Sunday, December 31, 2006

The prototype is back! :)

Happy New Year! I just got my prototype back right before Christmas as promised from the leather workshop. The effect is not exactly what I intended, so I will look around to pair up with a purse designer or someone in this field. But before that I asked my friends and relatives for their opinions, and there were many!

The younger ladies wanted more butterfly and flower motifs, and pastel colors. The older ladies liked the cranes, peonies and phoenixes and they wanted more bright stunning colors. The guys wanted none of the traditional symbols but more of a cultural revolution Mao Zedong funked up Vivienne Tam look ....


The ladies like it as small clutch bags in black or charcoal patent leather. The guys want it in communist red if it's a funky revolution piece. Some suggested silk as well. A few proposed cushions or pillows as stunning centrepieces in their houses. An interesting suggestion was to have it just as art pieces for framing. Which I will consider. No one wanted table runner or bed runners... more stuff for me to chew on as I move on to my next pieces. Seems like the market will be for exquisite clutch bags and large scale commissioned items.

Next of course will be the pricing ... but that will be later. There seems to be a divergence to affordable clutch bags and maybe sling bags for gals and guys on one end, and large scale art pieces which will be rather pricey. It seems to be rather interactive, this process, who knows what it will bring next? :) I am excited.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Trip to a Chinese village


I just came back from a remote village in southern China where my relatives have a factory. It was more like a visit, but I realised that the local villagers do need jobs, and perhaps it would be to everyone's benefit if I start a workshop there. I'm rather excited by the idea, it would be giving back to the province my Grandfather came from so it's nice. I've started sourcing for fishing thread for threading, and thin needles, and my beads just came in from my source in USA. Yay! Things are moving!

The purple butterfly robe went to a lovely Taiwanese lady in Hong Kong. She wants to wear it for parties! It looks lovely, and I am glad it is going to someone who will love it. This time around, I'm putting up a phoenix collar on eBay that we got through a fellow in Maine! Maine, of course, was a major center of China-USA tea trade back in those days, so it is not surprising to see little gems turn up. But this collar is exquisite and unlike the more common multi tiered collars. I'm attaching a picture of it here :)

I'll post updates here and there once I settle the village workshop project. But I was in Bangkok for my friend's wedding and came across a beautiful mural mosaic taken from the Tree of Life in Luang Prabang. It is luminous. Watch out for it in my future designs, it is so delicious that I love to use it. Hah hah!