A tribute to a brilliant innovator, Steve Jobs

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.
Steve Jobs

Madness over A B C. Yeah. 70% of our orders have to do with the alphabets and maybe a numerical or two added into the string of letters. Be it in the form of keychain, handphone charms, earrings, bracelets, brooches or even as a nameplate to sit on a desk. Single alphabets, names or initials with heart shapes conjoined to describe the significant love for the other half…yeah we did it all.

Looks easy to do? I beg to differ!

Believe it or not but no mould was ever used. Totally hand craftwork. Every letter received special attention.

First, I need to shape the clay into alphabets and obviously I need a template to guide me into shaping the clay. Using the hard paper, I hand sketch the alphabets according to the size and whether it is capital or small letters.

Second, cut out the hard paper.

Third, then use the cut out hard paper as a guide to cut the clay into the intended shapes. Thereon it is just me, my carving tools and the A B C…

Fourth, getting the right colour can be intimidating too. Yeah, though red is red and green is green but choosing the right shades of red or green can make lots of different to the recipient. Most challenging would be when I have to co-ordinate two colours. Red and pink sounds simple as that but when they are put together, it might not look right. So getting the right shade of red or the right shade of pink to blend in can take quite a while. Even days.

Fifth, after putting all the letters together, the tricky part would be to make sure they can all hold well together. That is when the little hearts motif or whatever motifs the customer may fancy, (we have had stars, flowers, even triangles!) act as a bond to secure the letters together. The function of the little hearts is fundamental in keeping the name intact. The challenging moments would be when I get downright frustrated over where to put the decorative hearts and whether the size is right so it would not be too obscure or it can sometime just ruin the whole look. Oh and I would like to add that the hearts would be in another different colour that would complement the look.

Sixth, once I finalize the layout, I have to take them apart and start applying special adhesive to bond them all intact. Another time consuming affair. Sometimes the heart just wouldn’t sit nicely. The adhesive is in liquid form so it can subject the hearts to slippery moments. Also, dust particles may settle onto the art piece and I have to use a special method to meticulously lift off any dust particles.

Seventh, then off to the oven. It will take about 35 minutes and not inclusive of cooling off period. That would require another 1hr or maybe more.

Eighth, once cured and cooled off, I will need to reapply another layer of adhesive just as an added security.

Ninth, then off to the oven again. I would then let it cool off overnight.

Tenth, this stage is optional. Some customers like it varnished and some like it in its true form. Anyway after varnishing it would need an overnight to allow it to properly settled.

Eleventh, putting the right accessories to it eg jumprings, keychains etc…this take just a while to do it so no big deal on this stage.

Twelfth, delivery to customer and depends on customer preference. For local customers, we have the option of self-collect (no charge) or personal delivery to customer designated place (charges apply base on location) or mail delivery (no charge for normal mail and S$3.00 for registered mail). I prefer self-collect and personal delivery as that means I am assured that the customer received their art piece. Guaranteed. Furthermore, I do not need to go through the process of individually bubble wrapping the art piece and then having to head down to the nearest post office and had to queue up. I hate queuing up. Plus if the customer requested for normal mail, I am so afraid of lost parcel which is definitely not traceable and then what. Customer would definitely claim us to be cheaters etc..and the sad part is all my hard effort would just be wasted to nothing. And if the customer requested for registered mail, the problem we faced is that when no one is at home to receive the parcel, it will be redelivered to the customer’s nearest post office and sometimes, (yeah more like most times) there wasn’t any notification slip to inform the customer to collect their item at the designated post office. After two weeks of sitting in the post office mailroom, it will be redelivered back to us and we have to make another attempt at delivering yet again. So the story goes.

Tedious? Yes definitely. But I love doing it. Just love putting the hearts, flowers and whatever motifs decorate a plain name into something so cute, so sweet or even so bold. Just keep on doing.

Luv making hearts
Noor

Tags: brooch, earrings, polymer clay