Chinese New Year 2018

Wishing all our friends, volunteers and members a Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year 2018. May the new year bring you joy, good luck and great health.

Please be informed that our office will be closed from Thursday 15 February to 17 February 2018 for the festival.

Painting T-shirts and Bags 27 Jan 2018

More members turned up for a painting session at our Outreach premises on Saturday. Two types of painting technique were tried out by the members.

A small cotton twill bag was painted with a blue lotus, using Western watercolour techniques and our usual T-shirt dyes. The lotus was quickly and lightly sketched on with a 2B pencil before the colours were added and then blended with water. The blue, rather than the usual red or pink lotus, was chosen as the bag was painted at the request of a non-member. The picture shows the first stages of the painting on the bag, before the colours were blended.

Two other members tried their hand at the Chinese one-stroke freehand brush technique to paint simple plum blossoms for the coming festival. The ladies practised on bits of newspaper and scrap cloth first before starting on their T-shirts.It's important for beginners to learn to loosen their arms and shoulders first by working of disposable media so that there is less tension when they commit the dye to cloth. 

When we teach children, the emphasis is always on the fact that there is no such thing as a wrong stroke or a mistake. We always try to encourage children to see their strokes as opportunities to interprete creatively so that there is no pressure for them to "draw" or "colour correctly". 

When painting directly on to T-shirts with indelible dyes, it's important that the student feels confident to paint confidently so that he or she can work freely. Some people call this freehand technique the spirit or "chi" of the brush and an experienced painter can tell how loose and relaxed the painter was with just one glance at how the picture was formed.

Painted Monkey Cup 13.01018

Saturday was a busy day with our member, Ann Loh, dropping by to try out a western-watercolour T-shirt painting technique. 

We started with a quick line sketch of monkey cups or pitcher plants (Nepenthes macfarlanei) from a painting by artist Marni Zainodin using a fine brown fabric pen. Once the ink lines were dry (so that the fabric colouring dye wouldn't blot) Ann started painting the lightest shades and colours with quick washes. We used a hairdryer to dry the initial washes quickly before Ann could add the medium tones and colours.

We took a short break while waiting for the dye to dry and then Ann finished off the painting with the darkest greens and purples on the plants. The entire process took nearly three hours but it was worth it, don't you think?

We have classes for T-shirt printing with local leaves and flowers, painting in both Chinese spontaneous single stroke watercolour and western watercolour techniques as well as bottle recycling every Saturday from 1.00pm to 4.00pm for members of the public. 

Please call our Outreach office or email us to book lessons with us.

Senduduk Herbal Uses

Did you know that our common Senduduk (Melastoma malabathricum) or Straits Rhododendron has as many as 2000 species? In Malaysia, however, only 12 species have been discovered although botanists believe that there are more waiting to be found in the still forested areas of our country. The common deep purple one which we see in Malaysia actually many herbal uses in Indian, Malay, Chinese and Indonesian folk medicine. Its leaves, shoots, bark, seeds and roots are all possessed of special properties which are used by folk medicinal practitioners to relieve such things as inflamation and diarrhoea. However, the Senduduk also has cytotoxic, antioxidant and wound healing properties.

One of the plants in the Melastomataceae family that are commonly used in Malay folk medicine is Melastoma malabathricum Linn., which actually comprises two subspecies. Commonly found in lowland as well as mountain forests, cleared land and even by the road side, the Senduduk can range from a deep purple to a delicate pink or a creamy white. Its native names are many, for example in Chinese it is called the ye mu dan while in Malaysia, it is also sometimes called the Kenduduk though there are even more local names for it in Indonesia. Locally, it has been used traditionally to treat diarrhoea, dysentery, haemorrhoids, cuts and wounds, toothache, stomachache, flatulence, and even sore legs. Some sources have said that it is one of the components of the famous Chinese po chi wan, which are usually used to treat stomach aches and diarrhoea.  

Usually, the leaves are chewed up, pounded and applied as a paste on cuts or wounds or else they are finely chopped up and squeezed to let the juice fall onto wounds to stop bleeding. In Indian folk medicine, the leaves can also be used to prevent scarring from smallpox, to treat dysentery, aw well as piles The shoots are also said to be eaten as a cure for high blood pressure and diabetes. In the old days, the juice from the shoots were used as a mouthwash to relieve a toothache while the leaves were used for treat ulcers, scars, pimples and blackheads on the skin. 

At our Outreach centre, we use Senduduk flowers, leaves and stalks to make pretty prints on t-shirts and bags. It is not an easy art for beginners to master, however, so we have classes on Saturday for those who would like to learn.

Bottle Craft 23.12.17

This month's members' Activity being so close to Christmas, we decided to do something in keeping with the spirit of the season and had a small workshop on how to turn old bottles and jam jars into pretty desk caddies. 

Our activity began at 9.30 as usual, but because of the inclement weather there was only a small turn out for the event. Everyone had fun, however, discovering the most easily available materials to re-cycle with their old bottles.

From old jam jars to scraps of old curtain fabric and bits of left-over parcel string, the members were shown how to cover the jars and bottles with string or old non-slip matting to create a suitable surface for painting or gluing things.

The bottles and jars were decorated with old curtain fabric scraps that had been cut into leaf and petal shapes and bits of old tinsel or string ends.

Something New for 2018!

With the new year just around the corner, we're always trying out new products for our Garden Shop and one of our latest ideas is hand-painted aprons! We're also looking into regular-sized tea towels as well as smaller ones and table napkins which can be framed and hung up just like regular hand-printed pictures or paintings.

Here's a look at one of the aprons we tried painting! 

We also have the following types of art and craft classes for kids and adults  at our Outreach Office every Saturday from 1pm to 4pm -

Printing With Fresh Leaves (on fabric products)

Simple Freeform Chinese Painting (on fabric products)

If you're interested, give us a call or email us for an appointment.

ESOL Nature Walk

We had a group of lovely Years 2, 3 and 4 kids come over on Wednesday for a Garden Walk. The Walk was conducted by our Treasurer, Mr Tajul Arosh Baroky, who took the kids via the bamboo garden route from our Outreach office. 

Arriving promptly at 9.30am, the kids assembled in our office garden and quickly went off on their walk in single file. The focus of their morning's adventure was learning about the ecology of the trees and plants in the Gardens as well as the creatures that live in them. 

Walking under the bamboo was an interesting experience for the kids, expecially when they found out bamboo was a kind of grass and not a tree.

 

Unfortunately, the back route to the Gardens was closed for maintenance work so the route had to be changed to include a meander through the formal garden before heading up towards the lily pond. There were few monkeys to be seen while walking along the road but once the kids reached the pond, there were monkeys waiting to entertain them! 

Hard to say who entertained whom, actually, as the curious monkeys seemed equally fascinated by the children.

It was just a short 90-minute walk as the kids were too young to attempt a longer excursion but the kids learned a lot about things like how even cutting down a single tree affects all the creatures that live in it, from the ants and insects under and around the roots to those that make their homes up in its topmost branches. 

We're really looking forward to seeing the ESOL boys and girls again next holiday as they asked intelligent questions about the things they were shown in the field.