Newish Brooches

Some new brooches, made a week or so ago. Some of them worked (above), some of them sorta worked, and some of 'em just didn't (below). They make a nice photo though.

Our Weekend Looked Something Like This

Fresh and dry produce at the Bangsar Sunday Market, coffee and cupcake from guess where?

The past week or so I've been nutting out some ideas for my new art project. I have a concept I'm working on based around the idea of home. Here's a sneak peak at three images I've made so far.


The images are watercolour and thread. I can't remember having ever used watercolour before. It was all we had around the house so I cracked it open. I don't use it with any sort of finesse, but I am absolutely loving it. I've also created my own surface patterns, which is another new step for me! Previously I had used existing objects as stencils to create surface pattern. These images are called, for now, "Table", "Light Fitting" and "Bed".

A Few Things I Haven't Mentioned Yet

* I completed my very first cross stitch project a few weeks ago. I bought one of those dinky little kits in a pansy motif. I never knew cross stitch could be so much fun! Maybe it was due to the 'stitch by numbers' aspect of it, but I found it engrossing and relaxing. I love methodical repetition when I make things (although I try to balance that with variety and spontaneity) , so cross stitch served that obsession.

* A while ago I made a lovely tofu salad thingy and, for the first time I can remember, Thistler happily chowed down on the tofu! That was until he fished a shell out of his mouth. I kid you not, he found a tiny shell in his piece of tofu! Oh boy, I wish we took a photo. We were shocked. What on earth?! After a bit of blustering we figured they must process tofu with seaweed in it on the same equipment at the tofu factory. At least it wasn't a hair, or a finger...

* I have never been in so many taxis all my life since coming to KL. Taxi drivers are as varied as any group of people you're likely to meet. Some are dandruff friendly, some are a little deaf or think I'm a little deaf and yell "left la?!" at intervals to check they're going the right way. Others are chatty and funny and ask us a lot of questions. We had such a driver once. He was lovely, dispensing advice about how to best handle other taxi drivers, places we should go in KL and the benefits of the Australian/Malaysian exchange rate. When we reached out destination he turned to us and said "Can I sing you a song before you go?". "Wow", I thought, "We are about to be serenaded by a taxi driver!"
"Sure!" we said. And he sang, "Tie me kangaroo down sport, tie me kangaroo down..."

• 

You know you live in a jolly neighbourhood when the garbage men yell out "Morning Miss, how are you?" as you walk past. It happened this morning as I came home from a trip to the local market. A chorus of garbage men greeting me. It made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. The security guards were just as pleased to see me "Good morning Miss!" they chimed, and I almost forgot they were armed with truncheons. At the market almost every stall holder greeted me this way. When I went for coffee another chorus of "Morning Miss" sounded before I had closed the door behind me. I have never been called Miss so frequently! I wonder what it would take to be upgraded to Misses. Or Ma'am?




A few more who answer to 'Miss Maude'.

The man who runs the stall at the market where I bought my veggies this morning didn't call me Miss, but he was wryly amused when I refused a plastic bag and put my goods in my basket instead, "Sure you don't want a bag?" he asked, gently waving one around and smiling to himself. "No no, it's OK." "Oh-kay", he sighed, as if certain my vegetables will misbehave without the constraints of one. They didn't though, I got them home without mishap.
While at the market I tried what I thought would be a banana fritter but turned out to be Ewe Char Koay, a Chinese doughnut in two thinnish strips joined together. Mm, a doughy fried treat. I really should have saved it for my coffee as it needed a bit of dunking to soften up! The coffee shop was playing a soft, acoustic cover by a female singer of Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer". Wow, so edgy!



Even my taxi ride home was an experience. The driver had Madonna pumping, and well, I enjoyed it! Ahh, Madonna. Sometimes just the thing in small quantities and in public places. Unless it's her cover of American Pie. Or any version of American Pie. I wonder if there's a Chinese pop song called "Ewe Char Koay"?

singapore oh singapore

Whew! We spent about 19 hours on a train this weekend. We thought a quick (!) trip to Singapore was in order, so boarded a train from KL on Saturday night. We thought it would be fun to spend some time on a train, see some country side, chat about this and that, that sort of thing. What is wrong with us? What induced us? Well, visa renewal for one. And the idea that you can get on a train to visit another country (a concept unknown in Australia). Even though we took the overnight train we decided to book out seats in the seating section, and not the sleepers. We were trying to save a bit of money. Saving a bit of sleep would have been the better option... But it wasn't that bad, really.

View of National Museum in Singapore

We did have a wonderful time in Singapore! Singapore is an island off the bottom of Peninsular Malaysia and was just so different to KL!! Footpaths, they had footpaths! We spent our time in the Arts district which was AWESOME. Galleries and museums and fountains. We really didn't spend much time in Singapore but did see a bit from taxi windows. Yes, it is very very clean. And at customs you must declare chewing gum. It's as hot as KL, but with so much art around does it matter?
Sunday afternoon we got back on the train. It was shorter this time as it wasn't an overnight train (they slow the overnight train down for a full nights sleep). We got home late anyway. Monday was a public holiday so we headed into Bangsar for lunch at our favourite Indian eatery and a spot of food shopping. Bangsar is beginning to feel a little bit like home, which is lovely! But we shall definitely try and get back to Singapore and spend some serious time there.

Singapore Art Museum

+wondermilk

This morning we sought out a cafe/gallery we'd been reading about in local publications called +wondermilk. It was in a part of town a 10 minute taxi ride away called Damansara Utuma. Oh boy, did we feel right at home!! +wondermilk is a lovely little cafe and gallery space showing art and accessories by local artists. They also produce a hugely popular range of cupcakes (called cuppacakes). While we were there we spied a camera crew and as we were finishing up our coffee (and a 'lovely lychee' cupcake) they asked us if we'd like to be in the film they were making about wondermilk. They were film students doing their degree through Curtain Uni. Fancy that! So, they asked us what we thought of +wondermilk and the cup cakes, etc. We felt a bit special being interviewed by local film students at such a funky little place! We had a chat and it was awfully lovely to talk to some artists again. Apparently +wondermilk is the only cafe of it's sort in KL, so I think we'll be making it a regular destination.


Photo looking in the front window. You can see the art and accessories for sale on the wall.



Thistler being interviewed, "Best coffee in KL for sure!"

It's a long weekend here in KL, Monday being a public holiday. Tonight we're taking the night train out of Malaysia down to Singapore, hanging out in the city for several hours then returning to KL Sunday afternoon. Whew, should be exciting! We don't know what to expect from Singapore (we don't even have a map of the country) except that it's very clean and it's illegal to chew gum there. I wonder if mints are OK?

In other news I got hold of a 'real' camera (i.e not my phone camera) and shall be posting some images of new brooches next week. I've been thinking about that old friend art also, so am hoping to ACTUALLY MAKE SOME real soon. xx maude

Hot in the City

We had a bumper weekend! Saturday we headed into the city and started with brunch (I really dislike that word, but it's the most efficient way of describing the meal...) at this place:

OK, so it's a 'concept' cafe which is a tad off putting, but the coffee is good and so is the food. At least it's not a franchise! I do dig the menu design and the place itself is HUGE and decked out in a 'cool designer urban' style. Wallpaper, mid-century inspired furniture, that sort of thing, which I really don't mind. It's at the bottom of the Petronas Twin Towers, KL's answer to the NYC Twin Towers, when they were around.


There's a fountain next door, which is lovely. It spurts water you know.

It is obviously a big tourist attraction. There's a platform that runs between the two towers called the sky walk, but we haven't done it yet. And of course there's a mall. We checked out an exhibition by Jolly Koh there. He lectured at Adelaide TAFE once upon a time. Fancy that!

We left the mall and walked around in the heat for a while. Past the club strip (not strip club), where venues with names like 'The Beach Club' and 'The Rum Shack' reside. Hard to resist the temptation...
We were approached by a Buddhist Monk while on our stroll, all smiles and sweetness. Then he forced beads and tokens on us, and flipped through some photographs of a temple and got us to sign a form that said we wished for peace. Then asked for a donation. Trrrricky! All the other names on the form were from America, Australian and the like. They had all given amounts around the RM250 mark (about $80AUD). Cripes!! We 'donated' RM20, and were equally bemused and appalled at the forceful, overbearing nature of the monk. We were approached by four monks over the weekend, but we'd learnt our lesson.

After a good 45 minutes in the heat we headed for another mall. A bigger, fancier mall than the one before. Surprising then that we had a pretty bad meal there. Still, how could we not eat at a place that looked like this:



Then we headed out into the heat again and walked down to Kompleks Kraf, or Craft Complex if you need the English translation. It's mighty complex that houses many samples of traditional Malaysian craft - batik, wood carving, basket weaving. There's a retail space, exhibition space and, the most inspiring aspect, an artists village!! There are lots of small shacks scattered around the grounds where craft persons and artist work. Sweet sweet sweet. How I long for a shack/studio of my own! We didn't dedicate enough time to see it all, so shall have to go back. The images below are of one of the display rooms filled with hand crafted lamp shades. The images are poor quality but the effect, in real life, was beautiful.

Where Are All The Sewing Machines?

I've just come back from searching for a sewing machine.  We searched last night too, at the Mega Mall, scouring the department stores.  The one shop that had them wouldn't sell it to us!  It was the only one on the shelf, I think it was the demo model.  Cripes!!  Earlier that day Thistler had asked at an electronic store if they sold sewing machines and the friendly assistant said "Showing Machines?  Yee-ees, over here..." and took him to the TVs.  Step right up and see the wonderful showing machines, sixpence a view, wonders await!  Today I went into Bangsar and asked at the fabric store, but they didn't know where to buy a sewing machine.  I'm pretty sure this fabric store offers a tailoring service...  Oh well.  I'm about to do a comprehensive web search.  Maybe I can buy online.  For now I guess I'll stick to paper products and refine those hand stitching skills.

                                                      I wish...

Have You Seen This?

It's not madebymaude or craft related.  It's personal really (being the flickr site of some folk I know who happen to be EuroTripping).   But by golly there are some beautiful images on this flickr site.  Here's a few:

the big rock cafe

seagulls

return

dial m

bright white light

Daily Life in KL

Gosh, I'm a bit slack with this blog.  Sorry!  Here are some images of my first month in KL (yep, it's been a month!).  We had a bout of consumerism last Thursday that included me spending ALL DAY in a mall and a trip to IKEA that night.  Crikey.  Next time I shall visit a park.  

Below are some pics I took while in the biggest department store I have ever been in.  It's a bit like K-Mart, except for one quirk...they sell pets.  Live animals.  In between audio-visual and furniture.  Thistler and I were shocked.  So we did what any bystander does and whipped out our camera phones.  Here you can see a little hedgehog curled up (this is the first time I've seen one in the flesh - the slice doesn't count) and four little bunnies cooped up in a cage, under fluorescent lights, in a noisy, bright, grass free shop.  They were also selling tens of baby tortoises, hermit crabs, guinea pigs and a scorpion.  A scorpion!  Anyone could have let him loose in that store.

                                                          lonely hedgehog and rabbits

Here are some more things I've made recently.  (clockwise from top left) 

1. A handful of brooches made a few days after my first attempt.  

2. Some containers for cotton buds and chopsticks.  So basic - recycled tins and yogurt containers covered in paper.  Works a treat, try it! 

3. More containers - I made these the first week I was here.  We had an abundance of water bottles and not much else so I cut them to different heights and covered them in fabric.  I used a light weight fabric on one and the light plays through it nicely.  

4. Brooches from the same batch.  I'm working with paper at the moment and am incorporating as much recycled material as I can into my work.  This series is loosely inspired by our visit to the Cameron Highlands last month.  

Daily life in KL.  Inside and outside our apartment.

Daily life in KL part 2 - eating habits. (clockwise from top left) 

1. At a local fancy-pants restaurant.  

2. Home cooked meal - stuffed and fried brinjal (a cousin of the eggplant).  

3. The remains of a meal at our local Indian eatery.  

4. The dragon fruit we ate the other night.  It's such a beautiful looking fruit, but a tad bland to taste.  Like a really really really mild kiwi fruit.  A little bit melon-y.  We ate it as is, just scooped the flesh out in spoon fulls.  The next night I got a bit crazy and mashed the dragon fruit up with a bit of honey, poured it over ice and added plenty of lime juice and mint.  If we had a blender I would have whizzed the fruit, honey and ice together.  And maybe added soda water, or used lemonade for fizz and sweetness.  Still, it made for a good and refreshing drink/dessert!

This feels like quite a while ago now.  These are images from our trip to the beautiful Cameron Highlands, about 1 1/2 - 2 hour drive out of KL.  These pictures are of the tea plantations there.  We enjoyed tea and scones at one of these plantations.  Well, the tea was much too strong and the scones were stale, but it was a lovely place!

P.S.  The quality of these images is pretty crummy.  Sorry.  Phone cameras, you know?