get decent work out.

It had been a long time since I last did any serious design work. Yesterday night and this morning, I found myself dabbling with my Photoshop brushes and getting apt free fonts to suit the E-flyer. Somehow, this managed to work some of my frustration and despair off.

On a lighter note, I'm preparing for my Cosfest cosplay plans at the moment too. I'll be cosplaying Miranda Lotto (2nd uniform) from D.Grayman, along with Lionel, who is cosplaying Allen Walker (Crown Clown version, Claw Anti-Demon weapon, 2nd uniform) and Ashley, who is cosplaying General Marian Cross. I am quite excited because it's my first collab cosplay with Lionel. Both our costumes had been sent in to our tailor, but I was having a headache over my square buckle belt. It's quite rare to find a decent silver square buckle belt nowadays.

But I found it! Aunty Jeanette found it amongst the leather belts she was selling yesterday and her brother was very nice to help me punch another extra two holes because my waist is kind of small haha.

My new products from my latest collection were released by the way. Anyway, I'll be heading out now. Ta.

FashBash Wardrobe Raids @ St James Powerhouse

2010-04-26T15:17:00.005+08:00

FashBash Wardrobe Raids report. Hmm, how should I put it. Ok, I was situated inside St James Powerhouse, lighting was strong and there was aircon, which was good. But the aircon was cold, as in, very cold, while the carboot people were being scorched by the hot afternoon sun outside.

Hmm, stark contrast eh? Asides from the aircon vent being right on top of my booth, I consider myself to be pretty fortunate to be situated inside and not outside.

Sales was...let's be frank, dismal. There weren't any sales at all from the time I setup to the time I closed shop. The crowd which came resembled the SMU bazaar crowd, I mean, seriously. Everyone came with the "look-see" mentality and most of the other shops were selling apparels at like less than $25. Some of them were even selling 2nd hand goods. One of my friends told me that a customer came to bargain with her for a bag which was initially priced at $20 to $11, just because the customer said she did not bring any cash with her and that she does not want to go over to Vivocity to withdraw. The customer so-called "threatened" her that if she doesn't lower the price, she will just walk away. Pretty "dramatic", in a way.

It was, overall, quite disappointing. Although I have to say that I did have fun with my friends and caught up with some old ones too. And thank you Lionel for waking up early to drive me there and buying me my favourite Long John Silver's Shrimp Wrap Combo and hot tea for lunch! The hot tea really kept me warm!

And thank you Ming En who came down to visit me and helped me to pack up, do closing and pack up the mahjong table! Thank you for always being there when I need you, buddy!

*Me at FashBash! I was pretty happy that my booth was under strong light, because it's good for jewelry display! Pardon the stiff smile because the aircon vent was just right above my booth and it was really cold! But I can't complain since the carboot people were literally baked by the scorching afternoon sun. Stark contrast, but I'm pretty fortunate to be inside St James Powerhouse.

*Welcome to Booth 1! I forgot to bring my planter stool so I was standing the whole day. I can't really sit on the steps since the area behind me was really narrow and as a result, it's always jam-packed with the crowd. My feet hurts from all the standing and my injured right wrist is even more painful because of the aircon blasting right above me.

*A close-up of my booth! Notice the way the rosaries and necklaces are displayed? Those black boxes (with a substantial amount of mold on them, no kidding) were my cousin's old tie boxes and he gave it to me so I could use it as jewelry display cases. It's been a few years since I last took them out and they were finally put to good use. This way of displaying was learnt from Gracia, who display her necklaces on standing corrugated boards.

*FashBash taken from Carol's booth (she's selling eco-friendly handbags).

*FashBash taken from Aunty Jeanette's and Gracia's booths. They were both right beside me, because I was Booth 1, they were Booth 2 and 3 haha! We were all fascinated by the girl who was selling clay roses necklaces and accessories. Even Lionel was fascinated by the nicely weathered garden green stand they used, the white painted bird cage they used for display and their namecards, which had a professional finishing. Aunty Jeanette was fascinated with one of their gold brass lockets inscribed with the following text "Queen of Couture" and it costs S$50. The booth on the round table is the girl's booth.

Late Night Musings

2010-04-05T02:35:00.000+08:00

I did mentioned before that I am adjusting my sleeping time from 5am to 1am yes? So why am I still awake?

I could say that it's the chicken essence my mum brewed, which I just drank like a moment ago. But normally, that would not have any effect on me. Seriously.

Lionel went for his second interview today and apparently, the deal will be officially sealed when he signs his contract tomorrow evening.

Frankly speaking, I have my share of mixed feelings towards this. Much consternation and that feeling of uncertainty is certainly an uncomfortable nagging intuitive feeling which I would much prefer to do without.

"Each man for his own" - an amoral value which is deeply rooted in the modern day society where "dog-eat-dog" is commonplace. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, even I will get tempted to work things according to my own convenience sometimes. But it doesn't change the fact that it leaves a bitter taste at the back of my mouth.

Which is why, even when I am no longer taking part in MAAD as a vendor, I still make it a point to go down to visit my friends there. Everyone of us are into handmade, no matter whether we are into jewelry, bags and such, which is why I always believe in everyone helping each other out. It's an idealistic way of looking at things, but I will still stand by what I believe in, that is, in helping those around me in any way I could, even within my limited means.

In any case, I really enjoy watching people make stuffs. I mean, Sally was making her stuffs at MAAD. She finished making a black and white beaded ring within 2 hours, trying to while away the boredom since MAAD was really quiet on Sunday. Easter Sunday maybe? Then she moved on to make a purple one, which I was itchy-handed enough to snap photos of her making it.

Jane was already dozing off though, haha! I saw most of her new bags got sold, which I am really happy. She gave herself a "15 bags for April MAAD" challenge last month and I always "stalk" her blog because not only the way she write about her bags was interesting, but the designs of her bags were really nice on their own!

Jo-Ann's not going for the Fash Bash Wardrobe Raids on 25th April though. I mean, I understand it's pretty tiring having to have events on most of your weekends. But she'll be coming to visit me though haha!

I got to meet new friends too! Um, I'm pretty introverted so I don't really approach people that easily. But, like Jane, I got attracted to Suzann's (did I get your name right?) booth because of the patchwork quilt she hung in front of her booth. It looked like the type of patchwork quilt my grandma made for me when I was young, not sure where my mum kept it though. And again, like what I mentioned above, I love watching people make stuffs. Suzann was handsewing this pouch on the spot, whereupon I just sat next to her watching her sew it. It's been a long time since I last saw anyone handsew anything, because sewing machines are so affordable and convenient. You can see more of her stuffs at http://periwinklesu.blogspot.com/ I'll be listing her blog site under my "Friends" section too!

I got to know Cerena and her mother too. She's into jewelry-making and I like her wirework pendants, because it reminds me of those wirework elven coronets which UK gothic enthusiasts would make. Her mum's really chatty too! She kind of reminds me of my grandma haha. Her website is http://www.cerelianjewellery.com/ and you can find her works at Bead Hub (Sunshine Plaza) and The Concept People (44 Haji Lane, Level 2). I'll be listing her website under my "Friends" section too!

For some strange reason, I am beginning to feel a little sleepy. Maybe I did manage to work off some of that anxiety? Anyway, here's something which I had been doing after I completed that pink piece I left unfinished from the time I took part in the Marina Barrage Flea Market. I had this gothic satin ribbon bow in mind for quite some time now, which was why I went searching for a black satin ribbon with the right width to make a decent bow. I found this one which you see in the photo, it's pretty expensive and the satin feels really nice to touch. It's the right width too!

I sew on the white lace, which feels pretty nostalgic because it had been sometime since I last sewn anything with running stitches. To seal off the strokes, I had another length of the same satin ribbon placed back-to-back with the first layer. It's ready, just need to snip it off from the satin ribbon roll and I'm all set to assemble it.

But now, sleep. I have a feeling I will be keeping myself pretty busy, as usual, tomorrow, since Fash Bash Wardrobe Raids and Streetfest are both coming up. Streetfest is held at Plaza Singapura this year, which I believe, is much better than being at *Scape, but I am still waiting for event details to be out. Hopefully, it will be out soon.

Adjust, Adjusting, just not Adjusted yet

2010-03-30T17:15:00.007+08:00

I've been making a lot of rosaries lately, I know. I mean, look at the photo above, it's another "rosary-in-progress" photo. In fact, this rosary named "Thinking of You" has already been completed and uploaded into my Rosary Collection section.

I just completed three new rosaries and uploaded them in my Rosary Collection section. That is 7 rosaries in all that I have made, excluding the one which I have sold at November'09 MAAD and a garnet one which I made for Lionel way at the beginning of our relationship.

I won't be making any rosaries anymore, for now. Because my inspiration for them stopped at the black rosary - "A Dark Promise". Thank god I stopped making them already because Lionel was getting a little tired seeing me churn out the same things haha! There's a reason why I made so many of the same kind at one shot. You can call me stubborn, one-track minded or whatever, but I am a very uh, how do you put it, "step-by-step" person. So if I get inspiration for like say, hairclips, for example, I will keep churning out hairclips designs until my next inspiration for another section comes. I mean, yeah, you get the drift.

So what's the next section I'm on? I just mentioned it, Hairclips! I left a pink hairclip incompleted from the time of my last Marina Barrage Flea Market till now, which I am really, starting to feel pretty sorry for it. So I'm going to assemble it next! There's FashBash Wardrobe Raids and Streetfest coming up for me, so I gotta make more stuffs!

Speaking of which, I had been re-adjusting my sleeping time from 5am to 1am. I mean, the earlier I wake up, the more time I have to make more stuffs! To be honest, it ain't that comfortable trying to re-adjust the sleeping time you have been used to, but so far, I had been pretty successful in waking up at 9am or 10am, instead of my usual 12 noon to 1pm.

Things will be staying like this from now on, because as I was discussing with Lionel the other day, one of the problems we are facing if we are hell bent on opening a shop, is my lack of stocks. I will need like say, 300 stocks in order to start up? Which is why waking up earlier to make stuffs is pretty beneficial!

I have to admit that I had been uh, pretty unmotivated when I first started out last year, due to lots of problems. I mean it, LOTS of problems. I don't even know where my previous motivation , which was like two years back, of being able to simply churn out more than 20 stocks in a month went to. I was having a hard time churning out stocks, due to inspiration blocks (whereupon if I try a little harder to go against it, I get a huge migraine back in return) and the likes. Sounds like an excuse, but anyway, after that, I realised, when you are just trudging along Life as it is, you will happen to run into situations or comments, be they good or bad, which will suddenly just unlock that spurt of motivation and determination again.

And here it is, I got it back. I don't know whether to be thankful, or feel totally ironic about it haha!

Speaking of good or bad situations, Lionel, Ming En and I ran into one just a few days ago. You see, we wanted to go to Marina Country Club for dinner at the Sakura. The branch at Marina Country Club is the only one which offers both steamboat and BBQ. Due to its high customer turnover rate, its food are hence kept at fresh and clean conditions.

However, after almost getting lost at the roads of Punggol and still arriving there early in the end, we were met with an unusually long queue, which was pretty queer because there is usually no one at around 5pm or 6pm plus.

Although in the end, we found out that there was an offer going on, which explains the long queue, we were rather put off by the manager's attitude when she was attending to us. She just told us flat that those without reservations will have to wait till 8.30pm and gave us that "take or leave it" attitude just because we were a small group of 3. Moreover, when I looked over her shoulder, I saw a lot of tables empty. And I mean, a lot. So many tables and you can't even accomodate a group of 10 (I heard the lady before me requesting for tables for a group of 10)? You got to be kidding me.

Anyway, we went off to explore the rest of the country club, while thinking if we should wait for 2 hours or move off to somewhere else for dinner. I didn't know the country club offered a yacht parking bay and since the weather was so nice, I can't help but snapped photos of the gleaming white yachts and of course, the Malaysian port which it looked like you could just touch it when you stretch your hand haha! Ming En commented that the yacht parking bay looked like a set straight out of Taiwan idol serials, where the rich and famous will invite the girls they like on board for a nice sunset cruise. Haha, interesting for him to see it that way!

By the way, there was another reason why I felt rather irritable when the manager snubbed us. The old wound (sustained from an ill-instructed "martial arts" training session a few years back) on my right wrist was giving me a hell lot of pain. It started to set in after my last flea market at Marina Barrage, don't even know what's the reason (even for the back pain on my right). I mean, it doesn't hurt all the time, but if I simply turn my wrist at certain angles, I will be met with sharp bursts of pain which will numb my hand for a few seconds or more.

Thank god my dad (who had a hairline crack on his wrist, because he fell down on his wrist when he slipped in our old apartment's toilet) had a spare (and new) wrist guard. I wear this wrist guard whenever I am doing my jewelry or typing. Looks like it'll be staying on for these few days, hopefully my wrist will heal.

Mum got worried seeing my right wrist and back pains, which was why she cooked my favourite! Hmm, I guess most of you had not tried this dish before. Guess because it's a dish which is a homemade favourite of all Cantonese, and not a dish which restaurants will favour to offer because the people who knows how to eat this dish is a minority.

This is "Braised Mayo (马友) Fish Marrow". It's a pretty big fish with a long and pretty big fish marrow. Usually, the people from restaurants will just tell the fish vendor in the market to remove the fish marrow and just take the fish meat.

It's a very nutritious traditional Cantonese dish. Full of Omega 3 and calcium, if only you don't mind the fish marrow being a little hard to crack and heavy on the fishy smell! I enjoy eating it though haha!

Alright, got to go out now! Lionel finally received an email requesting for an interview! His interview is tomorrow and I got to go find a machine which prints I/C size photos!

Work work~

2010-03-26T14:57:00.006+08:00

It's thunderstorming again as I am typing this entry, as it was yesterday. I was reading Urban, while waiting for Karmen at Bishan Coffeebeans yesterday, while of course, the thunderstorm was still just as bad as it was when I was still at home.

I passed her her choker and got her to try it on. Looks pretty, but think it felt a little loose. I don't know, maybe from the way I looked at it, it looked loose. But Karmen say it was fine haha. Poor girl looked stressed from, ahem, our women's most pained problem every month. Hope she's feeling fine today.

I scooted off to my supplier's after that. Thank god they were still open at 5.30pm plus. Normally they will close around that time or later like uh, 6.30pm. She teased me for coming down so often this week. Not that I wanted it because for some reason, I keep forgetting to buy important stuffs which I needed to use urgently. I must be getting old.

Anyway, I went to wait at Great Eastern Hanis, as usual, for Lionel to off-work. Aunty is back! Uh, what I mean is, most of the staff at Hanis is quite familiar with me, especially an aunty who is in charge of making the hot drinks like tea and stuffs. I mean, I was not that familiar with her at first, until I got to talk with her a little bit more when we met on 147. I was heading to Lionel's house then and she was heading home, which was why I got to know that she lived at Serangoon too hehe!

The hot milo she made for me was particularly good, hehe. She kept asking where I went to, because she hadn't seen me for some time. Well, I didn't get to see her during the earlier part of the week too, must be on leave or something haha!

While nursing my hot milo, I finally finished assembling this rosary! Man, this little baby really had me running. First, I kept forgetting to get gold jumprings and C-Pins for it. Then I actually forgot to buy the gold plated lobster clasp too! Thank god I managed to finish it.

Oh by the way, in case you guys haven't noticed, I have re-written my designer profile. I don't know how I managed to write my previous designer profile, but when I re-read it myself, it's really a mouthful of "chim" (in Singapore slang, means "complicated") flowery language and bombastic whirl of confusion. It sounds so not myself, really. Not to mention, such stiff corporate language certainly does not fit me or my production's image at all.

So I decided to ditch it. Ditch, as in, erase all, delete blah blah and re-write it like how I would talk about it to a person over a cuppa. Go have a look guys, lots of photos of my, ahem, embarassing beginner works there too. I'm not sure about how you guys will feel about it, but when I re-read it now, it sounds and feels so much more like me, which in my context, is much more comfortable that it was before. Not to mention, easier readability because I guess most of you guys can understand my layman language haha!

After that, while we were at home, Lionel was so tired from work that he was snoozing away. Might I just add, as usual. So I was sitting there at my work table, working on a new rosary. For rosaries, I have seen lots when I was shopping at Heerens. There used to be a beads shop at basement 1 and their rosaries are costly. As in, really costly, like made of simple pink Swarvoski crystals and costing like S$60 plus. I have not actually seen any rosaries made out of Czech glass beads, which is the packet of red beads you see in the photo. I've always seen this little buggers used in UK goth, punk and victorian pieces, and have always been itching to get my hands on them to make them into my own pieces. They are costly but lovely. I specially bought two packets of these to make them into a red-themed rosary I had in my mind for a long time.

And these are hematite beads I snitched off my supplier's. Last strand, don't ask me why everytime the things I want to buy, they are always the last ones. It's just my luck, which is pretty lucky if you look at it my way.

While Lionel still snoozes on, I'm already assembling the rosary. It's pretty tiring, especially when you have to close the clasps with two pliers and after awhile, it digs into your palm and hurts like hell. I'm having a rough patch on the middle of my right palm as a result. I had to take a rest after like attaching 30 plus beads because the patch on my right palm turned red.

Nonetheless, I finished assembling it this morning at home. Both the rosaries are already uploaded in the Rosary Collection here, my Facebook and my SGCafe thread.

I did mention in my previous posts that I will upload the new charms I bought from my supplier's yes? Here they are! Actually, these that you see above are bought like uh, a week or so back. But still, I just want to share with everyone. Let's see, why do I buy these type of charms? Let's just say that I have a particular liking for cherubs, Venetian masks (which I didn't get my hands on a real one while I was in Venice, because I was too broke as a student then), Star of David, lockets, the lions and unicorns on medival shields and anything and everything that has got to do with templars, paladins, mages, exorcists (Crown Clown Allen is my new obsession, not only because Lionel is going to cosplay him, but his costume gives me a whole lot of ideas to translate them into jewelries), masquerades and Mardi Gras. Did I say I love silver and gunmetal? Yup, I just said it haha!

Not that much love for bronze and gold brass, but I bought these two gold brass charms along with the silver charms you see in the previous photo. One, the one studded with black acrylic insets was the last on the shelf (again, don't ask me why I have the tendency to pick out of stock stuffs) and the latter, it has a Cross of Maltese style cross indent. Let me just say again, I have a fetish for crosses.

These three charms were bought recently. From the same supplier of course. The strawberry, ok that I can explain. Normally, I don't buy such cutesy stuffs because I am not that type of person. But somehow this charm just gives me the idea of making the pretty, but not too cute or sweet, lolita bracelets and charms. So I bought it and actually found it quite fun to flip it around between my fingers because it is solid as it is small.

The heart charm was introduced to me by Teresa. I saw this heart for the first time amongst her pieces and asked her where she bought it from. She bought it from a sub-branch of my supplier's and advised me that I might be able to find it at the main branch I always go to. Well, I did, after a hell lot of digging. Ornate hearts are love, so it was worth it.

Keys became a favourite of mine after I got into the Kingdom Hearts fandom (though not that deep). I still love Organization XIII Xemnas that much and the different keys wield by Sora and Roxas still holds much fascination to me. So I bought the key charm you see in the above photo, because it reminds me much of Kingdom Hearts due to its heart design.

Buttons, hmm, how I got to fall in love with them I don't know. But as I did mention in my designer's profile, I am, by nature, a collector of sorts. So if I chance upon anything that looks ornate or intricate or old or interesting enough to catch my fancy, I'll just get it and end up hoarding it. The buttons and charms above were found at my other two supplier's which I often frequent. Costly, but worth it.

The skies are still just as dark outside. Hmm, I don't think it's going to clear up. But at least the weather's cool. I'll be heading out soon, so more on the next time I update here with new works I have come up with with the new charms and all!

Commission, Revisited, Completed and A Charming Discovery

2010-03-23T17:14:00.009+08:00

Remember me mentioning about Karmen's commission in my previous post? Well, I've completed it!

You see, I am pretty glad that I brought her commission to work on at the World Water Day Flea Market, because at least I had something to work on rather than having to while away the hours by stoning haha.

So while there, I was fixing up the Swarvoski crystals onto the choker. Frankly speaking, I am not exactly that proficient in working with Swarvoski crystals. Granted I was a fan of them when I was in secondary school because one of my schoolmates introduced me to Rashiwala Brothers, one of my very first Swarvoski crystal shopping haunt at Arab Street, but gradually when I moved on to experiment with other materials, using Swarvoski crystals in any of my works became a low priority because 1) it's expensive and 2) it's too much bling bling.

But these little babies sort of re-kindled my love for them because they look so pretty on the choker. Of course, I am not going to be running off on a Swarvoski crystal spree anytime soon. I'm not sure if Karmen will like the bling bling effect on her choker though.

But let's move on shall we? The centrepiece of the choker was the tricky part. First, it was attached together by an acrylic pearl chain, which as you see here, was already done with two gold brass lobster clasps on both ends.

Next, this part was made up of two brooches. One, was a black grosgrain bow, which I was fortunate enough to find some ready made ones at my supplier's. I had a gold brass jumpring sewn to the bottom of the bow, so that the chain had somewhere to attach to.

I didn't bring my black safety pins to the event, which was why I was only able to sew it on today. The next tricky part was to find a brooch which not only must have a pair of human bones, but must also be in gold brass. Although Karmen did tell me that I could use a satin rose or something to substitute what she was looking for, but me being me, I was so "ti-ki" (which in the Hokkien dialect in Singapore, means, "stubborn") that I insisted that I had to find something as close as possible.

And I did. Thanks to Lionel's instinct which told me to go to the shop right next to one of the suppliers I often frequent, I found this skull pendant hidden right at the back of the shop. Actually, I love buying charms from this shop, but I didn't frequent it that often because most of the charms they sell are pretty costly. Anyway, it's pretty rare to find a skull pendant in gold brass, when the more common ones are in burnished silver.

Now the question is, how am I going to convert this pendant into a brooch, when the back of the pendant is hollow? Thank god I had a teardrop shaped gold brass frame which I bought from one of my suppliers some time back, which after I fixed a black safety pin behind it, fitted quite nicely behind the pendant. As for the "hole" in the pendant, I used a gold brass rose from my old stores to cover it up.

And after fixing both brooches onto the choker, the choker is officially completed when I finished it up with a gold brass lobster clasp and extension chain with a crystal AB Swarvoski crystal at its tip. Karmen dear! Do let me know when do you want to collect this choker from me!

In my "World Water Day Flea Market" event report, I did mention about me making a rosary on the second day to prevent myself from falling asleep yes? Well, I did manage to complete the main body of it before really knocking out on my table haha!

This rosary was officially completed yesterday at Great Eastern Hanis, while sipping a cold glass of orange juice. I like the overall effect of the rosary because of how the silver faceted acrylic beads contrast with the black ones. Not to mention the super long burnished silver crucifix, which was something that was rarely seen. I mean, I bought another one for Ashley's General Cross cosplay. Her cosplay uniform needed a rosary, which I find this cross fits her quite nicely. But I'll talk more about it in my next post when I have it done haha!

This rosary will be put on sale tonight, so check out the new Rosary section! I will be uploading it onto my SGCafe thread as well!

I had another idea for a rosary, but this time, in gold with a gold crucifix. So I was sitting at Hanis, making the main body while waiting for Lionel to off work. It was lucky I bought two packets of gold C-Pins, because I didn't know I needed that much in the first place.

This rosary is slightly shorter than the previous one, because this one needs a closure, while the other didn't need any. And the difference between the two of them is that this rosary, although it is made of black faceted acrylic beads like the previous one, had two special faceted acrylic beads which reflect rainbow highlights.

I wanted to complete it today, but I was not able to because silly me forgot to buy the gold lobster clasp to match this rosary. Looks like I have to get it and complete this rosary tomorrow instead.

Rememeber the shop which I bought Karmen's charm from? Ended up I bought quite a number of charms from them yesterday. There are a few of the charms I quite liked, like the key with a crown and a cross at its keyhole. I bought two, one which I will be keeping for Lionel because this key represents his Cosfest cosplay - Crown Clown Allen from "D.Grayman" very nicely.

I liked the black coronet too. Although I am not sure what am I going to make it into, I guess I am really going to keep this little baby haha.

This gold spider charm is really unique too because it is encased in a glass frame casing attached to a black skull hook. Its unique design caught my eye, which was why I quickly snapped it up haha!

As you can see, I favour the silver charms more than the gold brass ones haha. Maybe because I am more accustomed to working with silver. Actually, I had a lot more other new charms to share, but I will talk more about them in my next post. Got to go out to meet Lionel for dinner now. More in the next post folks!

World Water Day 2010 Flea Market

2010-03-23T02:37:00.002+08:00

Personally, I hadn't been to Marina Barrage before. I had only heard of it from friends who were photographers for cosplayers or cosplayers who had held their photoshoots there. It seems like a rather popular place for cosplayers because on Day 1 of the flea market, I saw a pair of cosplayers cosplaying Kagamine Len and Kagamine Rin from "Vocaloid". Mind you, I'm not a fan of "Vocaloid", but seeing so many of my own friends cosplaying from it and posting photos on Deviantart, it didn't take long for me to recognize some of the costumes, especially the ones with the butterfly headphones, which the cosplayers I saw at Marina Barrage that day were wearing them. They looked like new cosplayers though, because I don't seem to recognize them from anywhere.

In any case, asides from Marina Barrage being huge, it's almost surrounded by water. I mean, you really can see water almost everywhere. Of course, the sea is just right at its doorstep too. Not to mention that there was a rather interesting sculpture I saw too, I wonder who made it.

Day 1 was really horrible because of the weather. It was raining from morning and it's those type of rain that doesn't stop. You know it just by looking at the raindrops. It's tiny. Unlike those of the quick thunderstorms, where the raindrops were fat and huge. I was so cold that I was literally hugging my jacket, trying very hard to keep warm while huddling behind my booth. Thank god the booth was skirted, because it prevented the cold wind from freezing my legs. Not only the rain dampened my spirits, so was my sales for the majority of the day.

Until, right at the end of the day when the rain finally showed signs of stopping, I met my first customer of the day! Katty, a staff of the TP Network (one section of their events department I think) from PUB, bought my events-only parrot-on-stand necklace. She's a really nice person and has the aspiring dream of writing a fantasy novel, which therefore made it very fast for us to become friends on the spot due to the both of us being the same type of dreamers haha! Hope she can realise that dream!

Day 2 of the flea market was equally tiring. Not because there was any rain, the weather was pretty alright until it became too hot for me to bear. Moreover, because all of us woke up so early, the whole lot of us literally fell asleep by 12 noon. I was trying to make a rosary and cam-whore to keep myself awake, but ended up with a stiff smile and snoozing away on the table amongst my work tools for an hour or so after that.

Mr Yacob Ibrahim came to grace the event. It was my first time seeing him live though haha. There was a big crowd for the walkathon and dragon boat race. Lots of retirees and families queuing up for PUB's free goodie bags.

I got one of the goodie bags too. Not because I went to queue up for it, but because a scout came up to our deck and offered it to me while I was taking photos of the performances. There's a water bottle in the goodie bag, which made me very happy because my old water bottle cracked some time ago and I had been trying to look for a suitable new one. There's a free notepad too. One more notepad for me to scribble!

Dias, from "My Planterium", who was next to me, asked me why I am snapping so many photos of the performances. Call it a habit, but I'm very used to documenting visual stuffs like photos. There was a lot of performances going on for the two days, lots of cultural dances, orchestra performances, choir performances, a humourous and greatly entertaining performance by the Acapella Society, a guitar ensemble whose first public performance was at the event itself (which was commendable itself), traditional gu zheng performance and dragon dance performance.

As I have mentioned, the 2nd day was the most tiring day for all of us, which was why Boon Cheong gave us the go ahead to pack up by 2.30pm, so that we can go home early to rest. Lionel woke up early just to drive me to the venue and had went back to sleep, so I didn't want to wake him up and just smsed him to come fetch me when he was ready. After packing up my stuffs, I shifted over to Teresa's booth to chit chat with her while waiting for Lionel to come pick me up.

I got to know Teresa when I was at SMU Fash Haus and she's one of the vendors from P.A.T.H - the organization whose bazaar base is at Vivocity. A really soft-spoken person, she started making jewelries from precious stones and from there, moved on to use other materials. I mean, she really loves precious stones alot like myself. Everytime she talks about them, her face just simply lit up haha!

I had some new materials with me so I took them out and shared it with her. I mean, I love sharing stuffs because that's just me. Everytime I meet someone with the same interest as me, I will just share haha. In the end, she stuffed me a whole lot of charms back and a PUB Banana boat soft toy which was given only to the P.A.T.H vendors haha!

She does really everything under the sun, earrings, charm bracelets, precious stones necklaces etc. You name it, she got it. She will be going for the two P.A.T.H markets on the first and three weekend of next month, so catch her there! Her production name is "Precious Jewelry".

Rosary Collection

2010-03-22T22:26:00.018+08:00

~ A Champagne Gold Halloween ~

"Of Pumpkins and all things sweet and spooky!"

Materials: I bought these burnished silver pumpkin charms from my supplier's not long ago and was wondering what I should do with them. Eventually, I decided to include them in a halloween coloured rosary. This rosary is made of burnished silver floral cross charm, burnished silver pumpkin charms, burnished silver ornate celtic knots spacers, champagne gold faceted acrylic cached gem, citrine beads, black acrylic pearls, black faceted acrylic beads and silver thin oval-linked chains. This rosary closes off with a rhodium lobster clasp and extension chain.

Semi-precious Stone Information: Citrine is known as the "stone of the mind" and it increases self-esteem, protection from negative energies from another's abuse, opening one's mind to new thoughts and promote clarity of thought.

Length: 31.5cm (inclusive of extension chain)

Quantity: 1 only

Product Specifications: For those who read Gothic Bible or any other gothic and victorian fashion magazines, rosary accessories are often found with black gothic or frilly white lolita attires. There's some who makes rosaries as co-ordinates to American punk or even, aristocrat fashion.

Price: Now S$22 (U.P S$29.90)

~ Puppy Love ~

"When 'Love' was nothing more than a bittersweet illusion."

Materials: I was in a contemplative sort of mood when I made this rosary. The term "Puppy Love" when loosely translated, means a fleeting type of emotion which gives people the illusion that is love, but it is not. What happens when "Love" is lost? Who do we blame? Or should we look back to see what have we done to have cause thus? This rosary was made with these questions in mind. This rosary is made of frosted pink faceted acrylic beads, cranberry red faceted acrylic beads, silver celtic-style cross charm, white and pink satin rosettes on ribbons, sweet magenta faceted acrylic cached oval gemstone, silver floral cross charms and rosaline pink genuine Swarvoski crystals. This rosary closes off with a rhodium lobster clasp and extension chain.

Length: 31.5cm (inclusive of extension chain)

Quantity: 1 only

Product Specifications: For those who read Gothic Bible or any other gothic and victorian fashion magazines, rosary accessories are often found with black gothic or frilly white lolita attires. There's some who makes rosaries as co-ordinates to American punk or even, aristocrat fashion.

Price: Now S$24 (U.P S$30.90)

~ The Green Crucifix ~

"Beauty in all things green."

Materials: I wanted to create a rosary in green in a long time back but I didn't manage to get down to make it. So now it's here! This rosary is made of malachite beads, light pastel green acrylic pearls, light olivine green faceted acrylic beads, light olivine green long faceted acrylic beads, gold brass Cross of Maltese-style indent spacer and emerald green reflective Japanese glass beads. This rosary closes off with a gold brass lobster clasp and extension chain.

Semi-precious Stone Information: Malachite is known to be a stone which is used to create balance in a relationship and provides protection for children. This semi-precious stone is also known to bring about success in business.

Length: 31.5cm (inclusive of extension chain)

Quantity: 1 only

Product Specifications: For those who read Gothic Bible or any other gothic and victorian fashion magazines, rosary accessories are often found with black gothic or frilly white lolita attires. There's some who makes rosaries as co-ordinates to American punk or even, aristocrat fashion.

Price: Now S$35 (U.P S$46.90)

~ A Dark Promise ~

"It's not that I want or choose to break my promise to you. It's the circumstances, trust me. But how am I supposed to tell you that, when it will most likely sound like an excuse than anything else?"

Materials: I woke up particularly early just to make this piece. Nah, just joking. Remember I mentioned before that I am re-adjusting my sleeping time from 5am to 1am? This is the result, instead of waking up at 12 noon, I wake up at around say, 9am plus now. Which is good, because in that way, I can make more stuffs! Anyway, while I was making "A Dark Promise", I was thinking, I guess everyone had gone through that situation whereby you make a promise and somewhere along the way, you get caught at crossroads, which gives you that intensely icky feeling of wanting to tear your hair out in frustration. Or scream in frustration, whichever you prefer. So that's why this rosary looks a little, let's say, dark and emo because it's made of black acrylic pearls of a variety of sizes, a silver cloth rose, black floral vintage lace, a burnished silver crucifix, chunky black industrial chains with huge links and thin silver round-link chains. It closes with a rhodium lobster clasp and black painted jumprings, which are one of the new types of jumprings I bought not long ago.

Length: 31.5cm

Quantity: 1 only

Product Specifications: For those who read Gothic Bible or any other gothic and victorian fashion magazines, rosary accessories are often found with black gothic or frilly white lolita attires. There's some who makes rosaries as co-ordinates to American punk or even, aristocrat fashion.

Price: Now S$16 (U.P S$23.90)

~ Thinking of You ~

"There's always a time and place when you think about someone. So, who are you thinking of now?"

Materials: How this piece begin is kinda funny, because ok, I was supposed to assemble it the next morning because I am trying to re-adjust my sleeping timing from 5am to 1am. But, it just so happened that I made the mistake of drinking a can of Milo, which I bought from 7-11, which is of a mocha flavour. I mean, come on, it's green! Who would scrutinise so closely as to what flavour it is? To me, Milo has always been the Milo I make every morning to drink, like seriously. So, I ended up not being able to sleep due to my silly mistake of inducing that small amount of caffeine. I assembled the first part of the rosary, which is like roughly 30 white acrylic pearls and 3 pieces of silver round frames, before the caffeine effect decided to wear off at 3.42am. When I woke up the next morning, I continued assembling it. Somehow, "孤单北半球" - a song by 欧得洋, kept running in my mind. This song tells about how two persons were thinking of each other on either side of the Earth's hemisphere. So let's see, who was I thinking of when I'm making this piece? Hmm, he's someone who instilled that element of unpredictability in terms of my design, and the most significant thing I remember about him was that he told me never to give up, which I doubt he actually still remembers haha! Anyway, asides from being made from white acrylic pearls, this rosary is made of white satin rosette spacers, which is something I invented haha, 14k gold plated Mother Mary centrepiece and a gold plated crucifix measuring 8.5cm in total length.

Length: 54cm

Quantity: 1 only

Product Specifications: For those who read Gothic Bible or any other gothic and victorian fashion magazines, rosary accessories are often found with black gothic or frilly white lolita attires. There's some who makes rosaries as co-ordinates to American punk or even, aristocrat fashion.

Price: Now S$25 (U.P S$32.90)

~ Blood of Purity ~

"Pure is the blood of the gods, so pure that its immesurable power and allure ensnares the hearts of many who seeks for it."

Materials: "Dragon Age - Awakening", anyone played it yet? Haha, Lionel has already played it like three times and is currently on a Dwarf commoner story in "Dragon Age - Origins" (which is the first part of the game, "Awakening" is the second part which was recently released.) For those who started playing in the first game, you were sent on a mission to find the "Urn of Andraste", which is a holy relic. And because of the story behind it, I made this rosary specially out of siam red Czech glass beads. Ok, it's not very often that I used such a colour, which I find it is quite beautiful actually. Siam red Czech glass beads were usually found on UK gothic pieces because they are quite valuable and rare. At first, I mistook it as faceted acrylic beads, but upon a closer look, I noticed it has a certain constituency like Murano glass. So this piece, I must say it's a pretty costly piece to make. Anyway, I combined it with faceted Hematite beads, which came from a last strand I managed to snitch from one of my supplier's recently. They are interspersed by gunmetal square link chains, burnished silver crucifix measuring 8.5cm and burnished silver Mother Mary centrepiece.

Length: 54cm

Quantity: 1 only

Product Specifications: For those who read Gothic Bible or any other gothic and victorian fashion magazines, rosary accessories are often found with black gothic or frilly white lolita attires. There's some who makes rosaries as co-ordinates to American punk or even, aristocrat fashion.

Price: Now S$30 (U.P S$49.90)

~ Memories ~

"Fragments, pieces, scattered in the wind."

Materials: I'm not exactly a Taiwan idol TV serial fan, but Lionel and I do love watching certain TV serials acted by our favourite Taiwan singers and media artistes. One of them that we have been watching recently was "就想賴著妳" ("Just Want to Stick with You"), acted by Jerry Yan and Ella Chen. In the latest episode we watched, one of their male co-stars, who acted as a rich and famous interior architecture designer from Hang Zhou, was so-called dragged into a "match-making" session, where the girl was very talented and very arrogant. During the scene where they were touring Hang Zhou by boat, the girl stood at the head of the boat and sang "Memories", a song from a famous broadway musical, in order to impress the designer. The scene was actually quite laughable when the girl tried to snubbed Ella, but ended up getting snubbed herself by the designer himself. This song was running in my head when I was making this rosary, which was why I named it as "Memories". This rosary is made of black faceted acrylic beads, coupled with two black Czech glass beads reflecting rainbow highlights, with a gold plated crucifix measuring 8.5cm trailing off it. This rosary closes off with a gold plated lobster clasp and jumprings.

Length: 31.5cm

Price: Now S$19 (U.P S$25.90)

~ The Darkness In One's Heart ~

"There is always darkness in your heart. Admit it."

Materials: For those who have read my latest announcement post, you guys will know where this little baby was born haha. Its main body was assembled at the World Water Day Flea Market at Marina Barrage and subsequently, was completed at Great Eastern Hanis on 22nd March. It's been a long time since I made a rosary, I remembered the last one I sold and made was back in November'09 MAAD, where Fash Bash collaborated with MAAD at that time. Anyway, the silver faceted acrylic beads you see here are new arrivals at my supplier's, so I was wondering why not just give it a try. I mixed them together with black faceted acrylic beads and the end effect was lovely. A burnished silver Mother Mary centrepiece holds up the rosary and a burnished silver crucifix trails away from it. It's pretty rare to find such a long crucifix, measuring up to 8.5cm in total length.

Length: 54cm

Quantity: 1 only

Product Specifications: For those who read Gothic Bible or any other gothic and victorian fashion magazines, rosary accessories are often found with black gothic or frilly white lolita attires. There's some who makes rosaries as co-ordinates to American punk or even, aristocrat fashion.

Price: Now S$22 (U.P S$29.90)

New Materials and A Commission

2010-03-20T03:28:00.008+08:00

It's been quite some time since I last posted anything after the last SMU Fash Haus last week yes? Haha, I've been busy updating my hoard with new materials. It was pretty hectic for me as I was running back and forth between my different suppliers directly after the weekend when SMU Fash Haus was held.

Not to mention that I had been doing a lot of reading up on company branding and organizational transparency. I mean, I still have a lot to learn, despite my online establishment being a small one. The book "Personality NOT Included" is a very good and humourous guide in branding, but I'll talk about it and the new materials I have bought in my next post.

Meanwhile, I had playing my favourite PS2 game - Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria (I missed playing this game because the last time I touched it was like 3 or 4 years back), on the nights of Monday to Thursday when Lionel's mum was on her Malaysia trip. Which means, the TV in the living room was free for me to use and play hehe.

While at the same time, I was working on Karmen's commission. For commissions, I usually just do it for friends. It's just me haha. The last commission I worked on was Naz's Amy choker, which she needed for EOY'09.

Now, Karmen dear bought me two types of laces. As you can see, the lace at the bottom of the choker, the one which looks like a spider web, was one of the laces she got for me to use. It was a pretty tough job trying to sew on that lace because the rim of the lace was really thin. The other two types of lace you see here were from my own hoard, which I am quite pleased with because with them, I am able to keep as close to her requirements as possible.

One of the toughest part was the lace that was supposedly to be overlayed on the black velvet layer. Karmen did buy a black floral lace, but after placing it on the piece, I found that it was not really that suitable because it made the whole piece looks as though it has too much going on in one place. After wracking my brain for one night, I managed to think of the perfect solution - a one and a half metres leftover of rose-patterned lace which my friend gave to me a few years back. And which I absolutely refused to use it at all because it was so rare and so pretty.

But! I am glad that I am able to use it for this piece because it's for my friend after all! Handsewing it over three layers of lace was no joke!

Well, I got it done, sewn tight after one hour! This is how the choker base looks like, without the chains and stuffs. Hope it's ok for you Karmen!

I added an extra piece of black satin at the back of the choker for extra support and comfort. I mean, the last thing I want is for Karmen to wear this for a long period of time and start getting a stiff neck from wearing it, which was why I chose a length of soft black velvet for the central support of the choker and an equally soft satin backing.

The chains and acrylic pearls embellishments were added while I was at Lionel's house, watching a Taiwan idol serial - "Hi My Sweetheart!" together online haha! This choker is not fully completed yet, but I have to say that it is the most challenging and interesting choker I have made up to date! I mean, I have not tried making a choker with so many lace overlays before. Usually, most of the chokers I made were made of silver embellishments, this is the first time I am using gold brass embellishments and findings at a large scale! And not to mention, a large variety of chains in various shapes and sizes from the same metal type!

I will tell you more about this choker in the next post, most likely it will be finished by then haha! Marina Barrage bazaar tomorrow! Anyone coming? I'll be going to Lionel's house early tomorrow morning first and then we will drive down to the flea market venue from his house. Guess what? This blur girlfriend of his actually brought his house keys back by accident when he sent me home just now. This is even more embarassing than me almost bringing his handphone back home on one occasion.

Oh oh! I have just registered for FashBash's lastest event - FashBash Wardrobe Raids held on April 25th! I am so going for that event because asides from MAAD, they are, in my opinion, the exact market a handcrafter should be looking for! The last time they collaborated with MAAD in November last year, sales were overall good for all the vendors in MAAD because they brought in the right crowd which we were all looking for! So, who's up for it with me? I'm registering for the Indoor space. I know we have to bring our own tables and chairs though. Let me know guys!

World Water Day 2010 Flea Market

2010-03-15T01:39:00.003+08:00

Hi everyone! I'll be taking part in the World Water Day 2010 Flea Market, organized by PUB, this Saturday and Sunday at Marina Barrage from 11am to 6pm! It's my very first time taking part in a bazaar held at Marina Barrage, so it will be a whole new experience for me! As indicated on the map above, the flea market is held at both Deck A and Deck B.

I'm located at Deck B, most likely quite near to the stage so it'll be easier for everyone to find me!

See you guys this weekend!

SMU Fash Haus on 12th and 13th March 2010

2010-03-15T01:37:00.000+08:00

This is, technically speaking, my second time taking part in a bazaar at SMU. I enjoyed myself greatly at Fash Haus because of the different experience they offered.

Despite sales being slow, I was greatly entertained by the refreshing salsa performance by their students and their guitar club strumming and singing to popular chinese tunes on the first day. Not to mention, their live band performance which liven up the whole bazaar on the second day. Kudos to the Fash Haus committee who made all these possible!

I'm glad my "A Touch of Ivory" haircomb found a new home, as well as a simple small acrylic pearls bracelet, which went to another pretty lady as well!

Not to mention that I am glad that I met a lot of new friends - Joe from JoSa (who prints T-shirts with interesting designs and offer T-shirt printing customizations as well), Carol from EC (who have a shop selling eco-friendly designer bags and costume jewelry), Nadira from Happy Marketing International (she offers affordable makeup kits), Teresa from Precious Jewelry (who makes very pretty, unique and affordable vintage handmade jewelries) and her friend, Ar Yan from Saroyan (she brings in a vast variety of popular branded Japanese labels).

And for those who were with me at the bazaar - Gracia, Aunty Jeanette and Jo-Ann, I know sales were kind of slow for us, but despite that, we had fun in our own way haha.

A big big hug for Sally who came down to visit me! Thank you thank you! Hope that you'll make more new stuffs because I really enjoy seeing your new works! Thank you for the buttons and lace too!

*My booth! Lighting was a little dim though.

*New hairpins I made and who debuted their first appearance at SMU Fash Haus!

*Carol and Nadira! I like the bag with the Earth design haha!

*Joe and his friend! His booth was just next to me haha. His company was newly established a month ago and despite being a business student who graduated from NUS, he picked up his interest for T-shirt printing when he went on a business trip to Japan with his father. The shirt that he is wearing here is his very own customized design.

*Customized T-shirts anyone?

*His friend and I were both attracted to this shirt with an elaborate medieval emblem. Kinda punk I guess?

SMU Fash Haus on 12th and 13th March 2010

2010-03-09T22:13:00.006+08:00

SMU Fash Haus this Friday and Saturday! It's from 11am - 5pm and it will be held at the SMU underground Concourse!

I know the underground concourse is a little big, so here's a map haha! It's the stretch where the OCBC bank is located at.

50 booths in total! That's a lot! But fret not, you can find me at Booth 20 (indicated by the red arrow on the above image)!

See you guys this weekend!

Event Space @ Sunflower on 6th March 2010

2010-03-09T21:51:00.005+08:00

I was peddling my wares at Sunflower's event space last Saturday - 6th March 2010. You guys must be wondering what is this event space business about. This is how it works, Sunflower allows each tenant to take up their "event space" (which is a skirted table outside their shop) to peddle their wares on each weekend. It's entirely up to you which weekend day you want to take. It can be Friday, Saturday or Sunday, it's your choice really.

Coincidentally, MAAD fell on the same weekend, which was why I could only visit my friends at MAAD on Sunday! Hmm, sales was slow at the event space, only sold one haircomb at 6pm! But I was glad the haircomb went to my dear friend Karmen! Thanks for coming down to visit me girl!

*Here am I setting up at around 1pm.

*Tada! Booth set up and ready! Note the 13 new haircombs and 2 new hairclips haha!

*Me at the booth. Ok, I have to admit that I look stoned haha!

*Uh, act cute? Ahaha.

*Karmen dear bought my new "Celebration of the Origin" haircomb from me! First sale of the day at 6pm!

*Karmen with her pretty lolita dress coupled with my "Elemental Harmony" haircomb!

Happy Chinese New Year and Happy Valentine's Day!!!

2010-02-16T15:03:00.006+08:00

Hey hey everyone! I know, it's been awhile since I updated here. I've been pretty busy and yup, new stocks have been added to the Brooch, Charms, Hairbands and Necklaces sections! Go check them out!

Also, I know it's a little late, but here's my promotion of the season at Sunflower!

Yup, you guys got it right! For every S$30 purchase of Wyrrd Rune Productions' works at Sunflower, there's the "Valentine can be Blue or Red" handphone charm worth S$9.90 to be given away for FREE!

Hurry while stocks last! Offer will last till 28th February! Go grab it now!

Also, if you checked under "Calender of Events", you will see that it's been updated! That's right, Wyrrd Rune Productions will be taking part in two major events for March!

The first one will be held on 6th March, which is the first weekend of March! For those who have been to Sunflower, you guys always see a skirted table outside the shop yes? That's Sunflower's event space! And on 6th March, I will be taking part in the event space, where I will be selling loads of new stuffs! Be sure to come visit Sunflower on 6th March! There will also be a promotion coming along with it, so keep a look out for it!

The second event is The Fash Haus, held at Singapore Management University (SMU), from 11th to 13th March at the underground Concourse opened from 11am - 5pm daily! I'll be there from 12th - 13th March! Lots of new goodies to be released at this event as well, so do come down to visit!

I'm currently making a lot of new stuffs, so do watch this space for more updates!

NTU Bazaar (1st to 4th Feb)

2010-02-01T13:49:00.009+08:00

To be honest, it was my first time taking part in an event which stretches over a period of four days, or rather, four working weekdays to be exact. I remembered the last time I took part in an event which was divided into a period of three weekends was Cosfest 2007. It's been awhile.

I must say that it's my first time looking at NTU's Canteen B and although the space offered to us was spacious, we all still felt the heat after awhile. I mean, I was fanning myself constantly haha.

Still, I was able to meet alot of new friends this time round, like the creative Gracia and friendly Aunty Jeanette! And it's a pleasure to be working with Fhank and Roxanne from Sunflower, since they were really kind to allow me to share booth with them. A big thank you to Fhank for fetching me up and down from NTU and back home, and a big big hug to my dear friend Roxanne for helping me promote my stuffs while she was promoting for Sunflower's items at the same time! Thank you girl! I look forward to further bazaar collaborations with you guys!

*The building facing Canteen B. Taken in the early morning. And I mean, really early morning. This photo was taken on 1st February, 1st day of the NTU Bazaar, 7.52am.

*The driveway outside Canteen B, also taken in the early morning on 1st February, 7.56am. Believe me, I was bleary-eyed when I was taking this photo.

*After a long wait and despite being sleepy and tired out, we managed to set up our sunny booth!

*My side of the booth! I brought some stuffs from my sub-brand, hoping to make some small bucks, but it seemed that response was not very well, most likely due to the different consumer requirements of the NTU crowd.

*Roxanne - your friendly retail manager from Sunflower!

*Fhank and Roxanne on the 1st day of the NTU Bazaar! I know, we all look sleepy haha!

*An overall view of the NTU bazaar grounds. I had to climb on a chair to take the photo because my camera was not a wide-angle lens.

*There's Gracia from Shalom Crafts, serving her customers! I love her stuffs because they are really vintagey and unique! And she's a really nice lady! She even bought me food, like delicious layered violet jelly, at tea-time for fear I would go hungry!

*Roxanne explaining patiently and professionally to a customer!

*Still explaining haha!

*Service with a smile!

*Being helpful goes a long way!

*Hawaiian pizza from Canteen A on the 3rd day! Jade, Anu and I were laughing and catching up with each other, while eating our lunch with a huge bottle of Pepsi.

*Leather lovers, this is the shop for you! Broadway Leather is located at Kaki Bukit Avenue 3, Blk 1. Run by the friendly and active Aunty Jeanette, she has a load of leather goodies to share! I wanted to get a new leather wallet from her for Lionel, since New Year is coming, but I did not get it in the end because I don't know whether he will like the design or not.

*Leather keychains anyone?

*More leather goodies!

*Here's some leather accessories to spice up a plain outfit or as an add-on to an edgy punk outfit!

*Leather key holders!

*Jewelries painstakingly handmade by Gracia, most of them whom she did it right on the spot at the event!

*Necklaces mixed with a variety of materials, but still maintaining the overall vintagey feel in them.

*Vintage charms! You can choose 3 of them and get Gracia to attach them to a vintage bracelet with square and heart links! These vintage charms were so irresistable that I bought around 10 of them from Gracia to incorporate them into my works!

*Pretty Cameos and interestingly shaped charms like the Eiffel Tower, a Cirque du Soleil clown and an old school film camera.

*Heart lockets and pocket watches on genuine brass necklaces!

*I have a fetish with pocket watches, that I'm not ashamed to admit that haha.

*These roman numeral pocket watches reminds me of a watch my grandma gave me, which runs on wound-up spring rather than on mechanical movement.

*I told you I have a pocket watch fetish didn't I? Hee.

*More vintagey necklaces! The necklace with a black bow nestled on top of a painted cameo, strung with genuine brass chains and hand sewn acrylic pearls, was done on the spot by Gracia on the 2nd day of the event, I was perched next to her table and watched her made it.

*Clay pendants! Painstakingly handmade and fired by Gracia!

*It's so pretty!

SOY'B Cosplay Event: 2010!!!

2010-01-30T13:42:00.003+08:00

It's my second time taking part in SOY'B and it's pretty different from what I experienced last year. This year, it was held in the NP Convention Centre, which the bonus was, the entire area was air-conditioned. However, on the down side, due to space constraints, it was really cramped. I hardly have space to move about in my own booth, let alone even get out of it.

However, in any case, thanks to everyone who have came to visit my booth, support my production and kept me company for the whole 6 hours long event!

And to the SOY'B committee, despited the downsides of the event, thank you for organizing SOY'B and I look forward to taking part in the next one!

*This was the only photo of my booth at SOY'B. Maria took it on her camera. It just shows how squeezy and cramped the area which we were situated at, so much so that even taking photos of my booth became quite difficult. Much less even take photos of the surroundings or the crowd because my booth was literally blocked by a massive human wall.

SOY'B Cosplay Event: 2010 and Updates!

2010-01-16T01:39:00.006+08:00

Hi everyone! Wyrrd Rune Productions will be participating in its next major event of the year on the week after next! Be sure to come down and visit us at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, where you will get to meet and take photos with our local cosplayers and buy artworks offered by our local anime artists! Plus this time round, you get to take photos, do shopping and watch on-stage performances in an air-conditioned environment!

Date: Saturday, 30th Jan, 2010

Time: 11.00am - 6.00pm

Venue: Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Convention Centre, LT68A - E

Also, I will also be taking part in another bazaar at NTU's Canteen B on 1st to 4th February 2010. Details are yet to be finalised, so I will be announcing it here once I get hold of the details!

I know updates had been slow, but finally it's all done! New stocks had been added in the Bracelets, Chokers, Necklaces, Wristcuffs and For-Friends-By-Friends Earrings sections! New bracelets, chokers and necklaces are made available at my Sunflower box! Also, check out the Items Sold section for updates as well! Check out the Event Gallery section as well for our newest event reports!

My blogsite layout has been changed and my new logo up! Finally, after being so busy for the past few weeks, I was finally able to settle down to change and give my entire blogsite its long-awaited new look! Several new sections had been added to my blogsite as well!

- Calender of Events: This is added to facilitate you guys when you want to check which bazaar or event I will be taking part in!

- Disclaimer: I know many of you have been requesting for customizations and alterations, but unfortunately, due to my production's policy, I am unable to fulfill these requests. Hope you guys can understand that by not replicating any designs, this is my production's way of saying thanks to those customers who have supported us over the years by making what they own uniquely theirs!

- Payment Methods: With effect from January 2010, postal service is made available! For those who want me to send their items by post, please send me the names of the items which you want to order, your contact details, bank account type and number for bank transfer and posting address! Ok here's how it works, only purchases S$40 and above comes with FREE registered mail. As for any other purchases, you will have to add S$2 to registered post.

Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year are both just round the corner! Have you guys done your shopping yet? I will be putting up my V-Day and CNY offer soon, so do watch this space for the latest incoming offer for these two festive seasons!

The "Silver Knight"! Presents, New upcoming pieces and more!

2010-01-03T23:22:00.000+08:00

January MAAD is tomorrow! I'm so excited! I'm still in the midst of preparing new pieces though haha. Talking about rushing even on the eleventh hour. But I can't help it, my inspirations just keep coming!

A few days ago, I have this idea of a pure white and silver piece, after I completed "The Ivory Adept" - a white and gold choker. I got the inspiration from Erza Scarlet's Silver Knight costume from "Fairy Tail". After thinking for quite some time, I decided to make this white and silver piece into a choker.

Putting just a silver rose as the centrepiece is just too boring without any form of dimension whatsoever. So I sew a white webbed lace bedding from scratch to act as a backing for the silver rose. The white webbed lace is a true vintage as I remembered that my friend and I bought the lace a few years ago and shared it amongst the two of us.

Deciding to add some depth to the piece, I sew a length of silver vintage ribbon into a bow and set the centrepiece onto it before sewing it securely to the beautiful white and silver floral lace I bought a few weeks ago.

Wanting to add some interest to the choker, I selected a white cached rhinestone reflecting rainbow light. These little beauties were found at a quaint place and I was really pleased to have found them. I just can't resist using them!

The "Silver Knight" choker is finally completed! A combination of white and silver round link chains, burnished silver butterfly charm, vintage off-white acrylic pearls and silver Japanese glass beads were added to the piece. Grey tourmaline and Crystal AB genuine Swarvoski 4mm bicones add the final glitter factor to this silver and white piece.

I was in the process of making the "Silver Knight" when my aunt came over to my house to visit. She brought presents she bought from her recent Hong Kong/Guangzhou trip! Amongst all the dried goods, she gave me a pretty cute coin pouch as a present! Thank you aunty! Hmm, I will definitely make a matching keychain to hang on this coin pouch.

So has anyone played Magic: The Gathering before? Or at least have your guy friends, boyfriends or sons have played this card game before? I'm sure most guys would have played this card game before once or twice in their lifetimes. Or at least, I guess some of us would have seen young boys trashing each other out at this card game, while gathering outside Bishan MRT station during our schooling days.

Lionel and Ming En had this urge to play Magic: The Gathering and so, we went over to the card shop at Bishan and bought the latest Zendikar box set. It was costly, of course, but while Ming En bought it for the different qualities and firepower of the cards, Lionel and I were going more for the artwork. Although Lionel is very particular over the very, ah, "childish" black border. But that's just him.

There's a total of five colours in this card game - Black, Red, White, Green and Blue. The above card is a rare card from the Green ("Nature/Elves") deck. I love how they did the artwork for the "Lotus Cobra". The exceptionally pastel rainbow colours on the cobra's body is what attracted me at first sight, asides from the tranquil lotus background in twilight light. I am definitely going to make a piece out of this colour combination.

"Elemental Appeal" comes from the Red ("Fire/Goblins") deck. It's fiery colour scheme and grandeur exuding from the mage in mid-cast was what that inspired me into making a new piece.

Let's see what I can come up by tonight. I can't sleep too late though, otherwise I will be late for MAAD tomorrow. Haha, Shannon did "warned" me before that I have to treat everyone to tea for coming late.