Hi all, while Amsterdam is drizzling whole day, I was making my silkscreen printing in the studio. From making the screen till start to make it ready for paper placemats, it is a lot of preparation. I am not sure whether Dutch like to have paper placemats for kids party, but I just love the idea and I did my design already, I used it for paper and textile prints.

Here is what I had after 5 hours work. I made 20 placemats.

Hi all, another great day is ahead of us. Hope that you enjoyed so far with me along my art journey.

I want to share with you a little story how I started my blog. By the end of 2010, I made an account to have my blog name, but I only have the basic information online. I did nothing till April 2011. A new friend of mine is very depressed. He told me that there is not many nice things around him which he feels that he can make him feel great. He complained to me that he does not have much friends and lives with his mum because she needs help. He works very hard to finish his study and try to make a living by working in a shop warehouse. For a few weeks in April, he was very sad and told me nothing interests him in this world.

I am a very positive person, never heard anyone around me has this mind set. But I want to help him. I said to him, you can live as happy as you want, you just need to open your heart. Listen, looking and absorb the nice things/message around you. Appreciate what you have and look things in different perspective. He asked me how? I said, I will start to write my blog article, I will try to write something nice for home decoration, lifestyle, crafts and as much as I can find NICE things to see, to appreciate in this world. Only thing I will ask you do is to tell me what you feel by the end of the week. If it helps you to see the world differently. He agrees with my help. As I promised, I started to write my first blog on 29 April 2011 for real. I keep on writing and writing. I know that my English is not perfect, I know there are many people with literature degree out there or there are native speakers. But what keep me on going is that my friend needs help, and only way that I can help besides asked him to go to a professionals is by writing a good story or some nice collage mood boards. Days went by with my writing, I could not stop. One day I met my friend again after 2 months I started my blog writing. He told me that he is too busy with his problems and did not have time to read. I was very surprised to hear that. It was the motivation to help him at the first place. I was silence. After a few months I heard from other friends that he lost his job and stays at home with his mum, and still looking for a new job. Sorry to hear that.

I am still keep on writing. Today I gathered some of my art work I made in the past to share with you, I will like to brighten your day with these pink, fuchsia

First image is the seasonal chrysanthemum I bought to decorate my home when I did my cooking workshop. The second image is my ceramic salt and pepper jar I made last month, the third image is part of my notebook paper. I love Japanese washi paper, I bought some of them in the local art supply shop here in Amsterdam. I made last Thursday. I will make more notebooks this Thursday as well. Let’s keep on doing what we love to do. Hope one day there are more happy people in the world.

There is a time when I feel like to learn something new. I started to work with illustrator. I realized it was so difficult with all the pen tools, path finder and anchor points etc. I bought a lot of books, it seems it is never an easy task even to draw a circle with the pen tool. I missed the time that we use the pen, pencil, brush and water color. Yes indeed, time changes. 15 years ago, I can not imagine to use this program to make my own design. Now I just start to do the first step. It is my first drawing with illustrator. I know that I have a long way to go for the fashion illustration with this new program. It is a good way to start. I will keep on drawing, the more I practice, the more confidence I can build up. I think it applies to everything. The more you learn the techniques, the better the result will turn out.

I made this drawing last summer, just love the sexy black top I bought from Mango during my study time. It makes you feel sexy and sportive. I am so happy that I have used all the things I learned for my first fashion illustration with mac. What is next step? Keep on practice and that is all about. Practice makes perfect.

I know there are many people who loves fashion illustration. Maybe in the future we can share some nice fashion illustration works here with us. Who is your favorite fashion illustrator? Why do you like their style?

It is Friday again. I am so looking forward to some nice weekend activities. In the past few weeks, I was busy doing a lot of creative projects. By learning new things such book binding, illustrator and photoshop, stamp making and watercolor painting, silkscreen printing, letterpress printing etc etc, it offers a clear introduction into the methods and techniques to use in my future ping living collection creation. It provides an answer to questions I had in the past.

By participating many creative projects, it provides the right motivation for me, it provides me a mission to what each day I wake up for. It makes more sense with my day-to-day process of work/create things. Live a life in the fullest, you keep on learning every day. No matter where you are, and what you do. There are a few values translate to who you are and what you want to experience in your life. I am sure it guides you like a compass when faced with some difficult decisions/moments.

Before the valentine’s day I made a postcard design, I looked back, still like it a lot, just want to share with you to wish you all a nice weekend.

One month for now is Easter holiday. For some countries like South Africa and The Netherlands, that is a big holiday to celebrate. I know there are more countries out there which celebrate this special holiday, I know it because John’s family are both from South Africa and the Netherlands. I know that his family celebrate it.

Last week, I had a workshop in Amsterdam Open Atelier, Gertie Jaquet gives a lovely two hours workshp. I enjoyed a lot. During the workshop, I made one bunny set and one frog on the lotus leaf set. It is my first stamp sets that I made myself. Hope in the future I will make more. You can use stamps to make your own wrapping paper, gift box etc etc. I think there will be a lot of interesting projects with it if you are very creative.

Do you like stamping? What is your favorite animal to make stamps?

Since I was a little girl, I love to have all the little notebooks. I used to write lyrics for newly learned songs. And when I reached to age 18, I started to make journals and sketches on the notebooks. It is a place where I have my secret and dreams. Reading my old notebooks here with all the colorful sketches, lyrics and journals in my room in Amsterdam, brought me back to my childhood time in China in Yuyao and Shanghai. The door to my great memory just opened beautifully, and it helps me to get re-connected to my home town, my family and friends.

I always like to make my own notebooks. Last week, I took part in an book-binding workshop, and I love it so much. I feel that I want to make more of it. During the weekend, I made two extra ones. I love paper products and wish one day that I can screen print my own cover for my notebook.

Hope that you like these two notebooks, and I will make more of them. Because it will be someone else memory book just like I had many years ago. Do you have a nice story about notebook? Share with us?

Tuesday is here, the week goes very quickly. In the past week I was reading some Japanese pattern books, one of the striking elements from the book is the bird pattern. As Japanese art used a lot of nature elements, birds, trees, cloud, leafs etc etc. I was thinking of a new project for my screen print, here we go. I multiple the birds to form a pattern, and then make a screen, I printed in two different color version: black and red. I love simple and straight forward stuff, the red and the black color are really striking on the white background. I enjoyed very much making it. In total I made two 60*70 cm tea towel, three ipad cover, two placemats, and three notebook cover for two days work. Very tedious work to hand print the textile, but I learned a lot from each project.

Hi everyone, it has been a long time since my last post. I was in a very difficult moment in my life. Almost four months ago, I have to say goodbye to my mum who suffered rare cancer, this year on 14 Feb, I have to say goodbye to my dear grandma who lost her battle against stroke. It seems that my world was upside down. I have to go through this again, silence was the remedy for me for the first couple days.

All the time I have this Chinese poem by Mencius in my mind, “When Heaven is about to confer a great office on any man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil”.

天降大任于斯人也，必先苦其心志，劳其筋骨，饿其体肤，空乏其身，行指乱其所为，所以动心忍性，曾益其所不能。——《孟子》

Again, after my mum’s pass, I picked up painting, It helps me to heal. And I continue painting from my multinational world with watercolor. This time, I use clay to make many things which helped me to heal. And I will make some unique home fragrance with my new designed ceramic.

I made this geometric piece, got an inspiration from old Greek art, Greek art, the geometric art is characterized by geometric motifs in vase painting. Its centre was Athens 900BCE to 700 BCE. I love the pattern which is simple but very decorate on the clay.
I applied the pattern horizontally and vertically for two of my vases here. And the result is quite striking. Hope that you will like it too.

]]> http://www.pingliving.eu/blog/2012/02/handmade-geometric-vases/feed/ 0 http://www.pingliving.eu/blog/2012/01/handmade-weekend/ http://www.pingliving.eu/blog/2012/01/handmade-weekend/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:45:03 +0000 ping http://www.pingliving.eu/blog/?p=2948 Lifestyle blog | ping living | Interior styling | Art | Design | Fragrance and perfume | Recipes | Flowers |

I hope that everyone had a good weekend. I suppose to write this yesterday, but I had a few meetings and was busy with my trip plan to Japan. Some very exciting projects will come up this year. I will tell more when it happens. Tuesday again, how was your weekend? I had a wonderful one. Saturday I painted and meanwhile I started my polymer clay project. This is something new to me, I never made shape with polymer clay before, I expected it will be more difficult. But it turned out to be just fine. I realized that if you want to make anything or any new project, do not be afraid to try. Gathering information, do some researches, and make a little plan, then you will know how easy or how difficult it will turn out. Yes, some of us like to make things which we are familiar with, but there are many things out there which will be new to many people. We are in the new world of technology, we are in a kind of global village. You can experience some new projects with just a few click away. What I did? I love owl, they [...]

Hi everyone, it has been a very exciting week for me. Hope you too. It was exactly one week after my operation, and one week of my art journey blog writing, and one week of thinking and making. I was so confused before about what I want and want I don’t want. I am so glad on the way, I opened my eyes, ears and heart to everything. I mean I tried to see things in different angles, I listened very well what other people want to say and take actions immediately after I think they are right. I followed my heart, and listened very carefully. I know if there is some voice over there to tell me that’s not right, I will immediately stop it. It refers to work, relationship, friendship and creation.

I love Holland, why? Not only because I have a Dutch husband who I dated for almost 9 years before we married. Because I love its flowers culture and its beautiful landscape. If you have chance come to the Netherlands, you should take a train and visit some nice local villages. Do not only go to some very touristic places or cities only.

I used to travel with train and took my foldable bike plus 5 kilos heavy bags full of samples of my scented candles and fragrance to everywhere in the Netherlands. It was such a great experience for me even to think back today. Before I came to the Netherlands, I know that Dutch people are living under the sea level, and most of the lands claimed from the sea. They don’t have high mountains at all. It is a flat country. But they do have a lot of water (dijk) and many flower growers.  I remember that almost everyone in a village I used to live in Diemen has flowers at home in the weekend (yes, I love to peek through open window, and most Dutch people open their curtain to let you see what their home looks like). Some people spent a lot of time during the weekend in their garden to plant new flowers or make it look nice. I am so impressed with their idyllic life.

Till 11 Feb, 2012, I will exactly 12 years in the Netherlands, last few weeks, I was busy making my ceramic collection, they are not in the oven yet, I still need to put twice in the oven and put colors on. For now I just show you what I have made so far, get a sneak peek what I was up to.