A lost sheep

To be entirely honest, I've been stuck in a designer's block for a very long time.

My hands are not working in sync with my brain. And my brain is almost blank.

And since my last flea market attempt for MerrowDream, I have been stuck thinking about how to revamp. I had this grand idea of making MerrowDream a fabric accessories shop. But reality hit me hard. Most consumers can't appreciate the quality materials I use. My products aren't unique enough. My stuff aren't attractive and cheap enough. Blah Blah Blah. I learnt so much from just one flea. I know I had to revamp.

But do what?

I'm stuck honestly. I had countless ideas flashing through my mind initially(more than a month ago). But I have countless more reasons to shoot them down. I now understand why some creative people say we are our own enemy. We seek for a perfection that cannot be achieved. The expectations I set for myself are unattainably high.

And to be entirely honest, I'm overly ambitious in wanting to try EVERYTHING. There seem to be an endless stretch to the list of things I want to try to do. Anything related to creative DIY - I want to try. But there is only so much time that I have.

Work is slowly eating me up. It's slowly stripping off my adrenaline push to achieve, achieve and achieve. I began to sink in to the repetitive daily cycles of waking up at 7.30, going to work, have my lunch, continue to work, end work at 6 or work some overtime, go home, eat dinner, rest and then sleep. And the next day the cycle repeats.

Where is the motivated and driven Ariel? I'm not just stuck in a block (my creative juices are not flowing), I'm beginning to lose myself.

I need to get away and find myself once more.

Quite an eccentric post.

Sitting in the middle of a dark living room with your earpiece plugged into your ear, listening (try A Sky Full of Stars by Coldplay) to the tracks playing from your phone - oddly that is super peaceful and comforting.

Why did I never try this earlier?

It is just another night.  All lights out by 11pm. Everyone tucked in their beds. And me still up and about in my room. Just that today im not. I'm doing the above.

For awhile, I had so much questions and thoughts running around in my head. Many of them are without answers or directions to finding out the answers. And on this "special" night (it's not really special. Just another night really), I began to hear the answers. I'm not going crazy or becoming psychic. That would be great but no I did not. I just had my once-a-while dose of a great conversation that works two-ways and also became very thought-provoking.

There are not many people in this world that can give me this once-a-while dose - I think I can count them with just the fingers from one hand. So when the stars aligned (or when the blue moon comes up), I'm in an extremely good mood.

Ok enough of the bush beating.

I have a slightly clearer view of the route I can take down this path towards my dream. Well, firstly, I should continue honing my skills in Illustrator and Photoshop. Apparently (*gasp*) there are not many people good in these 2 softwares, especially in the fashion design area. My control-and-detail-freak self sort of complement my strength in these 2 areas.

Secondly, I'm going to enlist the help of the almighty Youtube to learn to screenprint with the emulsion technique. That will greatly benefit me in my work for my business (or at least my entrepreneurial attempt) Merrow Dream.

Then, I should start looking into what I can sacrifice to get myself one step closer to saving up for a bold move that I had been thinking about - interning in a fashion brand in New York while working another part time job to earn my stay there. Yep. Sumarised that in a single sentence.

Lastly, maybe pick up another skill (or language) to make myself even more indispensable (as an asset to a company). Maybe I should study colour relationships in detail. Or pick up French like I'd always wanted to.

Well that does it. First time typing in such an honest voice. You (whoever is reading this (thank you by the way)) may find that I have lots of things going on at one time as you read. But that's kind of how it goes in my brain all the time. Actually it's worse because typing it out limits what I can pen down. If you can hear my thoughts I bet you'll be screaming shut up! Haha. Hope you enjoy this messy update.

Keep your eyes peeled!

This is just a prelude.

block and screen printing addiction

Thanks to my dear friend xiu, I know of Fictive Fingers and their awesome works. I signed myself up for their screen printing class and before I knew it, I was hooked.

These days, I document most of my creative stuff via instagram so this one is taken from one of my instagram posts. (Please do follow me! arielthemerrow )

Anyway! The class was really fun and free. I don't mean FOC. But the freedom to work at our own comfortable pace, use our own designs, etc. The two owners Hani and Aisah are really sweet and helpful! They don't interfere in your decision making process - they just provide advises on the end product. "If you want it to look like this, this is how you can do it.." You know. Encouraging. I love them. That's why I went back for their block printing class.

After the screen printing class, we brought home a small kit including the stencil paper (for screen printing), rubber block and carving knife (for block printing), and a booklet introducing themselves and with pictorial guide on how to do block printing. The guide is really detailed so that you don't have to attend the class to actually learn how to block print. But, I still went for the class because I love the owners, their class and because of my believe in learning things best in person.

My mum has this belief that I strongly stand by - even though books and the internet are available, it's still best to pay some money to learn "that something" in person. She loves to cook and bake etc. So for her, even though the recipe is exactly the same, she won't be able to get it right unless she first learn it from a teacher in person. Then eventually using a few recipe to perfect her own.

Same logic here! The guide was detailed yes. But I needed to see the carving in person to actually get how it works. How to control the knife, how to carve, etc.I must say, I'm addicted to block carving. Carving on a rubber block is so easy. 

Look at my latest stash of blocks I've carved so far. I'm an amateur so my blocks are definitely more simple. But I've been printing them on fabrics and it all works out pretty fine. The only disadvantage is that my blocks are so small - it takes alot of time and effort to fill an A4 size fabric.

I've also recently tried printing my own wrapping paper. Turns out the effect is not too bad! But lesson learnt: never use normal printing paper because they tear so easily! It was so hard to wrap! (sadly, the recipient didn't seem to appreciate my work.)

This is my most recent work. Was just doodling as I watch TV. Then I came up with this design. It's for screen printing. Yes I bought my screen and squeegee from Fictive Fingers (good quality at a relatively affordable price) and a beginners' set of paint from Art Friend. It's my first attempt to screen print at home and I was over ambitious! It's so hard to control a huge piece of fabric (1m x 1m is abit too big for a beginner like me), especially to dry them. I officially consider my attempt failed. Will try again this weekend.

So keep a look out!

seven-months worth

It's been more than half a year since I joined my current workplace. People have commented how I have grown in this job, how much "smarter" I've become. I don't really have a clear idea of how much has changed so I decided on coming up with this list - my own survival list. Perhaps this list may apply to other industries too.

Ariel's Working Survival List

1. Take note of what you do every single day.

This may sound pretty stupid. But it's important. Let's say your boss is mostly not around (which is so in my case), she might ask for a weekly report from you and your fellow colleagues. So in this case, you already keep track of what you do daily. But some circumstances may require to record even more detailed (hourly tracking). Whether is it mandatory, such reports are actually your personal insurance in the office. You may never know which person in the office is not happy with you and decide to rattle to your boss that you are slacking your time off. And when you are confronted on what you were doing at a certain day (or time), you wouldn't want to be caught off-guard (especially for a forgetful person like me) and not be able to recall.

Such recording is also good to help you personally keep track what you have done over the days/weeks/months/years. You may start to feel overworked (or underworked) and thus this is when this recording becomes your useful evidence in a war between you and your boss and your HR.

2. Keep your friends close, your enemies even closer.

Everyone has at least a friend in the company. If you don't, at least be liked by someone. Try not to step on too many people's toes. Make as many people in the office love you - you may never know when you need their help. If you do make an enemy or two (or even more), don't be too openly hostile to them. The best tactic is to act as though you are their friend. It's never good to have too many enemies around you, especially if your position is all the way at the bottom of the ladder.

3. Humility is the best virtue.

Who doesn't like a humble and modest person? Unless it's fake of course. No matter what your position is, where your authority stretches to, it's always good to maintain the basic humility. People tend to be "softer" to other humble and polite human beings. Just like animals, if the other party is a threat to us, we will wear our armor and our spikes. Thus, it's best to be humble and polite - respect the seniors, your fellow colleagues, your supervisors, etc. A person with good manners is liked every where and this will help in the above point 2 that I mention. For a newbie like me, this is the best trait to have (if you are sincere) - seniors will be willing to teach you precious lessons that took them years to learn.

4. Do not simply follow the crowd.

5. Blend in.

Ok the above two points are related, and not at all contradicting. I shall explain why.

Every company has its pre-existing set of working ethics and style. Some hasn't been changed in years, so as a result, the way of working has become inefficient and may even be causing the company some damage. When it is obvious the methods of working (or recording or whatever for that matter) is not efficient and is causing attrition in the company, voice out. Do not skip levels of authorities and go straight up to the biggest boss. Speak to your super first, if all else fail then approach the boss.

However, keep in mind to blend into the company culture first. Every company has its own unique culture. So take note of the culture, learn and then blend in. Do not stick out like a giraffe standing among the rhinos. Blend in first, be one of them. Then if the need comes to voice out concerns regarding work processes, it will be easier to get your point across. People wouldn't think that you, a new-comer, is trying to flip the entire office upside down. They wouldn't see you as a threat, and thus it will be easier to get your message across and easier to get it accepted.

It has never occurred to me that these points I mentioned above are important. Though this isn't my first job, it is the first job I really cared about. So these lessons are all the more important to me. I'm not a saint so I do make mistakes. But considering how badly some of my previous jobs had went (by the time the half-year mark has reached), I think I've risen up pretty well in the past 7 months over here.

all I needed was this inspiring push.

Last week before I left on my holiday trip, I attended a seminar hosted by Her World & herworldPLUS - How to make it in fashion. It was held in conjunction with the Asian Fashion Summit at Suntec's newly renovated Conference Halls. To be honest, I signed up for it on impulse - I was reading the article "9 tips that all aspiring fashion designers should know" and found out there was this really affordable seminar (a mere $15 as compared to the other conferences costing from $149 to $449). So I went for it.

I was expecting the talk to cover stuff about what young designers should expect (no glamorous red carpet but hours of sweating through the night with hardly any sleep) and how to survive in it. On the contrary, it was mostly about e-commerce and what you have to do when you first started out.

I shall pick out some golden advice I took from the four speakers and share them here.

The first speaker was Debra Langley (CEO and Founder of Inverted Edge). One thing she kept emphasising was not be afraid to fail. When you fail, learn from your mistake, pick yourself up and try again. You can keep failing - it's fine as long as you don't make the same mistakes. She kept failing when she first started out, but every time she fail, she failed with a different mistake.

Planning is one thing she feels that a lot of designers these days fail to do. Business plan, merchandise plan, marketing plan, logistics plan, etc. It may sound easy, but many people failed to do so. When you don't have a plan, the business is fragile and hard to succeed. It will be very hard to retain your customers because (for example) they do not know what your company's identity is, when will your new collection be launched, how fast can they get the new arrivals once it's launched. I made this mistake myself many years ago when I tried a small online venture. I launched everything at one go, and never launch anything new for months while I continue to try to market my stuff.

The second speaker Pamela Wigglesworth caught our attention with her interesting real-life examples. We all know that social media is important in today's business world. But I didn't know just how important it is. Taken from her article on her blog, this was what she said at the seminar too - there is 1.19 billion active monthly Facebook users. Look at the numbers carefully. 1.19 billion active monthly Facebook users. That is how much customers we can reach out via Facebook!

It's very important to keep the conversation going. The conversation that Pamela speaks about is the "conversation" between you and your customer. This conversation is important as it helps to pull old customers back into your store, reminds them of your existence, etc. This may not come as a new piece of information but I'm sure many of us neglect this. We are all so eager to attract customers into our store, but we all forget about customer retention and also making them come back for more.

Thomas Tan was so excited even before the seminar starts. As he was chatting to other attendees before the seminar start, his high-pitched voice rang across the room and infected everyone with his excitement. He is a very jolly speaker. He shared his personal experiences when he first graduated and try to find his way around before finally becoming a mentor at TaFf. He brought up a very good point - when you graduated from the Fashion Design Diploma or Degree, you don't necessarily have to be a fashion designer. There are many other ways to work in the Fashion industry. Like he shared, there are some students who are excellent drafters or drapers or seamstress. The lecturers could see that too. But such rare talents became lost in the sea of thousands of fashion graduates (yearly) when they graduate just wanting to be a fashion designer with their own label.

Priscilla Shunmugam (founder and designer of Ong Shunmugam) came in halfway through the seminar looking jet-lagged. That's because she just had her first solo runway the night before at Audi Fashion Week 2014. While fighting her fatigue (she was surviving on 2 hours of sleep every night for many many nights), she shared her stories of how she started off. She managed to return the money she borrowed from her friends (to buy fabrics to start making dresses to sell) within 9 months and began making profit in 11 months. It is an impressive feat. She fought off comments from the audience that her success came with luck. It came with sacrifices (social life, job, etc), plenty of research and in my opinion, quite some natural talent in tailoring.

So as you can see, it's quite unexpected and really inspiring. I'll be looking out for more workshops/seminars of similar nature because this is really the best way to learn new knowledge from the professionals or people in that industry who has been there done that.

My first work trip to HK!

It's April next week.

I'm officially 4 months into my job. The dreamy happiness of a new job is starting to wear off! But I'm still grateful and happy about my job. I must remind myself to be thankful for a job that has so much opportunities to grow and to learn. Because in the midst of being overwhelmed with work load, I tend to forget how lucky I am.

Ok I dont know how photo posting works on a mobile app. Maybe the photos will all appear at the end of the page. Haha.

I hopped off a midnight flight to Hong Kong the week before my birthday. Due to a big project,  the trip was brought forward and I had the lucky opportunity to tag along! You can imagine how happy I was. Two main reasons for that. One, that's my first trip to the  bustling city known to be very expensive to live in! Two, I finally get to go on a work trip and learn all about the fabric/accessories/supplier sourcing in Hong Kong!

The trip is exhausting. We barely slept on a 1am flight with a baby crying all night. Then it was 3days of walking, lugging a luggage full of samples, searching and finding stuff. Then at night was another round of walking. This time it's for leisure. Their food is so awesome too! So much better than the ones in sg that call themselves "Hong Kong cafe". Then on the 4th day we take another early morning flight at 5am and arrive back at noon to head right back to office. Gosh. So hectic! Fun for the first time but maybe not as great the next time.

I've been taking up more responsibilities in office, going out to meet more clients, etc. The work nature is slowly changing. But sadly, my working environment is changing too. The changes are not very welcoming. Oh wells, that's expected. That's why I never want to be a boss of my own brand in the future. If my dream ever come true that is! ;)

Time really flies when I'm enjoying myself.

It's been 2months plus since I joined the company. Work hasn't been entirely smooth, but I think I'm fitting in very well. Much better than I did during my 8mth stint in my first job. Urgh. I still shudder at the thought of that place.

Anyway! My probation is going to end soon! Yippee! Means that my OT finally gets to be exchanged for time off. Haha. That's the only perk for me to look forward to ending my probation. Don't get me wrong. There aren't any reason not to look forward to the end of the probation. Haha.

The people in this company are the nicest I have met. They have the most adorable old working people, cutest hr/accounts, most hardworking and humble Chinese (I mean the people from China), and the most understanding and reasonable boss. The working environment is very learning-friendly. And I think there is almost no office politics at all. Working life couldn't be any better. I don't even dread Monday,  beside the fact that I can't go shopping or laze around at home. Time passes so fast the moment I step into office. And even though my job is pretty brain-draining, I don't feel 100% drained in all aspects. I can skip hop and jump in office haha. I think I may seem like a mad women. Hahaha.

But of course my work has it's challenges. There are external people who can be such idiots/bitches sometimes. The software may not be entirely obedient as well. And my projects are not without twists and turns. Nevertheless, I love my job and my workplace. It isn't the 100% perfect dream job of course. But it's the closest I think I can ever find. Even with my cannot-stay-still character,  I think I may be able to stay in the company for quite awhile. Let's not say how long. But it's definitely going to be longer than I'd expected.