Been Sidetracked Some What...

Now that I've been doing things in the studio, I've also gone a bit side tracked... I've been hanging out a lot with a friend, Heidi, who have gotten herself into this 'hantaran' business (decorating dowers/dowries). We share stories of creative endeavors and challenges, I toss her ideas to try and tips and techniques that'll be useful to her. She does her own thing, I do mine.

It was when one day she asked me to come over to check out her latest work because she was feeling stuck and I came, gave her ideas, we tried it out, we fiddled around with it some more, stepped back, liked it, I was enjoying myself, she was enjoying herself, there was this buzz going on, next thing I knew, we were a team.

On some days in the afternoons after work, I'd come over and stayed on until evening and we both would do the hantarans when there happen to be any. I'd do the arranging of items on some and she does all the fiddly bits and details involved and vice versa.

I taught her how to do things like the money flowers (I did them for when my cousin got married several years ago) we like how much space it took up, and helped her with the practical aspects, like securing the items down and brushing up her composition...

I let her take the lead and we bounce ideas from there, there were times when she does get totally stuck, and I come along and see that something could do with a bit of an improvement...

Like these chocolates, I tried tidying them up. Ended up redoing the whole thing for her.

See how nicely arranged they are, given what we had to work with. She didn't mind what I did as she wasn't too happy with her arrangement either, because the bottom line was, as long as the clients are happy.

That's not the only thing she does, she also makes baby cakes, or diaper cakes, whatever you want to call it. She's been pretty good with making them. It just so happen when I was over we were just talking about a cheaper version, for those who wants to get a baby cake but don't really want to cough up so much for it.

She wouldn't have done it until I suggested there is nothing wrong with trying to see if it is or isn't worth while.

So I put together this guy. She liked the idea, added on the decoration...

And came up with two more!

One thing I really liked when working with her on these things, it was instant gratification. It was great to see the stuff come together just like that. Plus Heidi got loads of stuff to play with, her hantaran items, tons! Her ribbons, tons! I think that's what also made it fun for me, get to play with all these items, and I help her out with ways to use them.

Helping her out helps me exercise and apply my creativity and knowledge else where. Items which are second nature to me are new to her, and I taught her how to use them. There were combinations she'd done that gives me ideas to try in my studio. All in all, hanging out with her was a chance for a quick dose of being creative, and it's nice to be with someone who understands how important a particular colour of ribbon is for the overall look, hehehe...

To see more pictures of the hantarans go here, Hantaran by Heidi and more pictures of the baby cakes she made go here, Baby Cakes in Brunei.