punch house [part one]

miniature construction site?!

design within reach?

quite often, people ask or complain that designer items (clothing, furniture, homes, anything) are ridiculously priced. when i worked on the purchasing of the spec'd furniture for office projects, i was so shocked to learn that $4000 for a table was a good price?!

today, i spent almost $700 on felt for the chair i'm making for the furniture studio. that's when i realize, it's the quality in good design that make designer items so NOT within reach. if I were to settle with industrial felt and forget about the flaring and shedding problems, i would've at least saved $250..but how could i?mass production could help cutting down the raw cost. but because of the limited demand, bulk pricing will not be available..and then it limits the designer's ability to experiment freely..

so next time, when you and i whine about how DWR is not so DWR..let's pause and observe the quality and concept of the object first. =)

Tiffany & Company Gehry Jewelry Launch, Beverly Hills, CA, 2006 by Ball-Nogues Studio

vs. our project for the ben ball tech studio, ucla spring 09 i really feel like these was so much more potential in our project that was unnoticed and unrecognized....

spring studio update & rumble

::studio update::

for the spring quarter, AUD at UCLA does this thing called ::rumble::

basically, everyone will be finished with production at the same time, do a department-wide installation all together, have a one day long mega review marathon, and then the work will be on a public exhibition for the whole week. the intention is to generate interaction with the public and local professionals and show case the work that was done during the school year.

tech seminar with ben ball

::courtyard installation::

repurposed material->installation->new products recycled coffee sleeves->installation->furniture

click image caption for more photos.

updates

updates for winter quarter's final review are up.

again. school >moca

"

-column locations & sizing

-interior partition's materiality

-hierarchy of plate thicknesses

-skin to plate relationship

-variations of skin: opaque, translucent, transparent

-roof treatment..garden? perforation in skin?

...."

this list of things I need to resolve goes on...with 10 days left..and we are supposed to finish with the "design" phase tomorrow and just produce material for the final review for the next week...

gotta learn how to pause and be ok with imperfection.

i <3 special commission- part II

mosnter #80 on the daily monster! ^^ ::the daily monster::

[to be continued]

i <3 special commission- part I

::ninja vs penguin::

i met em and wey through steve. and have been secretively admiring emmy's illustrations since i found out about their blog. xP

i was very excited when emmy asked me if i could crochet amgurumi dolls of "ninjia" and "penguin". it was very fun process trying to figure out all the little details to make them look as close as her drawing. it was also my first time crochetting without instruction! it actually made crochetting more relaxing and spontenous since i didn't feel like i was going to forget "how many stictches did i just finish?"

it was even more rewarding when i saw pictures em took of the dolls while she was on a trip in taiwan..it's alway a pleasure to know your clients are satisfied with your work. ^^

::portry smell::

how do you portray smell? my mom shared with me a novel by german writer, patrick suskin, this past winter.. a horrifying yet delicately thought provoking story- "perfume" the ability to smell plays such a crucial role in our lives, but we often over look it. experiments showed that with the aroma we cannot taste.. wonder..how could one illustrate ::smell::?

::gocco supplies on sale!:: i admit. i got lazy..and i felt really bad letting this wonderful tool just sit in my apartment...so i am selling it to someone else who will put it to a better use~ ^^;

i have moved my shop to etsy.com about a month ago because of various reason. i wanted more people out there to get to know my craft work and personally i am a big fan of etsy, the online handmade crafts market. it is much easier to maintain than having to build all the pages myself and it will not be viewed only by my family and friends but anyone out there looking for a nice piece of handmade jewelry. for those who has gotten the shop@mocaEssence email last winter, I am starting a new line of paper goods (paper jewlery too!) on top of my original crystal+bead collection. It's a result of childhood hobby of origami making and my love for anything paper+print! oh! one more thing! the shop has officially gotten it's Chinese name! It's called :文思坊:, pronounced as :wen si fang:. It means the shop that collects the thoughts & creativity of wenny. it was a name that my mom had come up with when we talked about doing out own creative product line many years ago. so please click the image above to go to shop @ mocaEssence :文思坊: on etsy!

walk of 2nd street

austin children's museum

here's a series of photos i took for work. just to show the character of austin's new hip area- 2nd street district, where the city hall is located and our infamous "block 21" project will be located. to read more about "block 21", here's an article from the austin360.

to see each image at larger size click the image above

table top

so last weekend, i set up a little workshop right outside of my apartment and painted a table top. we have had this mdf board as our table top for almost a year. it have been very well used (with all kinds of stains, gooey stuff on it) and i was getting very disgusted by it. so i decided it was time to repaint this board and make it pretty. after working on this for the whole weekend (my back really hurt afterwards), this is the product. i'm still waiting for the weather to get better so I can take a better photo of it.

mdf board painted with behr semi-gloss paint (bear rug and mermaid treasure) with a polyurethane-clear waterproof coat