I have written about Momo's sewing school before, a beautiful handcraft haven I have grown greatly attached to. Ironically, the school will be moving to another area of Dongtan in a few weeks to join the local "culture center" of Dongtan in a much bigger room that is shared among a couple of other teachers all working in specific different fields of crafting, including sewing machine work, hand sewing, knitting, chalk and styrofoam art, ribbon art and Korean calligraphy. I was really sad to leave Dongtan for I would not be able to go to the school as I liked, but the place I know, full of last fall's memories, will be no more anyways, so I feel a bit better.
If you do live near the area, however, I strongly encourage you to go to the school. It is right on the street where the McDonald is, in the same building as the Jaws Ddeokboggi, 4th floor. Opens from 10AM to 9PM closed on Sunday and Saturdays of the 2nd and 4th week of the month. I'll try to get the exact address and see if they have a website. Otherwise, if you really need to know where it is, I can explain it clearly with pictures, just ask me in the comment space...
Last week I went crazy on going to the school, because for once, I did not work in the mornings. I only worked part-time so I went to the sewing school in the morning to finish up projects I started, and start new ones, trying to make the most of my last days in Dongtan, with no friends around, so I did not feel too bad to see no one else than my teacher everyday.
My teacher took some pictures as I was doing tome felt sewing, she thought it was a nice picture opportunity. As I had no make up, I was not so sure, but the pictures turned out quite nicely so I must give in Korean eye for nice pictures once more.
If you have the chance to go to the SOGO of Zhongxiao Fuxing in Taipei, and if you like porcelain wares, please proceed to the 9th floor of the building. Had I not been in a country where they make me feel special for not being Asian, I might have felt out of place surrounded by those priceless porcelain items, but as it was, being foreign seemed to the the equivalent of "rich enough to buy our stuff", or at least "knowledgable enough to appreciate it".
So after my tea at the Wedgwood Tearoom, I walked around a huge isle of Meissen porcelain and glass wares. I did not know Meissen, to be honest, before going there. But as I was slowly looking at the wares in awe and silence, smiling - because porcelain makes me happy - a lady of the staff came to me and basically told me the whole story. She came to me as she was the only one in the staff that had some confidence in her English skills to dare use it. Said her coworkers thought I looked like a doll.
I was not really in a mood to speak to people much at the time, feeling depressed on a rainy day, one of those times where you feel so isolated, so I was kind of dreading having to talk back to her as she explained. She was, however, really interesting to listen to, and while she did tell me lots of stuff about Meissen in a super short amount of time, she did not really expect to have a deep discussion with me, so I relaxed.
Meissen is the name of the first European porcelain maker. German porcelain. Probably coming from Asian techniques, as Asians had porcelain up much before western people did (btw. I am NOT writing a paper on this, so if you are more knowledgable about porcelain than me, please free to add up to it, or look up for information I might have gotten wrong, I do not pretend to know it all).
Their porcelain uses diamond powder to make their colors, by painting very very thin layers one by one, cooking it many times to accomplish both depth and color gradations. Have you noticed how there are so many porcelain wares that use dark colors such as Bleu Royal? Well with this type of paint, it is very difficult to make different shades. Only recent wares have more varied coloring and patterns using many colors at a time. In that store, they had 2 sets of the teacup and plate like you can see up there (picture from google) but in hot pink. That is their new color and that there were only two of those in Taiwan as of the moment.
Interesting fact, did you know that the Bleu Royal color on Meissen porcelain were used for the first time for Napoleon? That's why they called it so "royal" Napoleon.
I went to Taiwan for New Year, with two friends I met in Korea, to meet a friend I hadn't seen in over 4 years. The trip went really fast and I found myself at the end of the journey very very quickly, without having had that much time to do much.
I did, however, have a couple of nice times, and got to know new places.
Don't you love this shade of blue?
It's my favorite :3
I went to Zhongxiao fuxing's MRT station's SOGO to buy bras (ironically, Taiwan is the only place I can find decent sized bras that actually do the trick, who would believe it...). After buying what I needed, they told me to get to the 9th floor to get back the taxes so I went up.
And that was such a good idea.
Even if I only got something like $3CAD back...
On that floor were spread out porcelain wares and luxurious home furnishing stores and that was pleasant for the eye. On top of it, there was also a Wedgwood Tea store, that served all the foods and drinks in Wedgwood porcelains. How could I not be in paradise?
I took advantage of being the only foreigner around, and thus, a weird thing in the middle of the tearoom, to ask my neighbour to take pictures of their meals. Everything was so pretty!!!
I had an apple black tea, and got a full teapot and full refill for only $6.50. It's actually much cheaper than normal tea at any nice coffee shop in Korea, so that felt really nice. I did need to get to the bathroom a hundred times that day for drinking too much tea, but that's all good.
Dongtan is a city with tons of surprises. Small stores. Small coffee places. Interesting restaurants. Happy-looking families. Happy couples.
And there is a place called 모모의 다락방 (momo eui darag bang).
That place is a 10x10 foot big room.
It has a great display window that replaces one of the 4 walls in it entirety.
The three other walls are white.
But we don't really notice any of that.
Because Momo is a little paradise filled with little girls dreams.
With expectations.
With imagination.
With hard work.
With simplicity.
It is filled with dolls.
It is, however, not really a place to buy dolls per say.
It is a place where they teach you how to MAKE them. The system is quite simple. You pay the equivalent of $50CAD/month or $100/3 months. The store is open from Monday to Friday 10-7h30 and the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month from 10 to 3. And you just go anytime you want. Now the more you go the more you get your money's worth. After the monthly fee, you just choose what you want to do. Anything you want to do. They don't look for qualification. If it's a hard doll you choose they let you do it, you do it at your own pace. The doll prices range from $10 to $100, depending on the fabric used.
My favourite dolls there are what they call the SimDolls. They look like porcelain dolls, but are all made of cotton for the most part.
I knew about that store since last spring. I went in and asked for information and let it sink in. I wanted to make a doll. But I needed to find a reason. It's always like that. While I am a pretty impulsive person, when I put money and time into something. Or start a big project like this one, I feel like I need a push, a legitimate reason, separate from my own greed. That was the case for stuff like buying myself a super expensive wallet: I had to first buy an expensive wallet for someone else than me before, and make them happy.
Then I also need to feel like investing time into something this big. That happens every fall season.
They say it's because of the daylight lessening in the fall.
That we feel useless and a bit depressed.
Maybe that's right.
In any case, it's like that for me. Every time fall gets here, I feel a need to accomplish something, where the result will pile up. Be tangible. Real. Unlike all that goes through my head. On my first university year, I made curtains for my apartment (I got the inspiration from a nice apron I saw in Taiwan in my first trip, with pretty patchwork). My mother helped me all the while and they turned out really pretty!
The following year, I learned to knit. I made mittens, hats and key holders for my friends.
Last year, I was into beadcrafts, and I also took the remnants of the mittens I'd knit for my ex boyfriend (they were at my place when he dumped me, so I shredded them. They couldn't fit anyone else cuz he has weird hands and they'd been made just for him. He has super long and thin fingers but his thumbs were super short) to make strawberry flowers on a knitted blanket.
P.S. I had to go through my old blog to find the links and pictures.... and god. It's almost hard to look at. It's filled with my exes. Oh well. I don't agree with most of people throwing away all the remnant of relationships when they have been long ones. Why would you need to erase your life? The best way to move on is to remember...
This year, I became a godmother for the second time. My brother will have another baby. When my sis told me that, I knew that the new baby would have my first doll. A guardian angel to protect and love the new baby.
It was my first doll. But it still is my favourite. Probably because I poured a lot of love into it. It took me over 2 weeks to make it. I love making dolls. It's soothing all the pain. Giving me peace of mind. And they are really lovely.
Everything was sewed by hand. The doll. The clothes. The hair. The hair is raw wool that was dyed.
the second doll I made was Alice in Wonderland. She was supposed to have blond hair. But I changed it for green. She's in wonderland after all. Like me.
My teacher's doll
Everything is sewn onto the doll directly. They are not dresses that can be taken off. For practical reasons, it would be very hard to remove tight sleeves, for example, as the body is stuffed til it gets really hard.
The shoes are not shoes. They are just painted on the doll. Then we add accessories to make them look like shoes.
So is the face.
Drawn and painted.
The third doll I made is called "Happy Lulu". The name my teacher gave to the doll in any case.
Unlike the first doll I made, that I mostly made at the store, with her help, I made the body and most of the dress at home. I only made the shoes, head and hair at Momo's.
I finished my fourth one just in time for Xmas. I made this one to give my mother. If you can recognize her, it's Anne of Green Gables. A Canadian feel in all this Asianness.
I practically made all the doll at home. I used the pictures I took. I made the painting of the shoes at Momo's and the hat and face. There are a couple of things that are different form the original for that reason, both because I was lazy and worked mainly by memory, not looking at the pictures. I am really proud of this one. It's full of the love for my mommy.
Now I realize I haven't taken a picture of the finish product, with the hat and all. My bad... I'll upload it later...
The price we paid for the food and show, I would not have felt bad of paying only for the show part. The performances were really good. There were many different types of performances and the music was all live music, with traditional instruments. I thought it almost a shame that the focus was mainly on the dancers, when the musicians playing on each sides of the scene played so well that it blended perfectly with the performance.
The first performance was with the 5 Korean drums, with the always smiling pretty women dressed of gold and red. Their movements were swift and all at the same time, it was simply mesmerizing.
It is very ironic that I would have some background knowledge of Korean drums, thanks to the Joseon drama "Hwang jinyi", but I think it did help me enjoy even more what was before my eyes. I took the time to just suck everything in, not taking any picture or looking away. Those pictures were taken with my dad's camera, and I am happy I left it to him to take pictures, because the result is amazing.
You know what I hate more than side camera with flashes, that we sometimes had a few years ago, during a presentation?
Fucking phones at a show.
People think that it's a given that everyone can take pictures without flashes, because without flashes, the artists won't be disturbed. Well that was before people stupidly decided to bring their cellphones to take pictures instead of bringing decent cameras. Stop two seconds to think.
Take two more.
Think of the light of the omg-I-am-getting-bigger-and-bigger-screens-for-my-smartphone, all that, lit up in a completely dark room. Now think that you are sitting between two people both filming the performance with their cellphones. I don't know for you, but this irks me so much I build up anger like mad. Can't people just enjoy the fleeting beauty of the moment? Can't they look at a show with their eyes and enjoy their money's worth, while it's still going on, instead of thinking "well, I'll watch it on my computer later". That's simply retarded.
Amen.
There were such people in the front row. And I kindly let them know that it was not fun to have their phone lights in my face, thank you. Then, the show was more enjoyable.
That first song was great. Loved the choreography, loved the music, loved the costumes...
However.... they started doing that...
Going up and down, up and down, up and down... and I couldn't help myself being reminded of a Korean hit of the summer....
You can understand that I had trouble keeping my face straight for a bit....
My friend Ted, had told me how he loved this song because, as opposed to so many KPop songs in general, that are a weirdly evolved version of borrowed American cheesy Pop, that one song was a style on its own. It was not borrowed from the weirdly cute Japanese Pop either, it was simply some weird music, that just "popped" up, here, in Korea, with nothing else to it.
Then it got me thinking.
Maybe that's why he said it was "pure korean"? (I'm just writing nonsense, please do not take my word for that....) you know, if traditional Korean drums have the same choreography...
... okay okay. I'll shut it.
If I remember well, the second song was the only one what somehow gave the focus on the musicians. At least at the beginning of the song, cuz the dancers came a bit late.
That one was much much slower song, with Gisaeng dancing slowly, following the slow-paced rhythms of the flute and gayageum.
I've always loved those over-sized braided wigs Gisaengs wear. The extra volume makes their faces looks small and fragile. I can't imagine dancing gracefully with all this weight on my head, however. That must be causing the worst of headaches.
Following, was a performance with percussions with 4 or 5 men all playing different rhythms, all of them seemingly entranced with the song.
Following, was a dance that felt like a swan dance to me. I did not like that the costumes looked a bit too modern. They basically looked like koreanized western bride dresses with fans. The dance, however, also on a slow pace, was beautiful.
The following performance has been selected as holder of the Korean traditional heritage by... I can't remember the name of the world organization... I hate to wait too long before I blog. So much is left forgotten. Well you'll have to bear with me. It's the love story between nobles (if you look at the clothing, anyways, that's what I'd deduct; tho I kind of want to say that the girl would seem to be a queen, taken her hair accessories and the color of her dress... but as the man was wearing a nobleman's clothes, and not the king's... it'd be a weird adultery story if it were, so I dare not say).
What was the most remarkable in the performance was the song itself, sung by a cute looking lady with a crazy low-pitched voice, singing in the traditional Korean lamenting tones. She was really something to hear sing.
More than a complex choreography, what was beautiful about that one dance, was the feeling of love and happiness they were giving off. They were just walking smoothly around, in a weird happy chemistry.
Following was an impressive fan-dance, with an explosion of color and shapes.
The last performance was a bunch of men dancing in the swiftest and coolest ways. The theme of the dance was "men, after failing the entrance exam to join the royal guards". Funny that there'd be an official dance for that, but I guess it was common occurrence: not everybody can get it.
