Making a Clay Lotus

My lotus flower with the petals supported by tissues

 

Earlier this week I had a chance to get crafty and learn how to make a lotus flower out of clay.

Leo Wong is a clay sculptor and his day job as a landscape architect so he has a lot of time to observe flowers in nature.

Wong showing us how to make petals

He taught a few of us how to make a lotus flower in a few steps (and with his help)! And he explained the difference between lotus and water lily is that the entire lotus flower is edible, while the latter is not.

First Wong told us to roll some clay into a ball, and then press it down with the palm of our hand and then roll it out until it was a few millimetres thick. 

Then using a leaf-shaped cookie cutter we cut the shape out of the clay and then placed it in a silicon mold that instantly created some lines on the petals.

The pointy end is the top of the lotus petal and we curled that part together and then made the petal more round, as those closer to the middle are more rounded than those at the outer edge.

We added "glue" or wet clay on the lily pad-shaped clay and placed each of the petals on it, slightly apart from each other. 

When that was done, it was time to do the next layer, the smaller petals placed in between the first layer. 

To finish it off, Wong put a yellow clay-shaped middle of the lotus flower in our lotus flower and added little hairs around it as decoration. He made them by pushing clay through a sieve.

The first layer of petals glued onto the lily pad

Wong explained our lotus flowers needed about a week to completely dry, after which point the clay would be thinner and then it would be glazed then fired.

Lots of fun and can't wait to see what it looks like when it's done in time for Mid-Autumn Festival!

 

Picture of the Day: Knit-bombing in Kennedy Town

Just a guy and his dinosaur hanging out at the Kennedy Town waterfront

Today Hong Kong recorded 43 new confirmed cases of coronavirus, bringing the city's total to a whopping 453, with health officials expecting many more in the coming days.

These fears have spooked people so much, that most bars around town were completely dead or shut, not wanting to be the cause of more infections.

The cutest person knitting with their friend

Meanwhile working from home (WFH), while convenient -- steps away from bed to desk -- being at home all day can be tiring. I stayed home all day yesterday, so I was determined to step outside today.

The Kennedy Town Waterfront area is a small promenade that doesn't connect to anything yet, but it's decorated by a talented knitter who has crochet some cute characters to brighten up the area.

Last year there were other creatures, but recently they have been taken down and replaced with other colourful characters.

Ok ok they aren't practicing social distancing, but you can't help but smile watching them put their arms around each other as they enjoy the view of Victoria Harbour.

Two mice sitting with flowers in their paws

I really would like to thank whoever has been doing these knit-bombing projects. They are a wonderful addition to the area and I hope more will be added.

Just a quick walk to this area is a good way to boost the spirits, have some fresh air and soak up some Vitamin D!

Getting Crafty

My completed floral creation all lit up!

Periodically my company arranges activities for us to do and with Christmas coming up, there was a class on how to make flower arrangements in a bottle.

I enjoy crafty things -- it's a nice way to not think about work for a period of time and focus on doing something fun and creative.

We invited a small company in Tsim Sha Tsui to show us how to make flower arrangements in a light bulb-shaped container.

Four of us lined up our arrangements together

First we had to pick from a series of small boxes which colour scheme we'd like that consisted of dried flowers. Some were pink, purple, turquoise and white.

From there we were each given this light bulb-shaped glass that was flat on the bottom. Water isn't used to make the flowers float in the container, but an oily, colourless liquid. We were instructed to squirt some in before taking a bit of moss and after making sure it was clean, we put it in the container.

Bit by bit we added dried flowers, small leaves, petals and so on, also adding more of the liquid in there. The instructor said some people may like to have fewer items in there, others more, but he warned too much wasn't a good idea, making it too busy.

Mine was purple, with some pink in it. I added some white flowers and some pink moss to make it more interesting. When the instructor came by, he suggested that I add a few more flowers at the top, otherwise there was nothing to see except the clear liquid.

Here are all 30 of them! Mine is the purple one on the far left

After we were all done, we filled more liquid almost to the top and added a plastic kind of cork before the instructor came by to clean the outside of each light bulb before we added a foil topping over the cork to seal it and then screw a light bulb screw at the top.

All 30 of us were done in an hour, even though an hour and a half was budgeted for the class. The best part was being given a small wooden platform with a small light emanating from the middle. We placed our creations on top and the turned off the lights so that our light bulbs glowed with the floral presentation inside.

Everyone's light bulb arrangement was different and when we put them together for a group photo, he joked that we should be able to recognize our "baby".

Before we left, we were warned not to place the arrangement near the window because it would make the flowers fade easily and that it would last for about a year. Nevertheless we all enjoyed making something beautiful for everyone to admire.

Defining Hipsters

Identical twins Gary and Alan Keery from Belfast opened Cereal Killer Cafe

One more interesting documentary I watched on the plane to keep myself awake was Peter York's Hipster Handbook by the BBC.

York is a social commentator and dressed very dapper in contrast to hipsters -- who we should point out don't like to be called that -- who wear beards, flannel shirts, no mass fashion labels, have retro looks. tattoos and scruffy hair.

The dapper host Peter York contrasts with how hipsters look

During the one-hour documentary, he tries to figure out if hipsters are a fad or trend, and how it has influenced consumerism. When it comes to their look, it is decided that hipsters may be anti-fashion label, though they do appreciate authenticity, such as old school work overalls from the 1950s, say, or leather bomber jackets that are made today but look exactly like ones from over 60 years ago.

Many men may be identified as hipsters from their beards and man-buns, but York finds out that facial hair is in fact carefully groomed and there are specialist barbers that carefully shape beards and add products to them to keep their shape or condition the facial hair.

Hipsters are also usually in the creative field, and can be found in cafes with their Mac laptops and iPhones, and they have this fascination, obsession or passion for artisan-made products, from coffee to clothing. They like knowing where what they are eating or drinking comes from, preferably locally sourced, which creates a sense of belonging to community.

A man gets his beard groomed in a specialist barber shop

York observes the word "authenticity" creeps up again and again, how hipsters don't want something manipulated, but real and true to some degree, which is why they like decor to show things like exposed brick, old school style light bulbs.

A fun shop called the Cereal Killer Cafe is filled with lots of boxes of breakfast cereals from our childhoods all lined up on the shelves and people can choose which one they want with milk they pour into a bowl themselves.

The ironic thing is that the concept of "authenticity" and "artisan" have appealed to mass market brands and they have replicated the exposed brick look and co-opted the aforementioned key words in their marketing to appeal to hipsters or hipster-wannabes.

The Mast Brothers were exposed for not so authentic chocolate

In addition there are some allegedly faux hipsters, such as the Mast Brothers, known for their beautifully packaged chocolate. They claim it is from "bean to bar", but in reality some chocolate experts claim some of their chocolate included Valrhona mixed in.

The Mast Brothers differentiated themselves not only with the nice packaging to justify pricing at US$10 a bar, but also their distinctive look with bushy beards, and how they apparently travel the world sourcing cocoa beans.

Nevertheless, York still finds it a fascinating discussion with experts about the hipster history in the United States, where African Americans claimed hipsters were cool with black music, while in England, Shoreditch is an example of a neighbourhood that was previously not cool, but became so thanks to hipsters transforming the area.

In the end York concludes that hipsters are not creators of new products per se, but "curate" them, and look for things they are willing to spend on, like quality pints of craft beer or "authentic" fashion pieces as a way to live better.

The documentary was a fascinating discussion, and now I see hipsters in a new light -- and am more aware of big business co-opting the concept of "authentic" and "artisan" with varying degrees of success.

What's the next lifestyle trend going to be?

Peter York's Hipster Handbook

BBC4

Making a Snow Globe

My snow globe complete with Santa and panda!

Periodically my company arranges social activities to do after work or on the weekends, and earlier this week there was a snow globe-making class that cost HK$130 per person for materials.

The last time I participated was when we made a leather card holder that ironically wasn't big enough to hold our name cards, but I still use it as a case for my Octopus card...

This day though was probably not as challenging in the needle department, but still demanded flexing those creativity muscles.

Some examples of design combinations by the instructors

In the boardroom was a plastic sheet covering the large table and there were flat plastic boxes filled with small items in it.

The instructors invited us to first choose the "stage" with a rubber bottom that would fit the snow globe on top. Some had a bouquet of stars, another with hearts, or baubles.

And then we were told to pick items we wanted to include in the snow globe. This was the hardest part because there were so many things to choose from! In hindsight I probably should have chosen a more timeless design, but seeing as it was December and getting close to Christmas, most of us were inspired to do a snow globe with a wintery festive scene.

It took a while to decide what to include, but then I managed to gather a number of things and then the instructors told us to arrange these small things and use blue sticky tack to temporarily stick them together.

These are only a few of the small items we could choose from!

We were given tips to put things on top of each other -- so I put my small Santa on top of a present to give him a bit of height, and same with my small Christmas tree. An instructor suggested I cover up small empty spaces by adding flowers or small hearts on the "stage".

Once this was sorted, we were given glue to stick everything together. For my Santa standing on a present, these two had to be glued together first before being glued on the stand, which required a bit more waiting time.

This was the meticulous part of the exercise, and at times I had to use tweezers to place tiny items on carefully.

Finally once these were all dried, the instructor got a glass globe, filled it with water and we were invited to choose the sprinkles that would be floating inside. She quickly took small scoops of each and swirled them in the globe. What fun!

Then my "stage" with the items glued on were inserted into the water-filled globe and secured, with more water added in through a squeeze bottle. He shook the globe vigorously several times to make sure it wasn't leaking and then it was glued onto a stand that  I had chosen earlier.

Couldn't fit the penguin (left) or the star (right) or mushrooms!

Again I waited several more minutes for the glue to set before I was done! The whole thing would be completely dried after two hours.

It's fun to shake, though I noticed that some areas where I had mistakenly left some glue exposed, the tiny snow flakes and sparkles I put in the globe have stuck on to these parts! I thought the glue had dried before it went into the globe, but perhaps not entirely.

No matter -- it was fun anyway to be able to have a creative outlet for about two hours.

Leather Craftsman for a Day

Folds were made inside with the small silver tool on the left

This afternoon I went to a company-organized workshop to learn how to make a cardholder out of leather.

The leather pieces were held together with double-sided tape

There were two shades of leather to choose from -- a tan colour and chocolate brown. I was forewarned the latter was a thicker leather and harder to work with, but it was the shade that appealed to me so I decided to grin and bear it.

All the pieces were cut out for us, though we had to make two folds in the long piece by scraping the fold on the inside of the leather with a small tool.

And then to hold the other pieces in place, typically you should use glue, but since this was a one-day workshop we used two-sided tape instead.

We made holes using a small fork and a hammer... hard work!

Once that was done, now came the hard part. With a mini pointed fork, we made holes along the edge of the cardholder by hammering it into the leather. We made lots of banging noises and it was pretty tough pushing through all the layers of leather. It was tiring to say the least! But it was good to get our aggression out.

Now came the really hard part. After choosing which thick thread to use and threading it through two needles at each end, we now had to sew the leather pieces together. We were taught to poke the needles on each side through the hole and pull the thread all the way to make stitches. This was why it was important to make good holes with the fork earlier...

Then we had to stitch the leather together using two needles

Needless to say this task not only called for strength in the fingers, but also digits that were made of steel. We poked ourselves many times, some fellow participants howling in pain with some blood surfacing too. I was not immune either and at one point even broke my needle as I tried to wriggle it through the hole using pliers. I got another needle and re-threaded the existing thread and plodded along.

I finally finished after three hours! The instructor helped with the final stitch and then cut the thread and used a lighter to melt the waxy thread together. I also embossed my initials on the inside.

My completed cardholder with embossed initials!

It wasn't after we were finishing the cardholder that the instructor told us our company's business cards were too big to fit in the cardholder! Oh well... my Octopus card fits nicely in it though...