Laser Leather Heaven

Feeling more confident with the ol’ laser, I got down to Sham Shui Po, the gold mine of craft supplies, and found myself an absolute leather-trove…

Having so much choice of colour, size and finish, I eventually bought some amazing gold leather, grey and pastel pink suede.

(Even beautifully packaged)

I’d already spent a few days playing around with shapes and cut-outs on Illustrator – also influenced by the geometric perforations I’d been designing for metal panels at my day job – so I developed a design for a simple bag. I loved the idea of cut-outs in the front flap revealing a different colour of the bag underneath.

I took a risk and printed my leather- unaccompanied for the first time – and not even a test swatch to start with…

Half an hour later I had perfect panels of a bag, printed and etched, and smelling horribly of burnt leather. I was so excited!

Since I’d rushed my artwork, the stitching holes were only engraved, not cut, so I had to pierce each before stitching it up – quite a long task. Once pierced, I lined up the panels and stitched the bag together, with the traditional leather-stitching technique I’d learnt a few months back at a workshop in Shek Kip Mei… 2 needles at a time (pretty high risk stuff for someone who has had a needle surgically removed from their toe).

Here’s the result: a clutch bag with gold leather and grey suede front panel, laser engraved with hexagonal detail and Maid In China logo on the back. Pretty in love with the result.

Happily taking orders, just contact me 🙂

Fast forward four months…

I’ve been making.

So much making that I’ve not been typing. But, here’s a rundown of what I’ve been doing since the last post:
– Got a job! Was working 2 days a week, now working 3 days a week (mainly writing copy so typing copy for the blog has been largely neglected..)
– Went to Philippines – pretty nice
– Visited home for Christmas
– Went out one night and stayed up til 4am. I know right.

Anyway, back to busy-ness.

I’ve been making with the help of a joyful laser-cutter. Before Christmas I’d been developing a wave dish rack as a Christmas present, and here’s the result…

A mixture of translucent blue and solid white acrylic makes for quite a cool effect. It worked perhaps even better than I’d imagined.

I even made a few small letter racks from the off-cuts…

Having access to a laser cutter is just an absolute joy. Think of an idea, play around on illustrator and later that same day you can have a whole new product. Here are some of the other gifts I whipped up with my trusty laser beam…

Finding a 12mm rod in a haystack

After my initial trepidation of the hectic stalls, local shops and fruit & veg markets of Hong Kong, I’ve got a new love for the unique shopping here.

I love all the varied stalls and shops selling the weird and wonderful and even if the owner speaks no English at all, it is always possible to communicate just enough to get what you need.

It’s still not always easy to know where to go for specific craft supplies in a new city and I was dreading the traipse around various districts trying to Google-Maps my way to exactly what I needed. On this occasion what I needed was some 12mm dowel, but who knows how to acquire such things without a nearby B&Q? I was aimlessly wandering the smaller back streets thinking about finding some lunch (noodles maybe), when I stumbled upon a small road with a huge pile of various timber on the other side. Just by chance, exactly what I had hoped to find! This open-fronted shop seemed to sell any and all wood that you might be in the market for- planks, sheets, strips and, indeed, circular rods. Gesturing (always) at what I needed, the man nodded and climbed up a ladder into the top level of his wooden world. He emerged a few minutes later with the exact piece of 12mm dowel that I needed, and then happily cut it for me into 1ft pieces. I paid my $34 (£3.40) and waved goodbye.

For the rest of the afternoon I walked around and just appreciated every back street full of interesting shops and specialties. The stalls that make intricate hand-cut jade stamps, calligraphy sets, key cutters and shoe menders… I wished I needed to use each of them for something!

In a city where things can feel so exhausting, and making physical products from vague ideas can seem so difficult, there are so many amazing things here, I realised you just need to be looking in the right places. And if you’re in the wrong place, there’s still inspiration all over these back streets- from the singage, to chock-a-block shops and wall art…

Nice waves eh?

Back at the ‘office’ I have used that inspiration, and magical dowel, to piece together my first working model of a ‘wave’ dish dryer. It fit like a dream into my laser cut pieces and I was so grateful for stumbling across Sun Fung Timber Co.

Isn’t it nice when things are easy?

A package of excitment

Yesterday I was miserable. One of those days: 8 angry mosquito bites, another lonely lunch break, 1 million degrees of humidity outside and no internet at home…

But today I received a most excellent delivery. I’d been arguing with the courier company for a few days as they claimed not to be able to call non-HK numbers and they couldn’t attempt delivery without calling ahead bla bla bla… About an hour of online customer service chat later and I was feeling sure it would be sent back to the depot and certainly not arrive until after the weekend… When there was a friendly knock at the door!

I didn’t even mind that I had to pay an extra 90HKD (£9) for the ‘remote area surcharge’ (I mean I live in the ‘central’, surely the clue is in the name there..?)

So, after over a month of tweaking the designs and then another of waiting impatiently, finally my new samples are here!

My  joyful delivery contained:

• An updated carousel stand with twisted metal posts, a smaller frame and a spinning base…

• And my newest design, the Tiger Toast Rack!

I’m hoping version 2 will include more etched detail as below. But whether that is possible is yet to be seen…

Still a way to go but today is good!

Do some{one}thing

 

I’ve been struggling with time.

Changing your routine in every single way is rather bizarre. Suddenly I don’t have to get out of bed at 7. I don’t have to commute for hours to get to work (not until Monday anyway). I don’t get one hour for lunch; I can have the whole damn day. I don’t get back home late, and I don’t even have to cook, as it’s just as cheap/expensive to go out for diner every night.
I’m absolutely not complaining but this freedom of time is terrifying! I’m constantly thinking, ‘why do I have spare time, surely I should be busy for every precious minute…’

It reminded me of ‘About A Boy’ and the lessons from {Hugh Grant} about the importance of being ‘your own activities director’.

Without a job he told us ‘The key is to think of a day as units of time, each unit consisting of no more than thirty minutes. Full hours can be a little bit intimidating and most activities take about half an hour. Watching countdown: one unit.”

So I gave this a go! But unlike Countdown, life’s activities don’t seem to fit nicely within the allotted 30 minute windows. One unit at the gym feels like an eternity, whereas 4 units were accidentally consumed researching a windsurfing get-away for the weekend. (And these plans have now been thwarted by an incoming typhoon. Typical.)

My struggle with time has probably been highlighted because of the perfect lack of distraction that comes from working at home. I don’t have colleagues to chat to at any time of the day. I cant even bother friends back home until about 5pm, when they will finally be settled into their morning at work…{and probably too busy to chat}

Unlike hostel-life, serviced apartments aren’t great for meeting new people… so I am yet to get a crazy new social life.
Just as well then that my phone’s Whatsapp activity has been keeping me busy nonetheless! Whatsapp seems to be used for every kind of business communication here- from estate agents, to potential new bosses, to the internet installation companies. It’s great but takes some getting used to. Can you imagine Whatsapping Virgin Media to get fibre broadband fitted..? (One unit of back and forth chit-chat)

So I haven’t yet made any new friends to take me away from my studious days indoors… but I do have about 15 new Whatsapp contacts!

Right now, staying busy is all down to the whim of creative inspiration, which can arrive or desert at any time- with absolutely no regard for scheduled time slots. So some days I make/write/think so many things I feel totally inspired. And others I struggle to achieve a.single.productive.thing.
But like this ‘inspirational journal’ says, achieving just one thing a day is something. Even excessive mobile-messaging with high-speed internet providers is useful in the long run…

I guess soon enough this will be a ridiculous problem- ‘too much time! Ha’!

And for now, I will just keep doing something. And if you’re reading this, thank you for using half a unit of your day…

 

Inspiration from up high

 

On Saturday we went exploring. After a long week in the city we went to escape and find some greenery on Hong Kong’s largest island, Lantau. We had read the best way to get to the summit was by the scenic cable car. From the wait below, it seemed like the longest cable car I’ve ever seen, disappearing around and over the green hills. The views didn’t disappoint as it took us across the water and up over the mountain until we reached the Ngong Ping plateau half an hour later. Below you could see hikers making the steep trek on foot! (Maybe next time?)

I love cable cars, and when we reached the summit it became clear how much tourists here do too. So. Many. Themed. Souvenirs. Which was amazing to me, as one of my favourite University projects involved miniature Cable Cars that clipped onto wires and cables around the home; the idea being that once the cable cars were in place they would transform ugly wires. The journey from a plug to an appliance became a tiny tourist attraction, creating a whimsical, miniature world out of something usually so mundane. I loved the idea but it never became viable to make and sell, so I’d left it alone for the last 5 years.

But here, the souvenir shops sold t-shirts, models, keyrings, magnets… all with cable car motifs! It was hilarious and also pretty inspiring… None of the licensed products were ‘clever’ but there was just something nice about these little carriages that carry people up into the hills.

So this visit was not only the best day out (we explored the Big Buddha, the Wisdom Trial and the beautiful Chang ha beach), but it’s also re-ignited one of my first product ideas, and I’ve had a new thought that might just make it more commercial… {Watchthisspace}

Feeling flat – without a flat

There are certainly highs and lows to house hunting in this city. The highs have taken me to the 23^rd floor, amazing views of the sea, newly furbished apartments with swimming pools and terraces.

The lows have mainly involved the revelation of $$$ price tags or otherwise sights like this…

But before I take this whole ‘hunt’ too seriously, I’m going to try and appreciate this great way to see the city…

My favourite viewing was being shown around 5 different flats, while our agent, I’d guess in her 50’s, swiped away at her phone to catch Pokemon. It made the depressingly empty building we were viewing irrelevant as she caught a Golbat and giggled that she’d made it to Level 28 (I hear in Pokemon gaming circles that’s, like, amazing). So, not a wasted visit eh!?

Amusingly, but I suppose unsurprisingly, everyone is ecstatic to hear that I’m dating an accountant! Being a designer hasn’t really been acknowledged as a career, so now I skip my job, drop in the chartered-accountancy-partner and wait for the accolades. It’s an amusing turn around from East London, where people don’t exactly regard the profession with such film-star excitement…

So for now, we are flatless, and I’m a little flat. But thank God I’m dating an accountant.

Moving in and [freaking out] making plans

So, I am living in Hong Kong. I’ve been here for 3 days and I can’t tell if everything is absolutely bizarre or already totally normal.

After the initial day of ‘what should I be doing with my time??’, ‘I’m so lonely!!’, ‘Outside seems terrifying, maybe I can just stay indoors and no-one would know?!’ …I feel like I’ve started to get it together.

Since then I’ve set up 2 flat viewings, arranged a job interview, learnt some new Photoshop skills, made a website (ta da) and jumped around a bit in the gym. I even ventured out for lunch and casually found loads of monkeys, just hanging around at the Botanical Gardens.

There are plenty of things I’m not yet ‘used to’. Like the instant sweatiness on leaving the flat- I just don’t have enough clothes to change 3 times a day!
Or that the streets make Oxford Street seem quiet and empty. So. Many. People.
And desperately wanting to get some authentic Chinese cuisine, but just not feeling confident enough to figure out what anything is or how I order it. Yet!

But, for week number 1, I feel like it’s gone OK. I’ve found that you can buy pretty much absolutely everything you could want (including M&S ready meals- not that I do). I’ve unpacked my things and I certainly have enough stationery to inspire me. So here’s to making lists, planning some goals and doing cool sh*t.