This is the last week before VIVA and the projects are coming together. I've done interviews with the beading kit participants, some I interviewed in-person, and the others via phone calls. They mostly have similar feedbacks and opinions. Maybe divided into two teams, one who enjoys it and find it calming, the others, mostly the men or those who are not so crafty, who say that it is very tiring and time-consuming, while it was painful for them, they still find it interesting and they appreciate the craft very much, it's just not for them. The others, who are more crafty with their hands, actually find the process quite relaxing and they feel good to be able to create something with their hands because they don't remember the last time they did that. And also to get a break from digital screen. Today, even our relaxing activities are looking into digital screens, just a different kind than what we use to work. So it was a nice activity for them to take a break.
As for the website, there are a few people who have signed up for it but they are yet to make a post on the forum. I figure it will take some time to create a discourse between the participants, especially because they haven't been exposed to the craft long enough at this point. However, the custom pattern tool that I worked with Andreas has been published. It is not perfect yet, but it is a very solid effort as a draft for now. It is fully functional, people can draw their own pattern, erase, change the type of brushes, change color palette, even load in already existing pattern (only a small batch available for now). It's going to be very interesting to see what everyone could come up with. I plan to do a user testing in the future, or maybe even create a workshop based on this.
For my collaboration with the illustrator, Priska, she did 2 Peranakan-style illustrations for me. One is a beautiful Peranakan shophouse and the other is a Peranakan-style tingkat (a traditional metal tiffin box) and I'm adding the beading directly on the drawing to add texture and accentuate the drawing. It's a bit tricky for me to do the beading directly on it because it's freestyle (no guides) and the room for error is really small, I could not poke the needle wrongly as often because I'm not covering the whole drawing in beads. It will be very visible if I poked around too much. It was a new challenge for me, it was very interesting and I'm happy with the result. With a little bit more practice and time, I could do even more intricate beading on the drawing, but for now, I am happy with the result.
I plan to transform this into a postcard, however, I'm still struggling to find the best way to convert this. The method that I used for now is to cut off the sides of the fabric and pull the sides to wrap the carton base (recycled, of course), and paste the postcard template on the back. It works, however, still looks a bit rough. It's a good concept but I need to figure out how to refine it. In any way, this drawing and beading art looks really good and quite versatile, there is a lot of possibilities of what this could be turned into beyond postcard.
As for my collaboration with Lia, the interior designer, she used to work in Singapore for around 5 years and she helped me source this little pendant frame from a friend of hers who does resin jewelry. One problem about this pendant frame is, while it perfectly frames my beading, the back is bare. She told me she could help source a metal frame to cover the back, but because of the time frame, I have to leave the back bare for VIVA. For this pendant, I decided to do an initial. Jewelry customization is very popular these days, almost all jewelry brands, high-tier, mid-tier, and even lower-tier offer customization one way or another. Also because it's quite difficult to put such intricate Peranakan patterns into such a small space. Not impossible, but it's going to be a bit trickier to see. It's also showing that this beading technique is very versatile and can be applied to any kind of design or style a person desires.
While we were in progress with the pendant, we last minutely came up with the idea of incorporating the beading into a coaster or a trinket tray. We were inspired by clay craft because it is also a versatile type of craft. It can be molded into anything and corporate into other kinds of crafts, so why now try and corporate it with the beading? The coaster idea came up because it's useful, quite small, and easy to do for beginners like me. So I went ahead and got an air-dry clay and came up with a design to put in the center of the coaster. I had no idea what I got myself into but I just knew I had to try it.
First, the idea is to create a center base, completely covered in beads, because they're waterproof and they will cover the entirety of the paper. I came up with a simple butterfly design, however, I completely underestimated the amount of time needed to bead the whole thing. It took me too long and I just knew I wouldn't finish in time for VIVA. At one point, I decided to cheat and start putting 2 beads in one loop of thread (Uncle Robert would call this cheating and he condemns it), it looked okay, but as I went along it looked really bad. No wonder the craftsman himself is really against it. It looked bad, took way too long, so I scraped it completely and I had to come up with a new design.
Knowing that I could not cover the whole base with beads, Lia offered that I could do partial beading (like the drawing with Priska) and we could cover the paper base with a shiny coat that is commonly used in furniture and it would make the paper somehow waterproof. Luckily that idea worked because otherwise, this object would not happen. So I did a Peranakan tiles design and did the beading surrounding it (with the proper technique) and it looked really good. I watched a quick tutorial on Youtube on how to work with clay (amazing things you can learn from a video, just like what my beading kit offered) and some suggestions from Lia because she had work with clay before and I managed to put the base into the coaster. I then painted it read and added the shiny coat. Luckily it turned out okay and the coat dried up in time.
I had the idea of collaborating with a local clay artist who has a small business, because she takes custom orders for her clay products as well. However, I contacted her and she said there won't be enough time for her to help with my customization. Hence, why I'm doing it myself. In the future tho, it could be an interesting thing to see if I could make one of these products in collaboration with a local business and maybe create a line involving this beading.
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