saplanet originals

We have newly launched the 1″ pin button in our store. They illustrations are based on our saplanet’s doll designs. Pin buttons are very versatile, you can pin them anywhere, anyway, and anyhow you like. Believe me, this adds instant cuteness to wherever you choose to pin them on.

Every character in saplanet, has a role to play, and an unique personality that tags with them, they have grown to be very dear to me. I am someone who dreams too much, and in my simple planet, it’s a world of unbelievable fantasies evolving around me. In this small planet, they come to life and are my best companions. (^_^)

Also, a reminder of the no shipping period in our store(s). It actually applies across all the stores we are selling, if I, the ‘planet’ keeper is away, who else is going to pack the orders, make the cuties, and have them shipped?

I ordered this stamp from merrygolucky. I am absolutely pleased with the product and her excellent customer service!

I am definitely back for more whenever I need another stamp. Stamping is just too fun, oh well, it could be that little child in me that misses the fun stamping.

A Big Thank You!

It’s been an unbelievable year in 2008. Despite the global gloom that affected and still affecting most of us in 2008, saplanet had a fun year, because of you. Thank you!

Looking back on the events that took place in 2008, we had taken on quite a mega roller coaster ride too. 

+ our ebay store was closed down by ebay due to their unjustified mistakes
+ we opened our very own proper webstore built on zencart system
+ we had to deal with unethical webmasters, and buyers who posted our patterns on the internet, for the first time, we had to file in a report for copyright infringement. We had dealt with China websites, microsoft website, and a bunch of foreign forums, that was quite a bit to deal with in a year, wasn’t it?
+  we received more compliments and invitations to be featured in respective publications, blogs, and website (thank you so much!)
+ we had so much fun with the brides whom we worked with for their wedding orders
+ my parents are officially retired

I am sure there are more to add to the list, all the goodness took off a large portion of the heavy greys that surrounded all of us, I am truly thankful.  

In the year ahead, I hope to fine tune my personal mindset towards people. I could use more forgiving and letting go techniques so that I can continue to enjoy my work.

The contradiction in crafting business, is that crafting is mainly handmade, that means that there is a real blood and flesh person behind the product that the you buy, not a giant corporation. Personally, that is kind of personal to me. On the other hand, in any transaction, it’s really just business. Unlike the standard businesses, indie sellers have the opportunity to develop an informal personal connection with the buyers.

I believe that it is alright for buyers to want to interact more with a particular seller, because they truly appreciate the works and efforts. It is alright to communicate ideas, it is alright to suggest. It is alright to attempt a negotiation for bulk discount.

It is however not alright to order and not pay. It is not alright to not respond to seller’s reminders, emails pertaining to the order. It is not alright be rude. 

The latter, is what I need to let go. I have to stop trying to understand the poor behaviors of non-paying buyers. I kept asking myself, what is so difficult for the buyer to contact us to tell us that she changed her mind about the order, and that she would like to cancel that order, since no items were shipped or made yet. Quickly, I found myself trapped in a circling path of thoughts and left me frustrated. I tried to make sense out of someone’s fear, but maybe it’s just a personal issue of fears, maybe it’s just a deficit quality in a person to communicate effectively about her problem. Sadly, 90% of such bad customers are my fellow Singaporeans, that added to the frustration, really, because for a moment, knowing that I share the same nationality with these people, made me feel ashamed and disgusted of being one. 

Then again, I think, it’s ok to not always understand the rationale of poor behaviors, it’s ok to just let it go. 

Life is such that it works wonders to make things right in one way or another, eh? My best and worst buyer comes from the same place…hahaha. 

This has not changed my way of doing business. I just need to separate things a bit. We all have this similar problem, don’t we? The one key thing we so love about our work, might just be the same one thing that we hate about our work. hahaha. It’s the friendly and informal amazing seller-buyer relationship that makes this crafting business purposeful; it’s also this same relationship that is often being taken granted for that makes this business crappy at times. 

Most of my buyers understand that we are just a small tiny business, this is not just a past time hobby for us, this is what pays my bills, and support my retired parents. Most of my buyers are really wonderful, some simple lines of encouragement, and appreciate had helped me move on more steadily. 

Overall in 2008, through saplanet, I made some really good friends (both buyers and sellers) and they are like precious gems; and lose some bad apples. Hopefully 2009 is a nicer year.

Oh well, I guess we just really need to strike a balance in matters, and we will all be good. 

Have a really wonderful year ahead!!! Thank you all, once again, it’s been my pleasure!

You already know that I am obsessed with drawing lately. I really think I am making some small progress since the first sketch I did. I learn new tricks each time, and it is very satisfying. 

I spent 3 days on this drawing, it’s quite a bit of work, or let’s say I am still learning. Unlike the dolls, life sketch has too much details, and I want to included as much as I could. 

I decide to make this into a magnet. Considering the high consumption of time to produce just one sketch, I may not offer this service, and I think the pro can do a much better job than I. I have received countless requests for caricature illustrations, and personally I still love PJ’s works to bits, too much cuteness to resist. I am doing this up so that the couples can visualize how it may look like to have their life sketches made into magnets. 

This wedding magnet set tells a story about Mike and I. I chose to use the image of a bus-stop as our backdrop, because our relationship began at a bus-stop, although neither of us could remember which bus-stop or the day we were trapped at the bus-stop, but it’s the magical bus-stop that sealed our fates together. (^_^)

I would imagine the fun to tell everyone who receives the favor (oh no, we are not re-doing the wedding, I wouldn’t change a thing about our wedding, it was perfect) the story of this composition. We had our wedding magnet for our wedding too, and it was nothing but fun when we were dragged aside by guests about the magnet images. 

It’s interest to imagine that the story embedded into these magnets would be told by guests to their friends. It may not mean a thing to them, but they are provided with a personal love story of the couple, isn’t that nice? When asked by friends, they now have an option to tell the love story behind the favor, rather than a standard ‘Oh, this is the favor I received from a friend’s wedding’.

I’ll be traveling on the following dates:
+ Confirmed schedule: 25 Jan to 06 Feb 2009
+ Tentative plan: 10 Mar to 20 Mar 2009

March plan is tentative at this point, but I am very likely to be away for at least 5 days to 10 days in March.

All my online shops will still be kept open, but shipping out of physical orders will only be possible after I return. I will have access to internet connection, from the places I am traveling to (that is what it says in the hotel website), so patterns can still be purchased through the shops. I would really appreciate a little more patience for the e-pattern delivery while I am traveling. it may take slightly longer to send out the pattern since I am unlikely to be online all the time. (I’d better be!!)

Do send in your inquiries for wedding favors early, if your big day falls on those days that I am going away. Design work and correspondences take time, so do drop us a mail early.

 If I can manage, I will see if I can come up with something for Valentine’s day theme, I have never done anything for V-day, since I always travel during that period, or near that period.

Maybe I really should be spending the time drawing to design new amigurumi patterns, but I really want to put that on hold for a bit until the new year begins. 

Meanwhile, I have a new banner up in my etsy shop and dawanda shop. I am also using this same banner for this craftblog. I merely made some small changes to the arrangement of the little ones. 

Year 2008 has been a year of purchase for me. I have to say that the best buys would be the laser printer, and the wacom tablet. It’s really a lot easier to work on the vector with the tablet, I could get really frustrated with using the mouse to catch the anchor, or working with the smooth tool, with the tablet, it’s been a breeze…. 

This banner is more colorful, and let’s hope that Year 2009 would be a brighter and more vibrant year.

Sure, I really can’t get enough of this. I am not going to hide the narcissistic quality in me too..hah!

I used to have to spend 3 hours every week to do water color paining, sketches etc. It was very pressurizing when you were the only girl in the class and the teacher just glued his feet on the floor just behind your seat. He was literally breathing down my neck, while I merely breathe in sheer stress. 

It kind of hindered my judgement and decision making, because when I was aware that the eyes were affixed to every move I took, I was awaiting for affirmation. Then again, life wasn’t that easy, if I were to hesitate for long, or to wait for the teacher to acknowledge my next step, he would say with a husky yet loud voice, ‘What are you waiting for? Are you waiting for me to spoon-feed you? Make your own decision, I cannot be guiding your every step, can I?’ (something like that, he was a really strict teacher)

We had to prepare our own water color palette, brushes, water, and other tools. Back then, the one thing that I thought about most was the expenses. We were asked to use premium brushes, and the full set cost a bomb; water color paper wasn’t cheap too; so are all other arts tools. I felt really bad to have to keep asking mum for money to buy arts materials, we weren’t rich, so I knew it must have been tough for my parents. I didn’t buy the whole set of brushes though, I only got the essential sizes, really it wasn’t affordable to me at that time. 

Mum didn’t understand why I was required to buy expensive brushes, unfortunately that wasn’t a choice, it was a ‘requirement’. Anyway, I showed her the difference between a good brush and a normal brush. She didn’t object to buying them, she just felt it was very expensive. 

I kept my tools for many years until I was moving house. 

Now, I draw for leisure and fun, I am not a professional. Drawing is equally therapeutic as crochet, it’s the process of beginning something from the scratch, to the end of the finished result. For many of us, art course is a luxury that we can only afford, perhaps in our dreams, so we do it for fun, hiding under the shadow of the professionals. For some of us, we are only trying to fulfill this small desire inside us.

I bet everyone is now excited about Christmas, and I didn’t even know it is already the Christmas eve until I heard the Radio DJ wished the listeners a Happy Christmas Eve!

I have been working my fingers crazy with crochet works for months, now that almost everyone is rushing out to get their last minute shopping, or excitedly whipping up the Xmas feasts, or getting to party the night out, I am here enjoying the cool weather, and still meddling with the tablet. 

I am still trying to work around with various softwares, to achieve a more desirable result of the artwork. I think I like drawing with Corel, and prefer to paint with Photoshop. 

These are created by toggling between Corel Paint and Photoshop. The more graining background of the angel of balance (2nd image) is done using the watercolor from Corel Paint. The cat is sketched out using Corel Paint, and colored fully with Photoshop.

Sarah made this pair of wedding couple for her neighbor (lucky neighbor!), she used a net fabric to sew in for the veil instead. Don’t they just look so happy?

This is the dragon that Sarah made. She chose to use cat’s eyes instead of the clear craft eyes. 

Thank you Sarah, for sharing!

I have my eyes on the Wacom Intuos3 tablet for the longest time, and during one IT show, Mike helped to check out the prices and all, and we went to get it the following day.

I hadn’t had the time to play with it, until now. As the Christmas rush winds down, I am getting more of my well deserved Lis’ time and can go ahead and play with my new toy.

I am only beginning to get a hang of the tablet and pen flow, but as you may see, I am still not that good, but I will continue to play with it.

This is a sketch of what my room looks like, day.. and night. On the extreme right, would be crazy crafter - Lis; in the middle is professional newpets gamer - mum; on the extreme left would be the serious warcraft gamer - Mike. 

There is actually a small fan in between my mum and I, but since this is the first serious sketch I did, I took that out. Mike’s hair is a little overgrown now, so it’s kind of long, his desk is now packed with lots of documents = mere mess! (I left that details out too). The bookshelf in between Mike and mum is covered with my crocheted piece which adds some colors to the room, most importantly, this is an open bookshelf, so the books get quite a bit of dust, so this helps to minimize the dust sitting in onto the books. 

When I am done with my share of fun with my new toy, I will take some quieter time to ponder through what have been done this year, as 2009 moves in.

I am not sure, but the photo turns out to look like Hong-tzu is now the Empress Dowager? Protected or waited on by the 4 little court maidens? 

Since Hong-tzu is the grandma, so I wanted to give her the highest esteemed chair while the 4 girls standing around, I am always amused by how the photo may try to tell a different story.. haha

My mum and my sister’s 4 girls are very closely knitted, and I hope they will remain this way for as long as she lives. 

From left: xin-tzu (for Sherwin, whose Chinese name is Wenxin); xuan-tzu (for Michelle, Chinese name Minxuan); Hong-tzu (for mum, aka Ah Hong); Hui-tzu (for Mindy, Chinese name Minghui); Qin-tzu (for Merlin, Chinese name Kaiqin). 

I have finally accomplished the mission passed down by Mother Dowager, which left me with a band-aided finger (it’s a really Ouch factor with the stick piercing the skin broken, I am sure the shower in a while will be a teeth-gritting experience). 

(Look at the doll made for Mindy (yellow dress), she looks slightly different from the rest? Higher forehead? Yeah, actually that really looks like Mindy in real person. haha)

This is probably the 2nd gender specific tortoise I have made. Can you tell she is a girl? 

It’s quite a refreshing combination of pink and pale yellow. I gave her a sparkling flower tattoo on her back. She is really sweet!

The making of Hongtzu:
It isn’t the easiest design I have done so far, if you think she is a similar design to Shintzu. The fact that I have to create her nice bum, seated on her legs, it took quite a bit of trial and error. If you take a closer look at the last photo, Hongtzu has a beautiful bum, that shape was a killer to design! She is designed to look more matured than Shintzu, since she is the mother of Shintzu. Hongtzu is designed to be the more traditional and conservative Japanese woman who embraces all the great virtues of a demure and well mannered Japanese woman. 

Hongtzu is specially designed and named after my mummy, Ah Hong. The story will be largely based on a true story of my mum. (and the truth is based on what I know and perceived as truth…in case any relative jump their guns at me)

Hongtzu was born in a relatively large family, she is the 2nd daughter in line of her many siblings. Several of her siblings were given away as they couldn’t afford to raise that many children. 

Hongtzu’s elder sister was married at a tender age (probably 18 years old), that made her the eldest daughter at home, and the responsibility to care for her other younger siblings landed on her. As the family was poor, they couldn’t afford education for every child, therefore, they ’shared’ the schooling experiences, with each child receiving just 1-2 years of education in the primary level. The younger children were able to finish Secondary School education though, since some of the older siblings were already bringing home income. 

Hongtzu probably had a year of lower Primary education, and she had to pass on the baton to the next sibling. She started work at a very tender age, so that she could bring home some money to help with the household expenses. She did all sorts of work, including sewing in a factory, odd jobs, and also being a maid for a wealthy Japanese family. The Japanese family was extremely kind to Hongtzu, they sent her for some studies in Japanese language, which she couldn’t remember any of them now. 

The family had moved from places to places, due to poverty and other reasons. They had better times too, but often short-lived. 

Hongtzu was a very helpful girl, thus a very popular girl, and made many friends. Today, she kept in touch with none of the friends she made when she was young, in fact, she lost touch with them in her mid 20s. The landlord kept and threw away all the letters that her friends sent to her (be reminded that, in those days, the most common communication was snail mail, not everyone could afford a telephone). She was greatly saddened. Her family was moving away, and she couldn’t locate any of her friends in time.

Hongtzu led a frugal life, even after she was married. It was the time of the bad recession, and her husband could not find work. She sourced for many different consigned home-based jobs, sold cookies and cakes to friends and referrals during festive seasons, just so that she could feed her 2 children, one of them is Shintzu. Things were better when the economy picked up. 

Although Hongtzu received very little education, she has very strong morals, and she is a proactive learner. She is now a 60 years old grandma, and she can handle neopets gaming, msn, and surfing on the internet, on an English operating system! It’s hard to believe that a person who had absolutely no education in English can manage any of the above. That goes to show what a determined woman she is. 

All her life, Hongtzu has been caring for others. Today, she has a husband who always respect and remember the support she renders to the family over the many years; 2 daughters who love her greatly in a strange manner, but definitely love her to bits; 4 granddaughters who adore her to molecules, whom she loves affectionally too. Although she doesn’t has big house to live in, expensive clothes to wear, she is living a content life. 

This photo was taken in Nov 1969, mum just obtained her ‘Golden Key’ to freedom just 2 months earlier. This was taken in a photo studio, it’s akin to the makeover photo shots for us today. 

Nearly a year later in Sep 1970, she went back to the same studio ‘High Light Singapore’ with a friend (I assumed she was a friend) and took another similar photo. (Take a look at the kimono that her friend wore, wasn’t it the same that she wore the year before?). I think she was out celebrating her 22nd birthday with this friend, and perhaps it was an impromptu decision to go take a studio pic? (I have to confirm this with her later)

(Edit: Mum verified (if we can really rely solely on her poor memory, not due to aging, but she remembers numbers better than events) that it was not birthday celebration, this lady (on the left) was her colleague she was working as a seamstress, the High Light Singapore was located at the ground floor of the building)

Maybe, some time in January, which is usually slower in sales, I would dig out all my mum’s old photos, and then scan them in, touch it up a little, and then make a blurb book for her. Those photos are turning yellow and some slightly torn here and there. She would probably be happy to have her own book eh?

To begin the story of Hongtzu, I have to start with a peaceful, standard, unsuspicious day…

Above sketch would be what we see almost everyday, in our work cum play room. As usual, mum (on the left) would be playing neopets, while I busy myself on my imac with all the online activities (such blogging now!).

Suddenly, mum felt like starting a conversation…
(M = mum; L = Lis, conversation translated from mixes of Mandarin/Hokkien to English)
M: Hey,  are you very free now? No business? 
L: Says who? I am very busy, I just need to work on the computer as well
M: Oh… but you make dolls very fast.
L: So?
M: I want that Japanese girl also
L: No..no..no… (feeling the need to feed my ego) Cute right?
M: Yeah, very cute, I want
L: Do you know that Shintzu is named after me? Lixing (my name), Xing-zi = shintzu.. heee
M: Oh… Then, make another Japanese doll, slightly different, and name it Hongtzu! My name, Ah Hong!
L: NO!!!! What kind of name is that!!!! Not cute!
M: Can lah.
L: I’m getting busy already! NO!!!!
M: Ok… you owe me one Hongtzu eh
L: … (are you hearing me at all???)
M: oh, and make another 4 shintzu
L: WHAT???!!!! Didn’t I just say I am getting busy?
M: But you are very fast with doll making what. Ok eh, you owe me one hongtzu, 4 shintzu.
L: …. 

Since that conversation, she has never stopped bugging me about Hongtzu.  The story of Hongtzu will be posted in the next post.

It felt as if it was just yesterday that we got all excited about Christmas, before we knew it, we are just 10 days away from Christmas. 

Amazingly, since a child, this has always been my favorite holiday of the year. There were only 2 holidays throughout the year that we got to buy new clothes, Christmas, and Lunar New Year. My mum would bring my sister and I for clothes shopping. We used to dread the new clothes ritual, because mum used to buy some fabrics and have them tailored into ‘uniforms’ for us. We really hated that, but now that we reminisce the childhood, it was something we really missed too. When we traveled, Agnes and I were dressed in the similar outfit, from one look, you would know we are related. Haha

I haven’t celebrated Christmas and Lunar New Year for more than 10 years now. It’s a growing up process, where the darkness met my path, and even though I am now out in the sun again, I realized that the new way of celebrating festive seasons fit into my personality type better… private celebration. I am really not a crowd person.

So, now that Christmas is fast approaching, I decide to ‘get’ Shintzu new outfit, and Dotty has grown up quite a bit too. Shintzu is very happy with her new kimono, and since Dotty has been a really good devil since the day she tamed him, she doesn’t hold on to Dotty tightly anymore. She has successfully trained him to be self-disciplined. 

I know, I have cooked up a really sensible story here, but the truth is… I haven’t got time to do up new illustration. Haha, I can only afford a little tweaks here and there. 

Today, I am working on Hongtzu (oh yes, I am finally working on this, since the deadline is Christmas, I really need to work on her already), and I already have a long story to tell. 

Hopefully I can get her completed by tomorrow.