pen drawings

my first attempt on using pen as a medium...

tried to capture all the details, but apparently not they're not 100% captured

drew this free hand, so the proportion is slightly off, but still rather pleased with them

the both drawings took a night (each) to complete, realised that pen drawings work best when it comes to killing time.

the second one is half done, as I lost momentum (the details are crazy~)

shall complete it when I have nothing else to do:)

Btw, these are all buildings from the AEP London and Paris trip, Singapore's HDB flats would be dull and boring to draw...perhaps I could try drawing the esplanade or SAM someday~

more sketches (cat +hands)

Suddenly had the urge to sketch something, so I attempted to depict this sleeping cat which is my desktop wallpaper, it was done in sort of a rush, as I was supposed to be in bed then...thus, the quick sketch lines and slightly distorted face...

was rather bored in DSO intern's room waiting for my mentor's meeting to end, so I entertained myself by sketching my own hand (Nov 2011)

Vietnam Regional CIP

shoes outside the community hall where we sleep.

construction site~house building

semi-flooded school compound

wang~one of the many local kid who came to over to bug us

flooded rice plantations~the villagers' main source of income

many bridges were 'holey'

ready to set off to the market...by boat...

clear blue sky~

leng~a local kid whom I've grown close to over the 2 weeks...
it's our last night there...

campfire~time to say goodbye

left the village at 4am, just as the sun started to rise~

crochet cat:D

Completed these in mid-December...

took me about 14 nights to complete (with occasional breaks between)

but the pink one only took 7 nights. I suppose practice makes perfect:D

It was rather tedious and time consuming, but addictive all the same cos the cat 'grows' as you crochet.

Half-done cat...arms? legs?

all done, time to stuff and stitch it up:)

A new born ~sound asleep~

ATTENTION

it's bored being alone...shall make another one...

HI~ I'm complete:)

yay~ Love's in the air <3

Cheeky pencil cases

Made these in November 2011, but didn't have the time to upload them, until now...

They're really simple to make (with the sewing machine), but the eyes are hand-sewn (blanket-stitched) as I attached as an after thought. Originally wanted a plain, one-color case, but they looked a little dull, so added eyes (drawn on white cloth with fabric crayons) while the zips served as mouths:D

The first one (green) took me the whole afternoon as I messed up the sequence of attaching the pieces of cloth. But the subsequent few took me about 15minutes to complete:)

Gave one to my friend (to replace her seriously old pencil case) and another to Shiyun for christmas:)

The blue one 's still with me...maybe I should use it next year...

Play dough Beads

Had extra play dough after making the key chains (see earlier post) so decided to make beads for a simple bracelet. The read beads are most successful (I think) probably because red stand out more from the white.

These are really really small donuts for ear rings (as compared to my palm). It was challenging getting the details onto the tiny beads

Book Binding

Wanted to make the teachers something different this year, something useful...thought for many weeks, scanned through google search...before deciding on book binding.

It was a rather difficult and tedious work as it was my first attempt at book binding, PLUS I didn't have the right materials: used a big safety pin to poke holes in the paper, cross stitching thread and needle, used wrapping paper, construction paper and cardboard to make the cover, etc. etc. In other words, I had to make do with whatever I had. I also referred to several book binding tutorials online before I was confident enough to go about making the actual books.

My first try was a failure, with pages not in line, strings tangled...

Below is my second (more successful) attempt:

three books for three lovely teachers
~HAPPY TEACHERS' DAY~

pouch (from old shirts)

wanted to throw away two old shirts initially, until I thought of making them into this pouch...

I admit that it isn't perfect (made quite a few mistakes here and there~), but it's usable :) and white and peach goes well together :D

By the way, I've also made a dress (took me a 1.5m x 1.5m cloth + 2 days to complete) for grad night, but I'll be uploading the pics after, cos it's a bit weird to zi pai...