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THE WORKROOM
25 LOR KILAT 02-04 SINGAPORE 598126
5min walk from Beauty World MRT, Exit B
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Notebooks are one of the many things I find myself to be hoarding much too often - particularly Muji notebooks. More often than not, I simply can’t tell my notebooks apart! Now that school is starting soon, I’m probably going to stock up on that stuff ( and so will everyone else ), so here’s a little DIY series that you can use to jazz up your notebooks ! ( I find this DIY particularly useful for customising Literature books since everyone literally owns the same book )
Materials you'll need:
Lets get started !
I didn't have a big enough piece of fabric lying around for this DIY, but if you'd like to have different patterns on the front and back of your book cover, simply substitute one of the fabric pieces for a different patterned fabric and follow these steps !
First, you want to lay your fabric pieces “RIGHT” SIDES TOGETHER. The “right” side of the fabric is the side with the pattern ( if your fabric is patterned) or the side with more vibrant colour ! Next, backstitch in a straight line down to join the two pieces together. Once you've done that, flip it over and you can iron down the seam if you want a more crisp finish !
Positioning your book
Lay your book down on the wrong side of the fabric, and adjust it such that the seam is lying on edge of the front cover, along the spine of the book.
Now, take a marker and mark out the corners of the book on the wrong side of the fabric. This will help us decide where to fold in the fabric to create the “sleeve” to slot in the book covers.
Stitching up the sleeve
Here’s where things start to get a tad tricky. To create the sleeve, we have to fold in the borders of the fabric and stitch it down using an invisible stitch.
First, fold up the border of the fabric following the markings that you’ve marked out previously as seen in the pictures above.
Once you've done that, its time to do the invisible stitch ! First, insert the needle through the inner flap of the fabric, so your knot doesn’t show, giving this a cleaner finish ! Next you want to start stitching in a zig zag motion. It’s similar to lacing up your shoelaces, except instead of having prepunched eyelets to thread your laces through, you pierce through with your needle. Once you've stitched through this side, stitch up the remaining 3 sides !
Quick tip : This step can be quite a bit of a hassle, so you can opt to just use fabric glue ! It wouldn't hold as well, but it’s a great option if this step is confusing.
Assembling your book cover
Now that you're done stitching, simply just slot in your book as seen in the pictures above, and you're done !
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If you have some left over felt from pervious DIY projects, this is another great way for you to use it all up! You can make your felt pouch in any shape or size you want, but i’d recommend staying away from making too big a pouch - they tend to flop a bit if its a bit bigger!
Some materials you’ll need:
Cutting out your pattern pieces
The first thing you want to do is to decide the shape and size of the pouch you want! I decided on making a semi- circle shaped pouch, and on the rough paper I drew out the preferred shape and size of my pouch and cut it out. Next, for the back piece, trace the front pattern piece you just cut out, and add a flap like extension at the top! Cut that out too, and now you're ready to transfer that to your felt.
Lay your patten pieces on the felt, and using the marker, trace out your pattern pieces and cut them out.
Assembling the pouch
Lay the two pieces right sides together, with the side with marker marks facing you, and using a backstitch, sew along the edges of the pouch.
Next, trim off any access on the flap as seen in the photos, to allow the flap to fall nicely on the front of the pouch. Now gently turn your pouch inside out, pushing out the edges GENTLY with your fingers.
At this point, you can choose to add a snap button to secure the flap down, or you can simply just add a little “belt’ to the front of the pouch for your flap to slip through! To do this, I cut a thin rectangle from the leftover felt I had, and stitched it down to the front of the pouch neatly.
And you’re done !! Its a quick DIY that you can do at home just to sort out your stuffs in your bag. I tend to use small pouches like this to store hair ties or earpieces, and it is quite the handy organising trick to have!
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Heat embossing may sound like an intimidating craft to try, but it’s actually not as tough as it sounds! It’s great for personalising non-porous items as the embossing powder melts onto the surface as it is heated, making it rather permanent ( and great for gifts ) . So, let’s get started!
Materials you'll need:
Prepping your cup
The first thing you want to do is wash and dry your cup thoroughly ! Any oil or sweat stains from your hands will potentially cause the embossing powder to cluster at random places rather than just at your design. So try your best not to touch the cup AT ALL. This way you minimise any "cleaning up" work with your brush !
Making your design
The embossing pen "ink" is a type of glue that is slow drying, so when you pour embossing powder over it, it sticks to the glue-y portions ! The only problem is that most embossing pens are clear D: So that means for surfaces like glass, it's a tad bit difficult to see what you've written. Unless you can get your hands on Rangers black and white embossing pens, here is a little trick I use !
Practice your design ( to scale ) on some random scrap paper in DARK INK. Then cut it out, and paste it on the inside of the cup where you want your design to be with some tape. Now, when you trace over your design with your pen, the dark ink allows for a bit more visibility for the glossy embossing "ink".
Quick trick: I find that the embossing pens by ZIG work better on only porous surfaces, while Ranger is generally good for all surfaces ( and cheaper too ).
Get embossing !
The embossing process needs to be done quick, before the glue dries. So lay out everything first. Open the embossing powder cap, prepare your brush and plug in your heat gun.
After tracing over your design, pour the embossing powder over the design, making sure to cover the whole design.
Next, firmly tap off the rest of the powder onto the big piece of paper ( you can recycle the powder later by bending the paper and pouring the powder back into the container). The powder should cling to your design, and probably to other random areas too. So to remove those, grab a brush and just brush away the excess powder around your design!
Quick trick : Don't worry if you feel there's too little powder on your design - the powder melts and might spread! If it's still too little even after heating, just go over the design again with your pen when it's cooled and repeat the process.
Heating the design
This is probably the most insta-worthy and magical part of the whole process! Simply turn on your heat gun and hold it 1-2 inches above your design and start heating!! You'll know when to stop heating when the design turns reflective.
Quick trick: Be careful not to overheat your design ! When overheated, the design starts to bubble which can look a bit funky!
And there you have it ! Your very own embossed monogrammed cup <3
]]>Getting fresh flowers can be expensive sometimes, and they don't last that long either. So here’s a nifty little tutorial to create your very own crepe paper flowers that last forever! These make amazing gifts if you can make a whole bouquet of them, and you can even try making different kinds of flowers once you get the basics down !
Some materials you'll need :
Drawing the petals
Different species of flowers look different from each other because of the shape of each individual petal and the arrangement of the petals.
Here, we are doing a simple rose like flower, which has a fat teardrop petal shape. Above are the templates that you can use to gauge the rough shape of the petal, and determine how many of each petal size you need to cut !
Now, cut away a section of your crepe paper, unravel it, and let’s get drawing!
Cutting and prepping the petals
Once you’ve finished drawing out the petals, cut them out. Using a small length of crepe paper, cut out a fringe like piece ( for the middle of the flower ) as seen in the picture !
After you've cut out your petals, you want to stretch the petal gently. Using the pad of both thumbs, gently stretch out the crepe paper from the center out. You should get a more cupped petal shape after you've done that !
Next, to make the petal more “ cup like ”, create a little triangular fold in the base of the petal, or like me, you can just squish the paper a tiny bit to create some depth.
Assembling the flower
First, take your florist wire and bend down the top as seen in the photos above. After sticking on some double sided tape, wrap the fringe like piece around it, and attach the end of the fringe piece with more tape.
Next, place a piece of tape on the base of the fringe, and stick on your first petal ( the smallest one ) , wrapping the petal around the base.
Place the sticky tape again, and this time when sticking the petal, make sure that the widest part of the petal touches the HALFWAY point of the previous petal you stuck down! This creates the overlapping rose effect. Repeat this for the rest of the petals, working from smallest to biggest, and you’ve got yourself a gorgeous crepe paper flower !!!
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I love the aesthetic of the embroidered iron-on patch! Once you get the hang of using a backstitch, making your own iron-on patch is super, super simple!
Some materials you might need:
Let's Get Stitching!
In this project, we’ll just be sewing outlines of shapes using the backstitch, which gives a more graphic feel to the patch. Here are some graphic ideas you can use for your own patch making:
To start off, simply draw out the design you'd like on the felt, and cut your design out, leaving about an inch width border around your design. This gives you something to hold on to when you stitch, so you don't accidentally warp your felt. You can also choose not to cut out the felt, but I just find it easier to handle when it's cut out.
Now using a backstitch, sew along the pencil lines.
And you've done it! You’ve created your own patch!!! You can choose to purchase iron on interfacing from any fabric store to fix your felt piece to your clothing, or you can stitch it on directly. Here, I stitched mine into my denim jacket <3 Nice?
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If you have siblings ( like me ), you’ll definitely understand that struggle of having the same things as your brother/sister, and not being able to differentiate which is yours D: To resolve this, I often embroidered my name on my fabric items (drawstring bags, towels, handkerchiefs)! Of course, you could just take a sharpie and write your name on the item, but if you have time, why not try out embroidery?
Some materials you’ll need :
Let's Start Embroidering !
First, you want to probably practice the letters you want to embroider! Below is a little exemplar you can use to try out fancy alphabets, but if you've attended our modern calligraphy classes, YAY ! Here’s another fantastic way you can use your newfound skill ;)
Once you've practised, it's time for you to transfer it to your fabric item. Using a pencil, write your name/ initials on the bag with the pencil.
Quick trick: Instead of a pencil, you can use a friction pen, and simple iron over your design when you're done sewing. The ink should disappear! ( That’s why it's banned in exams, heat causes the ink to fade ! )
Once you’ve done that, it's time to start stitching! First, separate the 6-stringed embroidery floss into 2-string portions. Next, using a backstitch as seen in the photos, (check out our blog post on making a drawstring bag to see how it's done) stitch along the pencil marks with 1-2mm length stitches.
Finish stitching along the pencil marks and you're done!
You can do this for handkerchiefs, tote bags, or on any fabric-based material!
Happy sewing!
]]>Do you ever get the feeling of frustration after wriggling out one or two editions of Frankie from your tightly packed collection and suddenly the whole row just slumps to one side? Sadly, this happens to me regularly, and that’s when I realised I should probably get some book organisers ! Sure you can get book organisers from your nearest popular bookstore, but what’s the fun in keeping artsy magazines in boring black ( or white ) book organisers? Make your bookshelf uniquely yours by customising your book organisers and jazz up your bookshelf !
Some materials you'll need :
Prepping your cereal box
First, you want to measure out a 20cm tall and a 12cm wide triangle on the face of the cereal box as seen in the photos above. Repeat the same on the other face of the box, and cut along the line with your penknife or scissors. You should now get a book organiser shaped box !
Tracing the shape of your organiser
Tape up the sides of the box with double sided tape, and lay your box flat against your paper and trace out the shape of each panel of the box, leaving about a 15cm gap from the base of your box to the base of the paper, and a 5cm wide flap from the end of the last panel. This forms your “ box pattern piece “ After that, trace a ruler’s width border around your pattern piece.
You should end up with something like this ! Next, cut out your pattern piece, following the line that your just drew.
Get decorating !
I flipped my paper around, and added some floral designs to my paper to fit my bookshelf aesthetic!
Wrapping your Box
If you’re using patterned wrapping paper you can just skip straight to this step ! Now we’re going to wrap the wrapping paper around our box. Peel off all the double sided tape, align your box with the lines that you drew, and slowly “ roll” your box along the paper. Remember to press each individual faces to the paper so that the paper sticks well ! When you've reached the end of the rolling, fold the little extra 5cm flap in half, add on some tape and secure that down.
You'll realise that you have excess paper at the bottom of the box, so just wrap that up like how you'd wrap up the sides of a boxy present!
Tucking in the ends of the box
Now all that’s left is tucking in the width allowance into the box! To do that, cut slits along the corners of the paper, and add some tape to the edges as seen in the photo, and fold in the excess.
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LET'S GET STAMPING ( PART I ) : GET STAMPING !
It seems like everyone has the SAME THINGS nowadays, so why not customise your own things? It may seem daunting, especially if you identify yourself as having no “artistic genes”. BUT NO, customising is all about making something uniquely yours.
My all time favourite way of customising my own things are through stamps and embroidery (part III of this series of posts, stay tuned). Stamps are great for so many things, you can get them from any scrapbooking or craft store, and even carve them on your own! Here are my 3 favourite ways to use stamps ...
Some materials you’ll need:
Notebooks
If you're a MUJI notebook hoarder, you'll realise all your notebooks look the same. What better way to differentiate them than this! The great thing about stamps are that you can either stamp it once and make a “centrepiece" sort of aesthetic, or you could stamp it repeatedly so it looks like a pattern. For this, I'm using my “good mood sponsored by coffee" stamp that I carved, and some black ink for my daily to-do-list notebook !
TIP: Stamp your notebooks with an image that reflects the contents of the book! This really helps with organising your things and not accidentally bring the wrong notebook out as I'm often guilty of doing D:
When choosing an ink pad, the ones with a raised ink sponge are the best! Why? Because the best way to ink your stamp is to place your stamp face up and dab the ink on the stamp with the ink pad as seen in the pictures rather than the other way round. This actually helps you to control the amount of ink you put on your stamp, and for the more adventurous ones out there, to help create a gradient effect with different coloured ink pads.
TIP: When printing your stamp, aim to apply EVEN PRESSURE on your stamp to make sure all the ink transfers onto the paper.
Tote bag / stamping on fabric
I’m sure most are familiar with the MUJI tote bag stamping station! In fact, you can do the exact same thing with your own store-bought or handmade stamps. Before stamping, iron the bag or fabric to have an even surface to stamp on. Hey! You can use your newly stamped fabric to try out our previous drawstring bag tutorial with your very own patterned fabric.
For fabrics and tote-bags, tiling the stamp to create a pattern often results in a more aesthetically pleasing result, especially if your stamp is tiny! Here I used an assortment of gem stamps I carved to create this little gem patterned fabric.
TIP: If you're comfortable with drawing, something I like to do is draw the object meant to be stored inside the drawstring pouches on the fabric of the pouch! For this, I find that the ZIG Fabricolour is the best for a smooth fabric surface.
Making your own wrapping paper
I love making my own wrapping paper (or I decorate brown paper bags from Daiso)! It just always adds a little extra something to presents, you know? With stamps, it's pretty straightforward. You can either stamp the whole sheet of paper before gift-wrapping or do it the other way around! Here, I'm using brown kraft paper, and my ribbon and leaf stamp.
TIP: If you prefer to cover your giftware with stamps, stamping before wrapping works best, to avoid smudging the prints when turning the package this way and that D:
Now for the brown paper bags: simply stamp on the surface, add your gift ( perfect for small small things ), then fold down the top and secure with cute washi tape! Quick and easy!
Here’s another way I wrap flat presents like face masks or even use as envelopes for letters! One giant stamp in the middle does the trick.
There are so many possible ways you can use stamps! All you need now is to learn how to carve your own stamps, and you can go wild with your customising endeavours! We have weekly stamp carving videos on our blog too, and if you want to learn how to carve your own awesome stamps, sign up here!
]]>Drawstring pouches are actually incredibly useful, they can be used to store so many things! Use an A4 sized pouch as a clothes bag, smaller ones to store earpieces, or even make a bigger sized ones that you can change to a drawstring bag. When you can customise the size of the pouch, the possibilities are endless, just alter the size to suit your needs!
Materials you'll need for your drawstring pouch:
Following the pattern above, leave a 2cm ‘u’ shaped border around your desired pouch size. This forms your seam allowance, giving you some space to sew! To create space for the casing for your ribbon or cord, add an extra 5-6cm of allowance to the top of your desired fabric size. If you'd like a tapered bottom, add a little right angled triangle on each bottom corner as seen in the pattern, or if you prefer a rectangular shape, leave your pattern as it is.
Making the drawstring casing
After you’ve cut your fabric, fold down the top of the casing seam allowance by half to create the case. Then following the picture on the top left, tuck in the sides of the casing.
Quick trick: I like to use washi tape to tape the fabric down (using fabric pins sometimes prick me or warp the fabric when I'm hand sewing!
After you've created the casing, all thats left is to stitch it in place! Flip your fabric around and use a pencil and a ruler to draw a horizontal line about 1.5 cm from the top of the fabric. Next, grab your needle and preferred thread colour and start stitching along the pencil mark. Here I used a backstitch which gives a cleaner look to the final product!
Backstitch : Following the pictures, insert your needle through the fabric one stitch length in front of the previous stitch, then stitch backwards.
Quick trick: By aligning your needle with the rest of the stitches and inserting the needle one stitch length ahead ( extreme right photo ) you get a perfectly straight row of stitches!
When you’ve finished stitching close both casings, align the right sides of the fabric ( the sides without the fabric flap ) and draw out your seam allowance on the fabric. Stitch along the pencil marks on your fabric pieces, and if you opted for the tapered pouch, trim off the access fabric triangles along the sides.
Threading the ribbon
Turn your pouch inside out, and now all thats left is to thread the ribbon through the casing! Using the safety pin, pin the ribbon as shown in the picture and tug it through one end the casing and coming out at the hole behind from the same end where you started. Knot both ends together and you've got one end done! Repeat the same steps for the opposite end, and when thats done, you have a drawstring pouch !
]]>Check out the new stamp Bea made!
]]>Check out the new stamp Bea made!
]]>Our new intern Beatrice carves out a new rubber stamp! The V-cutter does the bulk of the job. She then uses the X-acto knife to cut out the small facial features.
]]>Our new intern Bea carves out a new rubber stamp! The V-cutter does the bulk of the job. She then uses the X-acto knife to cut out the small facial features.
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Want to carve your own stamps? Book your seat in the next workshop!
]]>The quickest answer would be to have a friend replace you!
Here's the longer answer:
OK so we don't actually have many actual cases -- maybe 1 out of 50? which is 2%, our clever accountant tells me -- but we understand how these things can happen. You might have booked your class in a hurry, or you bought a seat for someone's birthday only to find out she was going to be celebrating her birthday in (insert beach holiday destination) instead ...
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The quickest answer would be to have a friend replace you!
Here's the longer answer:
OK so we don't actually have many actual cases -- maybe 1 out of 50? which is 2%, our clever accountant tells me -- but we understand how these things can happen. You might have booked your class in a hurry, or you bought a seat for someone's birthday only to find out she was going to be celebrating her birthday in (insert beach holiday destination) instead ...
It depends on how early you discover your clash in schedule. We encourage every would-be participant to read the Terms & Conditions before purchase -- this link is indicated on the page of registration. When you sign up for a workshop, you agree to commit to the purchase of the seat. As we run a tight ship on enthusiastic but unfortunately limited human powers, we are not able to move your booking to another date/workshop.
If you do know waaaayyyy ahead of time e.g. at least 3 weeks prior to the workshop, we can (and we do) offer to help re-list your seat to sell to a new participant. If you are unable to turn up eventually, and your spot cannot be replaced by someone else, you can drop us an email at info@theworkroom.sg to arrange for a time to pick up your materials.
If you have any question at all regarding the booking process on our site, or about any of the workshops, feel free to drop us a line!
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Ink pads for crafting, however, are not all made equal.
There are a myriad of brands/colours/types out there and for ...
]]>Ink pads for crafting, however, are not all made equal.
There are a myriad of brands/colours/types out there and for various uses. Brands are generally based on personal choice -- you’ll notice that I favour a certain brand -- so rather than dwelling on that, let me introduce to you the types and uses!
For Paper
If an ink pad does not specify a use, then it’s almost certainly for use on paper projects such as scrapbooking and card-making.
For Fabric/Wood
These versa craft ink pads pictured above are for fabric/wood. They are easy to distinguish from their general use counterparts by their beige cases (the normal ones are white). They can be used on paper as well so they are well worth it if you're on a budget!
Distress Ink (Tim Holtz)
These are great for creating that vintage look. However, if you print an image, it won’t be a sharp print. If you'd like to use these, stick to a pattern without small/fine details, or choose a stamp with a bigger surface area.
Travel ink pads
Want to bring your stamps on a holiday to document your experiences? Then the multiple inks in a set (pictured above in a wheel display) by Shachihata are super convenient.
Permanent
StazOn by Versa is a specialised line of ink pads. They are great for non-porous surfaces such as glass, metal or even leather. For such surfaces, regular ink pads won't work. The StazOn ink does adhere rather strongly to the stamp and are more difficult to wash off, so do use with caution! The gold ink pad is a particular favourite of mine because it has the best gold texture out of all the gold ink pads I’ve come across.
Dabbers
Dabbers are small, cheap and portable. They’re great for smaller stamps, applying different colours on 1 stamp or blending/creating ombre effects.
Emboss/Watermark
Embossing requires an ink pad with the embossing ink, embossing powder and a specialised heat gun for crafting. Ink pads for watermarking are for signing off on your work.
So, that's it! A whole new world of ink pads for you to enjoy with your stamps. Have fun!
Want to learn stamp carving from Kimberly? Her class is open for registration here!
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Short answer is YES!
Long answer ...
Well! It depends on what the curriculum ...
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Short answer is YES!
Long answer ...
Well! It depends on what the curriculum of the watercolour workshop/course is. On every registration page, we provide a comprehensive list of the skills you will be learning. If drawing is one of the skills, then yes, it will be expected of you to spend some time on that. Of course, even in such case, you can leave us a note under instructions (or email us!) to say you would only like to paint and do zero drawing. We can accommodate your request.
However, we strongly encourage participants to try out every part of the curriculum to get the fully-intended experience we plan for the class. Drawing or sketching is a very important pre-painting work. You will learn how to observe outlines, use simple lines to illustrate the key features of the object you will be painting, as well as learn hands-on about proportion, depth and composition. These are great skills to begin to learn, even if it is impossible to become a pro in a short time.
Drawing is not as daunting when you have an instructor on site to guide you along. Feel free to ask questions or ask for help. Our watercolour workshops are planned for a small group of 4 - 5 most of the time, so each participant will get more 1-1 attention from the instructor whenever needed.
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Have a question about our classes? Leave a comment below!
]]>Are you one of the those who would doodle or sketch on paper when you are holding a pencil? Well I am! The interest of drawing is...
]]>Are you one of the those who would doodle or sketch on paper when you are holding a pencil? Well I am! The interest of drawing has always been there since I was a small boy ... I always get excited when I get to doodle!
I really love drawing and I was always learning by myself. I also must admit that the foundation classes of my college times (I was a Multimedia Design student) which involved figure drawing did help a lot in my understanding of illustration. When I went on to my major, which was completely unrelated to illustration, I still kept this as a hobby. During my free time, I would always ask my friends who majored in illustration for tips. Those were some good old days of learning.
Now, ask anybody if drawing is hard? It is. For those who can’t really draw, drawing is obviously hard. For those who can draw well, continuing to explore different styles to find one’s own style is also hard. But many people still draw, be it professionally or just a hobby, because it is fun!
If you love drawing but feel tentative about it, I would recommend you to try to think of drawing as actually the combination of dots, lines and composition.
“Dots”, “lines” -- now do they sound simpler? Just remember, ‘dots’ and ‘lines’ are your best friends!
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JT is our team's illustrator and modern calligrapher. You can check out his modern calligraphy workshop right here, or leave a comment below to share about your drawings!]]>You’ve started stamp carving and you’re addicted, now what? You need lots of practice of course, but what about your tools?
They say ‘It’s not the tools, it’s the artist that matters’ but once you’ve developed your technique, the right tools will help you improve your craft and save time.
The most important knife in your toolkit would be ...
]]>You’ve started stamp carving and you’re addicted, now what? You need lots of practice of course, but what about your tools?
They say ‘It’s not the tools, it’s the artist that matters’ but once you’ve developed your technique, the right tools will help you improve your craft and save time.
The most important knife in your toolkit would be your design knife.
A penknife is one of the most commonly used knives, but I find the NT cutter Art knife to be a really good all rounder, it’s also great for anyone at any skill level to use. If you need something a bit more advanced, the X-acto precision knife is great for details but harder to wield.
The pen/utility knife is important but it’s not the knife holder that you should pay attention to but the blade. Always use a 30° precision refill, when it comes to shaping or finishing off your stamp, it will make a difference as compared to if you were using a regular refill.
The U shape is another important knife but can be substituted with a V shaped carving knife or even a regular pen/utility knife. The key is to experiment until you find what suits you.
Any of the above tools are essential for stamp carving but they lose their effectiveness if you don’t maintain them. Change the blades when they lose their tips or have been in use for a while and you’ll always enjoy consistency!
Want to learn stamp carving from Kimberly? Her class is open for registration here!
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When Ruth invited me to share on this, I must say it did take some time for me to decide on what it means to me, at least.
Is Modern Calligraphy a spin off from the Copperplate script? What is and is not considered Modern Calligraphy?
Quite frankly, I feel like I need another cup of coffee already and the dreary Mancunian Monday (as I am writing this) isn’t helping either.
To save us the headache, let me try to put it as plainly as possible. Personally, I think that Modern Calligraphy is traditional calligraphy on creative steroids.
We are seeing so many different forms of Modern Calligraphy today because we are all inspired by the various traditional scripts around – Copperplate, Spencerian, Gothic, Italic, Roundhand and more.
My journey began with a very Copperplate-influenced version of Modern Calligraphy. But as I started my study of the Spencerian script, I realised that my modern script was evolving – the ovals are more angular than before.
As we are constantly basing our idea of Modern Calligraphy on our taste, don’t be surprised if your script changes over time. With this, I’d say that there isn’t a right or wrong style in Modern Calligraphy. How is it possible to put a benchmark on something so fluid?
Instead, focus on your techniques-- your grip, movement and pace.
In my humble opinion, these are the more important questions to answer.
So what do we do now?
Pick a traditional script you like. Whilst you don’t need to dive too deep into it, it’s still imperative that you study it and try to answer the three questions above. There’s no shortage of information on the Internet, and the calligraphy community on Instagram is ever so helpful.
There we go, my attempt in unravelling the “mystery” of Modern Calligraphy!
What do you think?
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If you’re thinking about trying stamp carving but have been procrastinating, here are 5 reasons why you should give it a go!
I took up rubber stamp carving almost 4 years ago and it’s constantly evolving as an art and a hobby.
If you’re thinking about trying stamp carving but have been intimidated by the difficulty level, here are 5 reasons why you should give it a go!
1 // VERSATILE
The rubber stamp that you make can be used in a variety of projects, the more common ones are gift tags, scrapbooking, greeting cards and stickers. But, did you know you can also use a handmade rubber stamp on wax seals, leather/paper embossing and to print on fabric?
2 // HANDMADE
Handmade items are extra special! Also, nobody can deny that a rubber stamp makes a really great Christmas present.
3 // UNIQUE
Make your mark on everything! Name stamps, personalized tags, ribbons -- the possibilities are endless. There’s the satisfaction of knowing no one else has the exact stamp as you.4 // SKILLS
Rubber stamp carving is great for concentration and developing patience. At first, you want to finish the stamp as soon as possible to see what it looks like stamped on paper, but you’ll learn to carve at a slower pace for a much better looking result. Stamp Carving is a practice-makes-perfect skill of gold!
5 // FUN
The sense of achievement you get when you ink a finished stamp and seeing it printed ... it's incredibly satisfying!
And just to show how far I’ve come, I found the very first stamp I ever carved, along with some of my recent work. You too can do it!
Photos by Kimberly Chen.
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Hungry for more? Kimberly's class is open for registration here!
]]>This course is especially designed by art educator Desiree Tham, our newest ...
]]>This course is especially designed by art educator Desiree Tham, our newest Workroomer. She is adept at all sorts of art, and her favourite type of art is conceptual art. She quips, "As an educator, my ultimate goal for this course is for my students to take home a range of knowledge and develop their own personal style in their watercolour painting." Desiree wants every student to bring home 3 sets of works*, progressing from beginner to advanced level -- the final piece should be your best.
Now, are you ready for some fine art love?
*for students who sign up the full course of 8 lessons
Photos by Joel Lim Photography
]]>Class size varies from craft to craft. For calligraphy, a common size at the studio is 10pax and at our other location in Raffles, the class size could be anything from 10 to 20 pax. During the run-up to Christmas season last year ...
]]>Class size varies from craft to craft. For calligraphy, a common size at the studio is 10pax and at our other location in Raffles, the class size could be anything from 10 to 20 pax. During the run-up to Christmas season last year at Raffles, we accommodated friends of registrants to sign up too, resulting to a class up to 24 pax. Private classes vary anything from 6 pax to 50 pax ... but that's for another day.
The studio is run by Ruth, a trained educator. She has years of experience as a debate team trainer/teacher/lecturer in secondary school and in the poly, and has been doing freelance writing and editing for education materials since 2008. So as head honcho, she pays particular attention to a good lesson plan and its execution by everyone on the team for any class, with emphasis on imparting real skills and not just only to hang around and have fun (though that is great too!)
In particular, our most popular class, the modern calligraphy workshop, is very well-structured (and tried-and-tested by hundreds of students in sold out sessions) to include lesson, demo, and 1-1 correction/instruction while students do alot of hands-on learning. Commonly the instructor spends 1-1 time on correcting the student's pen-holding, letterform and observation skills.
Students are also encouraged to ask questions in class anytime, and usually a number like to linger around at the end to ask specific questions with regard to their "grad pieces" and additional questions regarding supplies. Students are also always encouraged to contact Ruth directly via WhatsApp, IG or email with any further questions even long after the class, and to join in monthly exclusive calligraphy jamming that is open to studio students only.
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Have a question about our classes? Leave a comment below!
]]>First blog post! WOWEE. Who still keeps a blog? I often ask in class, only to evoke laughs from the students. Really! Who keeps a blog? Well, it would seem that the Workroomers -- that's us! -- would like to blog about some serious tips, thoughts and new happenings at the studio! Keep your eyes peeled please ... xoxo
Photo by Joel Lim Photography
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