True Christmas Spirits

Album Link: 2012 X'mas

Merry Christmas!!

This Christmas is a very special one to me, because I'm in Europe, where people REALLY celebrate Christmas!!

In the beginning of December, I went to Germany, Austria, and Czech Republic to visit Christmas markets in different cities. Christmas has been always my favorite holiday, even though I'm not a Christian. I love the true spirits of Christmas - Love, Forgiveness, Giving, etc. 

So, since I'll enjoy the white Christmas in lovely Europe, of course I want to present some Christmas spirits - by giving some Christmas ornaments to my couchsurfing hosts. Right, I used couchsurfing for my entire trip, and I think it's now my favorite way to find accommodation in my trip!

The first work is a beading snowflake, which was my original creation. I tried to imagine the structure of a snowflake, and used beads to construct the shape, and of course in the end, used a bracelet to consolidate the structure. This is my favorite work out of three, and luckily, it was picked by my first and favorite host :)

This one I learned from the workshop. It was only a piece from demonstration, and we wasn't given the instruction of this work. But still, I figured out how to make it by studying it closely. I love weaving things like this; so I had a lot of fun making it. It was then picked by my host in Prague, a lovely girl.



Then, this one was made from the remained materials from other works. Since it's Christmas time, I decided to bend the thick wire into the shape of a Christmas tree, and use the beads us the decorations on the tree. On top of the tree, I put a golden star as usual for the final touch. My host in Vienna got this one, and she loved it a lot, thinking it's the perfect element for her Christmas tree :)




Oh! It's not finished yet!! Because later I found out I was going to move out after the trip, I decided to make a leaving gift for my host mom; after all, Christmas is all about forgiving and giving, isn't it?

I bought some candles, red and green for Christmas, and add some ornaments on them. I learned that from the workshop, and the result was satisfying and breathtaking!! To be honest, I love the pieces very much...but Christmas is about sharing the things you love....so I gave them away to show my gratitude.

I've been making all kinds of Christmas gifts for my friends for the past few years, and this was the first time I shared those gifts with strangers and internally...quite exciting, isn't it? Finally, my works are starting to spread all over the world!

Colorful Mandalas

Album: Cloth & Jewelry Design

There are several things that I love: colors, weaving/knitting, and patterns. Most of the times, I can only include some of the elements in my handicraft works. But this time, I got it all.

This design is call Mandala, which is basically bead weaving technique which I had known long ago. But I didn't really put too much effort in rocailles weaving when I was young since it was time consuming apparently. I spent much time studying how to weave the beads into 3D objects, such as animals, fruits, balls, etc., instead.

People in the UK are crazy about Mandala, Shamballa kind of things, and they even have course to teach you how to make these things. So I took one of the class and learned how to make a Mandala.

I instantly decided to pick red, yellow and blue as my main colors for the Mandala, as they are the three basic color in light. After finishing one, I was fascinated by the result, and found it was like the feather of a peacock.

We didn't have time to make too many Mandalas in the class, and I ended up finishing 3 Mandalas. I didn't want to make a bracelet as instructed, and didn't intend to make more in same patterns; thus, I decided to make a one-of-the-kind necklace.

I recalled that I had picked a tiny feather of a peacock when I was in London last month, and it would be the perfect match for the Mandalas I had made.

It took me some time to work out how to combine the three Mandalas as well as the peacock feather together, but I was satisfied with the result. The necklace itself was also a special design, with the mixture of indigo and metallic blue beads and the S-shape formed by continuous metallic blue beads. Due to the similarity of the colors of the beads, the pattern was not obvious, which was designed on purpose to avoid it taking away the visual focus from the Mandalas and the feathers.

I love the dazzling colors and patterns so much that I had to make another one to fulfill my desire. The second one was full of new ideas that I weaved two Mandalas together into an infinity symbol. On top of that (or I should say on "bottom" of that), I made a chain maille bracelet as the base for the infinity Mandala. This is a gift for Nalia; hope she will like it.





Again, making this, whether the Mandala part or the chain maille part, is time-consuming, but I love it...so let it be~

The First Step toward My Dream

People know that I love to make handicrafts, but they probably don't know that I have started to make handicraft since I was ten. We had some choices of after-class in our primary school, and I had chosen paper craft club since I loved to play with papers.

I can still remember how amazed I was when I cut the Chinese character "春" with out of just one piece of paper for the first time. After that, I had learned how to make lots of paper crafts from the class. In the mean time, I had learned how to make a lucky bracelet from thread weaving and bead threading, and almost since then, I've known handicraft making would be my hobby for life.

Years passed by, I had learned more and more skills from the books and the clubs in the school, and I had been the leader of DIY club when I was in university. Then, I decided that I didn't want to play by the book (literally) anymore.

I quit making handicraft for a while, but there was a yearning inside me for making handicrafts. I found out that when I was down, making handicrafts could always cheer me up and make me feel content, and that was when I started to really recognize handicraft making as my passion for life.

I was too afraid to follow this passion till now. I have a opportunity to reset my life path, and I want to give handicraft a shot. Hence, I'd spent a whole week to make this questionnaire, inspired by my volunteering job for the Brighton & Hove city council and my young friend Temmy, to gather people's opinions and comments about my works.

The result may be brutal, but this will be my first step to approach my dream - my handicrafts being appreciated by people and really valuable.

Here is the link of the questionnaire; I won't close it in the foresee future, so you're welcome to check this questionnaire anytime and drop some words regarding to my handicrafts. I truly hope this questionnaire can let me to know my handicrafts more from different perspectives, and help me evaluate my next step.

But anyway, I will keep making and posting more handicrafts; that's for sure :)

Dream A Little Dream on Dreamcatchers

Album Link: Dreamcatcher

I have had a fancy to dream catchers for a long time. I remembered that I saw many dreamcatchers in a shop, in Old Town in San Diego, selling native American crafts in 2007, and I decided that I must have one someday.

I bought one, and made one later, and that was the  end of my fancy to dream catchers...at least that was what I thought.

Few years later, when I walked in the North Lane in Brighton two weeks ago, I saw dreamcatchers again in a native American shop. The dream catchers seemed to bring back my obsession for them, and I kept seeing them in all kinds of accessories (earrings, hair pins, necklaces...) since then.

When Emma showed me the procedure of making a dream catcher in her garden last Sunday, I knew it was a sign. Thus, the next day I went to Primark to buy a bunch of bracelets (10 for 1 pound) after class, and on my way home, I found a piece of feather which is perfect for  dressing a dreamcatcher.

Using the bracelet as the frame, tangled with shearing elastic, attaching a bead as the core, and don't forget to give a final touch with the feather; now an exquisite dream catcher is done.

The perfect work didn't satisfy me, especially when one of my classmate Valentina asked me to make one for her after she saw it. As a result, I couldn't help but making another 3 dreamcathers in the following days. Each work was one of the kind and unique; I put in much energy when I make one.

I'm not sure what to do with all the dreamcathers I made yet, but I'm pretty sure I'll make more in the near future.

I LOVE dream catchers!!

A tiny farewell fasion show

Album Link: 2.5D Bookmarks - Cloth

I'm leaving again, and this time I don't know when I will come back.

Tangram Insprations

Anyway, I bought some papers with beautiful colors and patterns. These papers were meant to be made in different tangram patterns, but the outcome wasn't not pleasant enough; thus I decided to turn to another direction.

2.5D Bookmarks - Vase

 Someday when I was attending the online course of A Course In Light (ACIL) (Planetary 8 Mint Green), I took the leftover of the beautiful papers with flower patterns and started to cut them into different shapes of vases. The work was so beautiful that I even intended to sell it as a collection.


Several weeks later, when I was taking ACIL (Planetary 9 Introduction) and I thought....I'm leaving again, and as usual, I want to make some goodbye-gifts to some people...I want this to be a special, beautiful, and useful gift...well...I did make some collections of clothes and bags; why not do that again?

Inspired by my own clothes, I made 15 pieces of tops/pants/skirts in the end. When I took picture (using my new camera Nikon P310) for them, it was just like a tiny fashion show, and God knows that I really love to match them into different styles...just like I do to myself everyday~

Farewell again. Each piece is hidden with a blessing from Archangel Oracle Cards; may all the people getting the handmade bookmark a happy life!!

----------------Update on 6/30---------------------

I thought it's boring to just give out the pieces alone, so I decided to put clothes on them...literally.

In one afternoon, I sat in the cafeteria of our company, and pocketed each cloth-style bookmark into custom-made T-shirt-shaped frame which I made, decorated with the paper tapes I lent from Shirley.

The outcomes turned out great, and the farewell gifts became more memorable...at least that's what I think :P

Now, this is the real goodbye. Hope my 15 ex-coworkers can preserve my gifts for long :)

ACIL Keys & Codes in the reality

Album Link: ACIL - Keys & Codes

I've been taking the class of "A Course In Light" for years. One level led to another, I was in 7th planetary level, which I had never expected that I could reach.

The main topic of planetary 7 is keys and codes, which will be imprinted in our soul and will be activated one day when the time is right.

I love symbols, especially those with metaphor in it, and I always love to visualize things in my mind. So...why not make these "keys & codes" images into reality? That way I don't have to imagine what they are like anymore.

That's how the idea was born.

The idea was easy, but the process wasn't. I spent a weekend to picture the concept of each image and it's basic materials. However, it's not that simple to turn concepts into reality.

Some of the keys & codes are plain to design, like LOTUS and EYE; I can almost see how they are like the moment I decided how to make them.

But this was not the case for FACES and FLAME; true, I had a rough idea how to present them, but the output is just not what I expect. To make human face by origami is usual, but to make human profile by origami is insane. I tried many times to fold the eye, the nose, the mouth, but it end up with a mess, just lots of folding lines mixing together. And the FLAME is even harder, I mean...how to you make insubstantial flame out of a piece of tangible paper?

Of course, I figured them all out in the end, and hence accomplish the twelve pieces of work.

LOTUS was the first (for sure, since I fancy lotus), and CORNUCOPIA was the last (because I had to make the fruits from paper clay and color them), so you can also say it's from oneness (the meaning of LOTUS) to fruition (the meaning of CORNUCOPIA).

The twelve symbols are related to 12 chakras represented by 12 colors of light, also the main color of each work.

Here I array the "keys & codes in reality" by the bodies they correspond to; from top to bottom: Rational Body, Emotional/Perceptional Body, and Physical Body (the bottom 2 arrays).

Let's put an end to my study in ACIL planetary 7.