I have to tell the truth: this whole Handmade Movement Singapore creative team member thing feels pretty good. Actually it feels awesome! It is so much fun to get together with people who love color, people who laugh a lot, and people who like to make things. (People who need to make things.)
Our first Handmade Movement Craft Party took place last Saturday in a beautiful little neighborhood right off of Haji lane. You might remember me mentioning this neighborhood here and quite possibly here. Seriously . . . Look at this view.
We held our party in a little shop house run by a group called Ecosystem. It is a community workspace creating a platform that allows organizations to have close and long-term interactions, generating a larger network of people with common interests, more business opportunities and complementary expertise for each other.
See that lovely lady peeking out through the bars? She runs a fabulous blog out of Australia. She recently moved to Singapore and joined our little get together to meet crafters about town. Check her out . . .
And look at the treats! Handmade by the sisterlings on our creative team, Aisah and Hani: goodness! The purple and polka dotted pinwheels were a take-away-gift for me. The lovely treat-makers also made those . . . They will be installed in my studio soon! Lucky, lucky!! Glitter, glitter!!
The goal of this particular craft party was to have people make quilt squares that would eventually be sewn together to create an installation. Something like this Justina Blakeney creation. And something that we would be able to install (and re-install) at our future Handmade Movement events.
We originally started this project at the big craft fair in January. I think at that time we were all thinking that it would be a standard four-sided quilt. But the more I thought about community and what it meant to come together to create something fun, the more I thought that the form and function needed to follow this theme. So sewing these quilt squares together to create something that people could get inside of seems perfect! (Once everything starts getting sewn together, I'll keep you posted about how it looks: I promise!)
During the craft party, Sing Mui Heng stopped by with some really awesome items for sale . . . They gave out little books that had patterns and sewing tips in them! The books were in a language that I could not read, but they were pretty amazing . . . They also handed out samples of thread and gave a demo on a little pop-up change purse.
It was really pretty incredible: that feeling you get when you meet with other crafters . . . Community. It was like we were in someone's living room. Just hanging out, sifting through fabric and sewing things.
I did a very short, very quick fingerweaving demonstration. What I was able to weave together in about 5 minutes, I gave to one of our team members: Fiq (quite the amazing pencilist/handletterist). She decided to wear it in her hair for the rest of the day.
Look at these fabulous designs that came out of the craft party . . . Only a few of them are featured here. I look forward to collecting more quilt squares as more events happen, and we present this project out to more of the Singapore community.
She came, she crafted . . . Who was that masked lady?
I was so overwhelmed by all of the color at our craft part that I could not focus enough on a quilt square of my own. This is totally fine, as I was able to crank out two squares during my time at the big festival in January. Sometimes this happens. Sometimes I am so incredibly taken by color that I lose all of my wits. All of them: every single one of them . . .
You see below, the giant mass of blue fabric? That's me saying to Fiq and Aisah: "Now move it around and make it look like a giant wave." It's a sheet of fabric, and we were in the middle of trying to clean up. But I wanted more . . . (I have a video of this very same moment, but it ends with Aisah's voice saying, "My arm is cramping.")
Our next event is a Creative Sharing Session focusing on community art. I can't wait to see what kind of conversation pops up! It's sure to be promising . . . For more information, keep checking back at Handmade Movement.
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