October 2018 – Page 8 – Wearable Studios

October 7, 2018November 11, 2018

Exploring Practitioners 3: Watercolour Painting – Muhammad Hazzry

I also went to observe a friend who does watercolour painting in her leisure time! She was nice enough to meet up with me, walked me through the process and let me try some watercolour painting of my own.

Tools Used:

Paintbrush
Sketchbook
Watercolour palette
Washi tape
Glass full of water
Pencils, eraser, markers.

The Process:

She started off by asking me if I have anything in mind that I wanted to paint out, but in the end we decided to use an image from the internet as reference. Some prep work was done first and she used the washi tape to create a square border. This is done so that the parameter of her painting will look neat and “clean”. She then proceeded to show me the actual painting process – always painting towards the same direction at a time.

Soon enough, I tried it out for myself. It’s definitely not as easy as it looks, as my attempts looked far from what I imagined them to look like. What I wanted to do was to paint a triangle that is solid at the base, and its colour fading as it reaches the tip. Didn’t manage to do it well.

Also I was told that I can add more paint to it to make it look more saturated, and add dab water to the painting if I want to make it look less intense – in a way diluting the paint and spreading it out.

In the end, below was what we came up with. No prizes for guessing which ones were painted by me. But if you really dont know, the green triangle was started by me and damage control-led by my friend, the blue spade, pink triangle and blue triangle were done by me. The rest were my friend’s painting.

Pain(t) Points

Water in the container turning murky very quickly, which could affect the colours that appear on the canvas. One solution to this is to use at least two glasses of water – one to wash off paint from the previous stroke, and one to prep the brush for the next stroke/ colour.
Actually bringing out the water container can be quite a hassle on its own.
The paper we painted on wasn’t the best for watercolour. She mentioned that using actual watercolour paper would be best as it would be easier to paint on.

PRO TIP: if you have a frayed paintbrush, don’t throw it away, it can still be used! Dip your brush in hot water, and it will solve itself out. Soon enough, your brush tips will return back to normal 🙂

October 7, 2018October 8, 2018

Exploring practitioners: Card making – Cassandra Lim

Worksite: work desk in room

Tools:
Paper cutting board
Ruler
Pen knife
Scissors
Coloured markers
Glue
Various decorative materials such as patterned tapes, alphabet & craft stickers, craft papers, stamps

Practice documentation:
My friend makes interactive greeting cards for special occasions. According to her, one simple A5 card with 3 faces usually takes 6 to 7 hours as she has to make each part individually before sticking them all together on the main piece, and every single piece has to be cut to precision or the interactive aspect would not turn out working.

October 7, 2018November 6, 2018

Exploring Practitioners 3: Art Therapy – Kaitlyn

Creative Practice

Art therapy: Anna is an experienced art therapist who works with the elderly. Her sessions focus on encouraging communication and thinking through art activities, during which the elderly’s sense of selves are enhanced.

Tools & equipment used

• Visual references: art books or printed cards
• Clipboard as painting or collaging surface
• Canvas: any paper
• Medium: colour pencils, crayons, oil pastels, paints, magazines and newspaper cut-outs, stickers
• Paint brushes
• Water bottle and container
• Disposable aprons

Worksite / Set-up

For twice a week, Anna would conduct art therapy sessions at an elderly centre. Other times, she would conduct therapy sessions outdoors, such as in parks or nature reserves. As she would usually need to push her clients on their wheelchairs, Anna carries all her tools and equipment in a back pack or 2 for ease of transportation.

Backpack that carries foldable storage cases of brushes and colour pencils
Backpack holding other materials

She also organises her tools and equipment neatly in foldable cases and in respective zip-lock bags to ensure extra portability.

Finding a quiet and serene area suitable for wheelchairs and a bench for Anna to sit is key for the hour-long sessions. While flat surfaces such as outdoor tables are useful for elderly who are generally mobile, Anna improvised a table for those who are wheelchair-bound using clip-boards.

Process

While participating in actual therapy sessions with the elderly was not possible due to confidentiality, Anna kindly conducted a short session with Jo-Ann, Johann and I at her place in her backyard. I suppose a subtle requirement when selecting the right therapy location is how calming it makes clients feel!

During our short half-hour session, we were given 5-minutes to work on our artwork.

1. Visual references to give us
a head start
2. Choosing desired medium: watercolour
My final artwork!

As mentioned, the goal of art therapy was to promote self-awareness and stimulate the mind, which was why Anna asked us individually about our process of creating what ended up with. (For me my stomach was not feeling well that morning; inspired by that, I decided to paint what would be a bleeding wound that was imagined to be on my abdominal area.)

Pain Points

In the past, Anna had tried to use trolley bags in place of her back packs but found the former to be inconvenient when she had to push a wheelchair. Given the nature of her work which involves a lot of bulky materials and travelling, it is important that a wearable studio for her would be able to withstand weight yet be as light as possible. Other considerations would be how it ought to be easy to clean, since the medium that clients and herself would encounter includes a messy one – paint. A convenient source of water would also be needed for painting sessions.

October 7, 2018November 11, 2018

Exploring Practitioners 2: Making moisturizers – Stephanie

Tools/materials needed:
– Small containers
– Glass rod
– Stainless steel pot
– Essential oils
– Moisturizer base

Theo started off the workshop by explaining to us where the ingredients for his products are sourced from, and some of the benefits of the different essential oils such as anti-oxidizing properties or those that can help you to sleep better!

The process first begins with customizing our moisturizer with a preferred scent using a combination of essential oils like ylang ylang, lavender, mint and rose. No more than 10 drops of essential oil should be used and they we were given a metal circular container to put them in.

Subsequently, Theo scooped a premade mix of jojoba, extra virgin coconut oil, aloe vera and glycerin which is the base for the moisturizer.

The moisturiser base is kept in the steel pot to ensure that it remains warm

Following that, we mixed the essential oils and the base with a glass rod while it was still warm to make sure that the essential oils would be fully blended together with the base before it solidifies.

Lastly, let we let the mixture cool and popped the lid on.

October 7, 2018November 11, 2018

Exploring Practitioners 2: Barista – Muhammad Hazzry

My friend works as a barista at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. He’s been working there for about a little over than a year. Throughout the whole process, I learnt quite a couple of things about how CBTL makes their drinks, which I will address later in this post 😉

Tools Used

Cashier counter
Coffee grinder
Espresso/ EB machine
Blender
Utensils and “Jug” to make drinks

The whole process starts of course, at the cashier, where customers order their drinks/ food and make payment.

He then proceeds to the coffee grinder machine, where the machine grinds coffee on the spot and the barista has to manually press the coffee. This is one of the things that I learnt – CBTL grinds coffee on the spot, while Starbucks has their coffee already pre-grinded. Pretty interesting, if you ask me.

Coffee grinder. Coffee dispensed is pressed manually with the thing he’s holding on his right hand

Then he moves on to the big red machine, which is called the Espresso Machine. What the machine does is to dispense hot water and to extract the coffee/ tea, and is used to specifically make espresso shots and tea lattes. A different machine is used for other types of coffees, which will be covered in a bit.

Another thing I learnt was that CBTL uses tea leaves for their flavourings and

Frothing milk
Pouring the milk out

And finally, when the drink is prepared, it is served on this counter here!

BONUS TOOLS!!!!

Machine for nitro cold brew coffee or carbonated tea
(Someone help me with WordPress’ formatting PLZ)

Pain points

Initially he didn’t have much pain points to tell me because everything is pretty much automated, and the machines that he uses makes the barista-work easier. However, he did say that one thing that can be improved on was their system of washing utensils that they use to make drinks. Currently, when they are not making any orders, they soak the utensils in a jug full of hot water. This means that they often have to change the water in the jug, which can be a hassle especially when there are many orders to make (another pain point!). The same problem persist for the blenders.

That metal jug slightly to the left of the center holds the utensils.
(sorry for the poor picture quality)

Also, their workstation can get quite messy when there are many orders to make.

October 7, 2018November 11, 2018

Exploring Practitioners 1: Tattoo Artist – Reyna Corrales

My friend is a tattoo artist and I went over to his studio to find out more about the process. For obvious reasons, I was not able to try out the practice but could just observe.

Tools

• Illustration methods
• Special stencil paper
• Tattoo machines
• Needles
• Ink
• Gloves

Tattoo machine
Ink
Needles

Worksite

The usual worksite for tattoo artists is at a tattoo studio. The studio that I went to had an artistic vibe, with lots of paintings and designs everywhere. Although the space did feel a bit stuffy and can get a bit intimidating with the loud buzzing sounds. When it came to tattooing, I found out that one of the critical factors is actually hygiene. It is important for both the environment and equipment used to be sterile.

Process

The process is quite straightforward. Once the customer has selected their tattoo design, the stencil will be printed on a special paper. This stencil will be transferred onto the skin, coming off as a blue-purple temporary ink.

Before the actual inking, the artist has to wear gloves and single-use needles are used as well. There are different types of needles which will be attached to the tattoo machine. Each needle has different functions ranging from lining, shading and colour packing. The ink is placed in little ink caps and there’s also vaseline to help moisture and allow the needle to slide along the skin much more easily.

Once the inking is done for several hours, the body part will be wrapped with some form of wrap/bandage to avoid any infection.

Thoughts

From an observer’s point of view, it might have looked simple for something so permanent on your skin. However, it required focus and consistency especially when you’re inking for hours. As for the tools, there are a wide variety but they are portable and may be used in different environments. However, hygiene might be an issue as behind the scenes, a lot of importance is placed in ensuring that the equipment used is clean and sterile.

October 7, 2018November 6, 2018

Exploring Practitioners 2: Lei Weaving – Kaitlyn

Creative Practice

Ke-Ting Chen’s work, *Queen of Collectors*

Ke-Ting Chen is a Taiwanese plant pathologist and artist whose residency with Jalan Besar Salon 2018 featured lei weaving artworks that intertwined with selected research documents. Collectively, the series of talks and workshops will showcase his work with the indigenous communities and farm sash where he explored the effects of human intervention on these natural resources.

Tools & equipment used

• Fresh and dried botanicals specimens
• Weaving ropes of variable thickness
• Cutters or scissors
• Mats or trays
• A pair of hands!

Weaving ropes of variable thickness
Cutter
Mats or trays with flowers and leaves

Worksite / Set-up

Chen picked up lei weaving from aboriginal tribes of Taiwan; they would typically weave head or body wreathes in open spaces surrounded by natural environments, such as in indigenous villages and farms. Here in the city, his weaving workshop was conducted within a retail store, where participants would sit on the floor around tables and the experience turned out to be quite and intimate!

Retail store of Emporium of the Modern Man (EoMM)

While handy leaves and flowers were prepared on trays for later use, a corner in his 3-week worksite is dedicated to a larger variety of plant and flower specimens, which were also part of his botanical installations.

Chen’s Kombucha displayed with his collection of local flowers and plants
Research specimens from his botanical detective workshop
Local plants and flowers collected by Chen over 3 weeks

Process

We were taught one of the simpler forms of lei weaving: using braids.

1 mat and 3 weaving ropes per participant
1. Braid the ropes to about 5 – 10cm

Before we started to weave flowers into our ropes, Chen advised us to map out how we wanted our final wreathe to look, on the mats/trays given to us.

I really liked the purple leaves and thought I would add yellow and red flowers as a pop of colour.

2. Visualising how my neck wreathe would look like
2. Visualising how my neck wreathe would look like

Time for weaving!

3. Weaving in dried and fresh leaves and flowers
Made a whole lot of mess 🙁

2 hours and a whole lot of patience later…

Pain Points

It was really difficult to braid dried stems into the sash because they’re very brittle and rigid; I had to replace them multiple times whenever they would break away. Chen later mentioned the trick was to soften them before braiding by spraying some water on them; I wished he would have told me that earlier!

October 7, 2018November 11, 2018

Cultural Probe: Design and Findings – Allison Kapps

My cultural probe was based on a practitioner that was a chef.

I created a cultural prove that was simple and easy to engage with because it seemed like a lot of the people I wanted to engage were very busy. I create activities that would combine probes into the personality of an individual, their preconceived notions, and their distinct preferences. I asked three people to partake in my probe concepts, one of which was an avid cook. I could not probe the original practitioner since they were not in the country, so I found a replacement I felt could be similar.

Contents

The activities were provided to participants in person, but they were given privacy and little to no guidance as they were completing them.

Probe 1

I used three exercises, one of which was based on Denise Anderson’s exercise for building a personal brand, whereby participants are asked to select 10 words that they feel succinctly describe who they are. This part of the probe was meant to get a good understanding of who the participant is, as well as provide insight into their behaviours.

Probe 2

The second probe was some space delegated to the participant for writing down their favourite recipe. This was cultural probe meant to focus on a who taught me to cook; a chef. As such, this part of the activity was meant to force participants to reflect on what they favourite type of thing to make is, which is different than simply a favourite type of food. The experience of being a chef is limited to how well and what a person can cook. For this reason, I wanted to make participants write down only what they could cook themselves, and so they had to remember their favourite recipe.

Probe 3

The third probe was an easy and fun activity, where participants had to colour in parts of the world they felt had the best food. I had participants do this last so that their reflections here would not influence their decision for their favourite recipe to make. Here, participants had to reflect on where they felt the best food was from. They could base this on their previous experiences, or just on the preconceived notions, they had in any circumstances. Their preferences would provide some insight into the type of food they preferred.

Conclusions

It seemed that for some participants, the types of recipes that they selected for their favourite tended to come from places that they felt had the best food. While for others, they perhaps felt there was only one dish that they liked and it did not necessarily come from any place in the world they felt had the best food. One girl indicated that she liked cooking a lentil-leek curry, an Indian dish, but she did not pick India as being a place with the best food.

Image result for lentil leek soup — https://www.thisisyourcookbook.com/recipe/leek-and-lentil-soup

October 7, 2018March 3, 2019

Exploring Practitioners 2: Handicraft Making – Jhnn Ymn

I had the chance to meet with a practitioner who is really passionate about making small craft items, from hand-woven cozies to clay sculpting and miniature figure making. As such, the tools used were wide and varying. Some of the tools I captured were as follows —

Tools:

Clay
Sculpting tools
Brushes
Moulds
Different coloured thread
Weaving patterns
Tape
Scissors
Penknife
Glue

Since I had no experience with these crafts, we decided to start with a more simple craft — cozies for customising pens. Because of the small size of these crafts, a simple table would function as worksite.

Worksite — Crafts table

She began by demonstrating to me one personalised pen cozy she was already working on, with her friend’s name on it. First, she cut out sections of coloured thread to be interwoven with black thread.

By looping black thread around a section of a pen covered in double sided tape, she was then able interweaving pieces of differently coloured thread together. The pattern within which they would be interwoven would be based on the existing weaving pattern samples provided on a piece of paper.

Once she was done with one iteration, she let me try completing the rest of the letters. While I fumbled at first and had to refer to the samples provided a lot, I was able to get the hang of it in the end.

The final step to sealing the cozy up was to apply some glue and wind the sticky thread around the pen and leave it to dry. Unfortunately, my handling of the glue was rather poor and it left some marks on the final product.

Some of the difficulties faced were as follows —

Many implements and tools needed, such as scissors, penknife, glue, string, tape, pens.
One required a place to store all these items.
A classification system would be needed as well.

October 7, 2018November 6, 2018

Cultural Probe: Design and Findings – Chia Li Hui

Design probe (concept):

In the first documentation, I approached a practitioner that was making homemade snow skin mooncakes. To facilitate the kneading process, I came out with the design below. It is actually an automated heat-resistant machine hand that is used to mix the food colouring with the dough. This will avoid the dough to become sticky due to the heat transfer from your bare hands. Also, there is a switch that allows you to set the machine hand into automatic mode and the glove will knead the dough on its own. You can also control the speed of the kneading. Lastly, the height of the stand is adjustable. This will allow the glove to be set at a height that the practitioner is comfortable with. The whole purpose of this glove is to reduce the work of kneading and to refrain the dough from becoming too soft and sticky.

Instructions:

Based on what you see, determine how it can help in your mooncake making process.

First person:

First thoughts:

Automated hand-shaped kneading tool
Adjustable height
Different levels of kneading speed
Heat resistant to prevent dough from becoming too sticky

Pros:

Reduce the amount of work needed to knead the dough
As many newbies face the problem of the dough becoming too sticky due to body heat, the heat resistant tool helps them a lot

Cons:

May not be able to get the preferred dough consistency as compared to kneading with real hands
Don’t think that it is possible to wash it since it is an electronic appliance -> Hygiene issues

Questions:

Will be battery operated or does it require the appliance to be plugged into a power socket? Personally, I think battery operated would be better as the cables that connect to the power socket may get tangled up with the tool.

Second Person:

First thoughts:

Is a glove that requires users to put their hands inside
The glove can help control the temperature when kneading

Pros:

It helps the user a lot as there is no need for him/her to use his/her muscles when kneading the dough

Cons:

Usually when you touch the dough, you should know when it is ready. However, this is automated, so you will not be able to feel the dough. Therefore, you do not know when will the dough be ready.

Suggestions:

The automated hand should be bigger so that it can knead even faster.

Third Person (Original Practitioner):

First thoughts:

At first glance, she does not know how to use it in her practice.
User fiddled with it for a while before asking what the purpose of it is.

Pros:

If it works well as what it assumes to be, it will save a lot of time and energy in the preparation process.

Cons:

Kneading is not just one fixed motion; The dough may not mix well if it is automated.
The machine can’t tell you whether it is sticky enough or not, it still requires manual work in testing it.

Questions:

Is there other way to set more motions? Kneading also includes squeezing and massaging the dough, is there a way to set the automated hand to do them as well?
Do you pre-set the time for the automated hand to work? Is there like a timer?