A Thing for Rainy Weather
Our first newsletter!!!
HELLO COLOURFUL PEOPLE!🌈
Thank you for following us on Substack and very warm welcome to our first newsletter entry. Masak-masak Colour is an idea that has been brewing in our minds for some time and we are excited to be able bring this to you all.
This year for us is a lot about pacing ourselves and setting up better rhythms in our work/life. With this monthly newsletter space (may be more frequent depending on our schedule), we hope to share about our upcoming events, musings on ArtXNature (as one of you suggested in our IG poll❤️), and some simple DIY ways suitable for everyone to work with plant colours and fibres based on our roadside flora. That being said, we also hope to bring more content outside of art, to include our interests in edibles and ethnobotany and craftspeople around Southeast Asia.
It has been a super wet February with heavy thunderstorms happening almost every day. We have been enjoying the monsoon though (at least there is no need to water the plants!), hope some of you here are as well.
Our neighbour’s Frangipani tree has been shedding lots of pink perfumery flowers amidst the strong winds and rains.
The invitation was too charming so I had to pick up a couple to try out, simply by massaging the colour out using a pinch of salt and some patience.
I was pleasantly surprised by the bright green ink, though I think it results from the alkalinity of the paper I was using. The original colour seems to be closer to a purple. You can see the edges where the ink pooled start to change to a gray, which I’m guessing is the eventual colour of the frangipani ink.
It also smells really fragrant. But the flowers do exude an itchy and slightly toxic milky sap when crushed, so wearing gloves is recommended!
Come find us!
We will be hosting a few public events in March -
10 March - Final Run!
Divination with Plants
Lobby of Asian Civilizations Museum
12 March
Good Design Research Profiling Event: The Upcycled Tree Palette
at East Coast Park
Still a couple of spots left. You can book your spot here.
Btw, do let us know what you would like us to share about more on in this newsletter space? Just hit ‘Reply’ to this email with any ideas, and we will definitely reply you from there!
Till the next newsletter :D
Signing off,
Liz (and Shirin)