a shallow and mad journal
My daily commute, whatsapp chat history, Evernote notes, random ideas, or countless saved pictures on my phone. Every bit of everyday, any RGBs and hex codes along the way.
I wrote many times that I don’t have extra energy to keep on creating something at the end of last year. But this one is an anomaly. I finished it in hours and already satisfied with only one colorway.
It was a rainy night and I suddenly stuck with an idea. It’s not an entirely new idea, but more of the thoughts that bother me every day. It’s more like an inability to make changes. It’s funny that I made a person as an object. To be honest, it’s more like, you and me.
Pardon me because sometimes, I cannot stop making a list of things that inspired me :)) I wanted to share a lot of things, but I somehow always forget to include a lot of things. I used to keep something that I treasured for myself only. Because the thought of someone else like the same things I do, making me less cool. But that’s the selfish and younger version of me speaking. Now, I think that pretty things should be shared with a lot of people so the maker can get the appreciation they deserve.
I stumbled upon Ayu Melati’s account last year. Ayu made a beautiful jewelry reserved for fairies. Every month, Ayu buys some gems to be made into rings and necklaces. The simple design of Ayu’s jewelry gives a dreamy and adorable vibe you’ll only find in fairy tales. I always want to order it but somehow always missed the Pre Order.
(image from here)
To be completely honest, this pattern doesn’t come naturally to me. We were looking for the right pattern to make Bag/Tote Collection and I’ve been obsessed to find a way to translate food into a pattern. Thus, we chose ‘Kue Subuh’ as a theme. It would have been easy if we’re trying to only make food pattern, since all we need to do is translating real food into illustration. So, I try to find a way to breathe more life into it.
The initial inspiration for the pattern
If I need to start my gratitude list for this year, maybe I need to start with Kawung Living and how I run the business this year. I don’t know if there’s anyone who wants to talk this kind of sensitive things to the public. Most of the time, I avoid the talks and only giving a surface answer when someone asked. I mean, when you run a business people would love to talk either they success story and/or how they struggle with it. There is no one telling me how hard is too hard and what is the definition of success. Some people also want to look happy doing a business, some kind of proof that they are doing the right choice. This year, I learn that sharing things with other people is not always toxic. I hope writing this down would be some kind of stress reliever and a proof that whatever choice we take, all we need to do is trying our best. There is no shortcut or anything easy about it.
The period between Christmas and New Year usually is the most ‘uncertain’ one. It’s like hanging between two close holidays. Unlike 2016 which felt really fast, 2017 is running really slow for me. Looking back, I did many things and also lost as much. Anyway, these are things that caught up my eyes lately.
To be honest, I have these things with ceramic. I’ve been collecting local ceramic products for these past years and really happy when I visited Dib(uang) Sayang at Kineruku earlier this year. I’ve been taking home products from Kar Jewelry, Tacit, and others. I also never missed any Clearance & Reject Sale from Tekuni. So, finding Lisa Junius’ works is an instant joy. I love the perfect indigo products and the dreamy vibe that comes from it. I fell in love with these vases and these are certainly my favorite of them all.
(image from here)