Jewelry Making Workshop: Learn how to create your own wearable masterpiece!

Earlier last week, I was invited to join a jewelry making workshop at Yayasan Seni, Kuala Lumpur. Okay, so I was a wee bit shameless at securing this invite. A Twitterer by the nickname of Jo (@JochebedLing) had tweeted out the invite asking for bloggers who would be interested to attend this workshop. Being an avid (or former avid) crafter myself, I had immediately contacted her to find out more of this. To my surprise and delight, the invitation was secured and I was all set to attend this workshop.

Yayasan Seni, Kuala Lumpur

I admit, it was a bit confusing trying to hunt down this place (I was using Waze) for a while. I guess the weird, back roads that looked somewhat dodgy didn’t help it either. But to my surprise and delight, we found this most adorable looking place called Yayasan Seni nestled lovingly among other residential areas. We learned that this building is originally a bungalow that was revamped into a nice, comfortable recreation place for coffee, crafts, and photography (I smell photoshoots coming along pretty soon!).

The boy ordered this wonderful fluffy omelet for brekkie! Total yums :D

Plus, we had a chance to check out That Latte Place just before the shop closes! If you coffee lovers are wondering, we found out that this wonderful shop will be relocated to Subang (yay for us!) and that there will be another makan place to take over the empty slot in Yayasan Seni soon. Can you imagine, this café was full from the time we arrived (around 10am) right up to we had left (about 1pm) with no breather in between!

EJS Jewelry Making Workshop

We were warmly greeted by the founder of EJS herself, Angie, as we tentatively entered the threshold (the area looked so lovely from outside, we wondered if we were even at the right place lol). She sent us off to That Latte Place to secure ourselves some breakfast (Long Black for me, Cheesy Omelet for him) before we begin our workshop.

When I explained that I do know a bit about jewelry making, Angie immediately shared with me some pro-tips (the not-so-beginner tips according to her) when it comes to jewelry making.  Suffice to say, the workshop was entertaining, the people were entertaining…and most of all, the children attending the workshop were entertaining! I couldn’t help but smile and giggle a bit as I shamelessly eavesdropped conversations happening next to me. Apparently pinks and pastel purples are a hit among girls (no whoop there) hahaha.

For this workshop, I was given freedom to choose my colors and be creative with my design; using the base pattern given by Angie. Overall, I was to make one necklace, two bracelets, and a pair of earrings.

"Fishing line is for fishes, not humans!" I was told. Use Tiger Tail Beading Wire instead

Some of the beads and findings that were available on that day. The upper photo shows of jewelry samples that I'll be making in the workshop!

The results? My own personal stash of jewelry, ready to wear ^_^ Took me approximately 2.5 hours to complete all of these lol. I think I could get it done faster, but I’m pretty rusty x_X

Charm bracelet with matching earrings

Icy blue themed bracelet :D

Simple beaded necklace with a pearl bead as focal point

Extra

What else were displayed there? Have a look below!

There's even an adorable workshop for kids! x3

Angie also offers chainmail techniques in her workshop, which I think I’ll be visiting soon enough! I’ve tried this technique on my own at home, and while it COULD be done, it also took forever (and a heck load of eye strain) to complete a simple piece. Hopefully this workshop can shed some light in tricks and techniques to a proper chainmail technique J

Curious to know more? Here’s their Facebook pages to keep you updated for her latest workshop news.

EJS By Angie and Kelvin Gems

If you’d like to drop by for a quick query (or to sign up for the available workshops), visit their shop right here:

Kelvin Gems

2.03 Mezz Floor

Amoda Building,

22, Jalan Imbi,

55100 Kuala Lumpur.

Contact: 603-2148 7213

Email: contact@kelvingems.com

Website: http://www.kelvingems.com

Caffeine-filled Sunday

So I managed to score two invites to attend a coffee workshop organized by Università del Caffé della Malesia in Phileo Damansara. Many thanks to @TimeoutKL for this opportunity! Since I had won two passes, I invited Jaslyn to join me for this workshop. Ended up me being rather late (it was raining that morning) and getting somewhat lost in Phileo cause I couldn't figure out where the place was exactly! Took me three calls to Jas to find out where exactly! Hahaha ^^;

Live Happily with Illy Coffee; I chose Americano to start my day since milk would simply make me dash to the loo in agony!

The workshop lasted for roughly 2 hours (from 10am until 12pm) and it was conducted by Evelyn, Hugo, and Eric. The main topic of the day? How to brew that perfect cup of Espresso! :D

Beauty & Fashion Workshop [Day Two]

One month hiatus, my apologies. Let me continue with my event review for the Beauty & Fashion workshop that I was kindly invited to as a blogger by Maxis :)

Due to the sad incident I had with my memory card reader, all of my photos that I have had taken on Day Two went kaput when my memory card was corrupted. So for these few photos I have here, all credits goes to LouiseXin whom I had requested if I could use her photos for this post :)

[Day Two]

Unlike the day before, I find the activities held today to be more...tame. Our first session is with a professional hair stylist, Shawn Loong. He got the ball rolling by asking us questions about our hair,giving us simple tips to keep our hair healthy, and how hair management differs from one individual to another. Quite interesting really, now he had gotten me wanting to go to his hair salon to give my hair some pamperings *laughs*

After a quick break (we went off for some energy boosts in our own ways) we moved on with a talk on Love & Relationship Challenges by Teresa Chew. It was a good talk, though I admit that I did not gain anything from there. I suppose it's cause I have not been in a proper relationship for 4 years now *laughs* but either way, the talk was okay :)

LUNCH! Once again, I did my best not to pig out during our buffet lunch interval....which was hard. Food was really good and my eyes sparkled over the dessert section once more! Though I did not take a lot of that since I was never a sweet tooth person in the first place anyway...

After lunch, our workshop continued with Kee Hua Chee and his talk on How to make yourself NEWSWORTHY. It was a pretty interesting talk, where he gave us ideas on how to find those unique angles in our lives that may prove to be interesting enough for people to talk about. I wonder if Cosplay and BJD works for me...hahahahaha.

Photo credits to LouiseXin 

This is ONE photo that I know I want to share with everyone! Cause I really love it too haha. It's Kee Hua Chee's awesome get-up! Check out his rings, they're awesome! His theme? Golden Dragon from head to toe! His shoes are pretty cool though, but sadly no photos on my side ;w;

After his talk it was time to have a mini forum session with the three beauty queens, namely Dato' Anna Lim (Miss Malaysia/Universe 1990 & Mrs Malaysia/World 2004/05), Nadine Ann Thomas (Miss Universe Malaysia 2010) and Chantelle Chuah (Miss Malaysia Model of the World 2007). The main topic revolving around this forum is about the life and experiences earned by a beauty queen. It was a cool time, though most of us were pretty quiet during the forum (me included!). Some of the questions directed to them were about their lives before joining in the pageant and the challenges and hardships received from the whole deal.

NEXT.

A Lingerie Talk by Evelyn Foo from Triumph. Holy cows bells I really want those lingerie after seeing them being paraded in the workshop!! Like, seriously, damn cool! I usually spare Triumph lingerie momentary glances before heading off for those RM10 bras you can get from Jusco (yes I am a cheapo I know!) but this talk made me change my mind now. It's interesting to know that Triumph do have different Maximizer bras meant for plunging necklines, good support, extra push ups, and so on. I so want this for my next cosplay!

Oh guys? Don't drool now =P

Photo credits to LouiseXin 

Lingerie galore~!!!! I want that corset! *w*

Our final session is with Bill Lewis, who taught us what stress is about and Stress Management. Really bad. Good session, though I doubt I can actually tell myself NOT to be stressed out by everything hahaha . One good habit is to laugh a lot, or find something to laugh about. Bill gave us each a cute little egg-shaped maracas thingy and instructed us to throw it in the air at an indicated level and catch it repeatedly. It was a good deal of fun I can tell you, most of us couldn't stop grinning or giggling as we did this exercise. Maybe I should have this in my office for stress control *laughs*

That was the end of the workshop, and we had a nice finale when we received our certificates and had a group photo session with everyone. Thanks once more Maxis for inviting me to this lovely workshop :)

Beauty & Fashion Workshop [Day One]

This post is long overdue, I know. My apologies for this, cause recently I've lost my mood to blog (among other activities). Anyway, last month on the 26th and 27th of February, I had attended a Beauty & Fashion Studio workshop organized by Maxis as a guest blogger. Now when I was asked if I could attend this workshop, my first dismayed thought was, "Whoa, TWO days on weekend?" cause well, it's a weekend! Hahahaha so I felt like I was back to work, 7 days on a row or something. Got to admit though, in the end I find it quite worth it =)

 

The poster that greets us the moment we stepped out of the elevator; Amber Chia and Dato' Anna Lim poses to say Hi? Hmmm..... 

Yep, a folder to fill up with our scribbled notes that we'll doodle/jot down as the seminar goes on...and on.....and on..... 

Daphne Iking! I think this is my second time meeting her (I can't remember what happened during the first time though, I'm not too familiar with local celebs in the first place so I can be pretty blur in general! Hahahaha).

Her presentation was all about how to speak better in public; or to be more precise, the arts of Public Speaking. Not bad, she knows how to keep the audience captivated (even though she rambles, which she keeps on smacking herself for doing so!) and her points were quite noteworthy too. Unfortunately what she had presented to us, I have already learnt from my former lecturer in college, who was an excellent teacher in the arts of Public Speaking (kudos Dr. Steven, you sure made me learn how to speak properly!) but it was still entertaining and a walk down memory lane recalling those tips and pointers about how to speak in front of an audience!

All about Fashion...and Trends. Our charming presenter for this particular session is none other than Keith Kee. He taught us how to distinguish the cool, warm and earth colors in our fashion, and how to mix and match appropriately without looking too 'far-out'. Some lucky audience also got to get up there on stage and learn how to pick the best accessory/jacket/piece of apparel to change their look from Day to Night. Was an interesting talk, that's for sure.

We also had a talk with Ben Ibrahim about impromptitude speaking - in other words, how to speak spontaneously. In the entertainment industry, one often needs to act out or speak impromptu when there's last minute changes and no script at hand. So he taught us some basics about it (though he stressed a lot on the fact that it's always best to be prepared beforehand). Let's say we're given a topic to speak on at the very last minute, take some minutes off and quickly Prepare your speech, Plan what you need to convey to the audience, and finally, how to Engage with them without leaving them in tears of boredom.

 

How to walk like a model.

Err yes, I think I pretty much failed at this. The key to it, according to Benjamin Toong and Amber Chia, is to walk straight and confident without looking too robotic. Suffice to say, we were taught the 'hard' way on how to walk confidently. Here's what we did:

1. Find a wall and stand straight against it. Make sure your shoulders and heels touch the wall.

2. Remain in that position, and walk forward; imagine you're walking on a tightrope (basically walk in a straight line)

3. Your elbows should be slightly bent inwards and swing them gracefully to match your steps.

Sounds easy? Nah, not as simple as it sounds. It took us roughly 5 rounds to get the basics of it....somewhat. It was fun though!

Oh yeah, Benjamin's awesome platforms that made us go OOoooooh and me going OMG I WANT THAT SHOES!!!! 8-inch platforms with GORGEOUS details on the platforms 

Wine tasting! I had fun tasting both white and red wine. Oh before this awesome session, we had two more sessions about Social Skills (body language, eye contact, tone of speech, etc) and Dining Etiquette (what's the correct order in dining, and what cutlery is meant for which meal, etc). 


The awesome white wine that we sampled. It tasted slightly citrusy and tangy, with a sweet taste of grapes to it. This is one wine that I really do like! 

The red wine with white. I was not too fond of the red wine; the sharp taste of spices and heavy oak was a bit too much for me at first sip. Nevertheless, it grew to me as I continued sipping this glass of rich red wine. 

Thomas Guildimann, the speaker that presented the wine tasting session, told us about the process of wine-making, and the insane calories we used to down each time we take a glass of beer, whisky, or even Coca-Cola! He too, taught us how to match our wine with our food, especially Asian food (since well, English food's eash; red wine to red meat and white wine to white meat, bla bla bla).

That was the end of Day One; tiring but inspiring. Hey, I could say proudly that I have actually learn quite a number of things in one day, particularly in learning how to pose and walk (hahaha I sound like an airhead now). Coming up next: What happened on Day Two :)