Joanna Rutter
Posted by Amy on Wednesday January 11, 2012
Love the new wooden brooches and necklaces that British jewelry designer Joanna Rutter (featured previously) has in her Etsy shop. In fact, all the items in her store is a personal favorite – they’re modern, refreshingly simple and girly without being overly cute (something that’s easier said than done!)
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Hug a porcupine
Posted by Amy on Friday December 16, 2011
Singapore-based shop Hug a Porcupine makes these adorable enamel origami pins that rock my socks! They also have necklaces and various other fun designs, most of them in delicious candy colors.
On a side note, looking at their collection takes me back to when I was in primary school, where I used to collect colorful plastic toys and contraptions that came together with my Ding-Dang and Tora snacks, for some reason. Both of them were popular snacks bought by school-going children here in Malaysia – and well, I usually threw away the chocolates (they don’t exactly taste the best) and kept the toy instead!
And with that random snippet of nostalgia, it’s time to end the weekend with a bang — happy weekend folks!
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Loco for local: Oh & Ah
Posted by Amy on Thursday July 14, 2011
This week, I’m proud to present Oh & Ah, a collective of five artists, illustrators and designers who have been running their studio for the past 4 years right here in my neck of the woods – Malaysia. I’ve been a fan of theirs for some time now, and was happy to hear that they now have a dedicated space where they can show off all their wonderful things. Read on for more, and at the end of the interview, you’ll find a coupon code for use at their fun online shop!
Name: Oh&Ah
Location: Malaysia
Website/Shop: www.oh-and-ah.com/store
(physical shop) Cova Square, Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
Blog: www.oh-and-ah.com/blog
Illustration media: Mixed-media
Tell us a little more about yourself.
We are five playful Malaysians with different backgrounds who join forces to produce design items with an objective in utilizing our creativity to bring joy into our daily lives. Started out at the end of 2007, Oh&Ah is the place where we sell items we make + design + collect. We were inspired by the indie design scene in London, Taiwan and Bangkok thus found our interest to form Oh&Ah.
We produce delightful, eccentric everyday objects ranging from small to big scale, with a wide variety of products from fashionable accessories, tees, paper goods, stationery, toys to home décor. Our creations are inspired by Zakka, the art of seeing the savvy in the ordinary and mundane-ness; with a touch of playfulness!
Oh&Ah’s online store is now up and running, along with a studio/shop that is located in Cova Square, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.
You live in Malaysia. What stands out about living here, and what is your daily schedule like?
The opportunity to learn multiple languages and to experience the different culture here has given us plenty of advantages in understanding and exposing to how other designers/artists work in other parts of the world. While the contemporary handmade market is still considered new to our local community, interest has definitely been generated, so there has never been a more perfect moment for people like us to sow our seeds!
We work together every Saturday (yes, Saturday because each of us juggle a full-time job). There is no fixed schedule; we take that time to hold discussions, update each other on work-in-progress as that is the only time that we can congregate once a week. Also, we make use of that time in brainstorming, creating and photographing our products. Saturday is also a business day for us as our shop only opens on that day. On other days, our work is based solely online, like updating our Facebook page, our blog, online store as well as our Etsy page.
…and does being in Malaysia influence your art in any way?
Yes, definitely! We thought about our ‘Rojak’ culture! (Rojak is a local salad that incorporates a wide variety of fruits.) Being in Malaysia enables us to get along well with other races on a daily basis. We learned the art of respect as well as appreciation for all cultures present in our country. Just like the five of us-we come in different personalities, but we complement and complete each other as a whole. We are often excited by the curious hybrid of our creativity and design style and the endless possibilities it transpires. A huge part of our work comes from a joined effort as a team, and that usually makes the end result worthwhile.
As Malaysians, we are blessed with the advantage of our four main languages of the country: English, Malay, Chinese and Indian. And this has helped us in easy accessing to information on the internet, leading us to unbridled inspiration for our ideas and designs.
In malaysia, i find that the progress of the art & craft community has yet to catch on. What do you think can be done to increase awareness of art & craft locally?
A community for the exchange of ideas and resources! Also, we need more effort in changing the mindset of people’s perception towards handcrafted items as something traditional and old-fashioned. ‘Group power’! We would suggest that the art and craft community to work closely by supporting one another. We will be able to fashion a stronger identity and image of the value of art and craft to local community if we are presented in the form of alliance or group.
CLICK HERE to read Oh & Ah’s entire interview!
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Kim's Little Monsters
Posted by Amy on Friday March 4, 2011
I absolutely adore these wooden brooches from Kim’s Little Monster shop that I saw this morning over on the Etsy front page. Kim Welling is an artist and illustrator based in Netherlands and I am totally crushing on these portrait pins! I can totally imagine owning 7 of these (all with different portraits, of course!) each one for a different day of the week. Or maybe just 6, and then pin all 6 of them altogether for Sunday.
Oh yes.
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Happy weekend everyone! I hope you had a lovely week and that your weekend is off to a wonderful start! :)
p/s—My Etsy article 9 tips to be more creative was featured in an Etsy newsletter today, thanks Danielle! :)
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