“Dogs do speak, but only to those who know how to listen.”
Orhan Pamuk
#180820#
It was 2 weeks since Zero’s birthday on 20th August had passed but I had been so busy with coping with my new job and other things in life that I barely had time to do an artwork for him even though I did already have an idea plotted out in my head for quite awhile. On his birthday, I posted a few edited photos of Zero in place of an usual artwork but promised Taenggu that I would make the artwork later on when I find time to.
My idea for the artwork was to use thread or string to create the texture for Zero’s fur and make a portrait of him. It wasn’t something I had tried before so I thought it was going to be something fun and new for me to experiment with. Just a couple of days before Zero’s birthday, my friend Yan Hao told me about a craft exchange event organised by a craft lover where we could exchange freely with each other any unused craft items we didn’t want anymore so we went down to the venue together out of interest. Coincidentally, one of the things that were available for us to pick up was a small box with a range of unused white, grey and brown cotton threads inside – exactly the materials I needed for Zero’s artwork! Without hesitation, I took them away with me and added to my craft material collection. However, despite having all the materials I needed, time was too tight for me to get down on making the artwork immediately because I knew very well that once I get started on it, I would have to dedicate one full day on it due to the extra time and effort required to make such an artwork. So I delayed and didn’t churn it out in time for Zero’s birthday and kinda put this idea on hold in the back of my head.
Last Sunday, I finally had free time to myself the whole day at home without any definite plans for the day. But while I was free, it didn’t occur to me that I could use the time to work on Zero’s artwork other than writing or continue napping on my bed on a lazy Sunday morning. It was only until Taenggu turned on instagram live suddenly and streamed herself making a craftwork for Zero using a needle felting kit for almost an hour. She was so adorable with that serious and confused look on her face when she was trying to figure out how to make this craft which she hadn’t done before. 😍
Hehe I actually had made the purple flower on this cactus last year using the same technique too! So it felt like I could understand what she was doing in the process of the video.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bb6XypYB8k8/?taken-by=invariantceleste
Watching her do crafting for Zero in her instalive motivated me to get my hands started on my own overdued artwork for Zero too! Her action and intention of doing this live in front of our eyes seemed to me that she was actually prompting or reminding me to do Zero’s artwork on this day too. So I ended up pushing aside all my other plans of writing to dedicate the rest of my Sunday to work on just this piece of artwork alone.
Once I got started, I couldn’t stop. First, I already had my favourite photo of Zero and Taenggu chosen – an adorable photo of Zero sitting on Taenggu’s head taken by Hyoyeon. 😍 So I started by drawing a simple outline based on the photo.
It was pretty fun when I began to stick pieces of thread together one by one on paper to make Zero’s fur! Here’s a video of how I did it. 🎥
But it was kind of strenuous after doing it repeatedly for quite some time. My body, especially my waist area, started aching really badly. I decided to take a break and posted my process video on twitter to show Taenggu what I had been working on for the past hour.
Shortly after, Taenggu came on instalive again for the second time as if she knew I needed her to come to my rescue badly. This time, I watched her spend almost 40 minutes pasting tattoo stickers all around her face and arms.. lol.
But miraculously after watching her 2nd instalive, all the bad energies in my body were gone and I was refuelled with lots of good energy to get back on my artwork again till the rest of Zero’s body was done and I was so happy with the results of my first attempt at doing this kind of thread art!
Next, I had to pick a quote to write on my artwork and I chose this one which I thought best described the relationship between Zero and Taenggu.
There were a few instances in her recent instalives where I could witness touching and hilarious moments of Taenggu trying to understand and respond to Zero’s dog language. The following videos were some of them that I had compiled. 🎥
The very last step of the artwork was to glue the letter beads containing the words “HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZERO” at the bottom of my paper. FYI, these were the same beads that I had previously used to make my DIY saga seed bottle keychains for SNSD as their 10th anniversary present last year. Now I have found a new purpose for these beads too! 😄
Oh wait, I was still not done yet. Back to the period when I was still brainstorming an idea for Zero’s artwork, I knew very well that my artwork needed to have a crown on Zero’s head somehow because this old photo of a dog figurine wearing a crown from Taenggu’s instagram kept appearing in my head at that time. 🐶👑
https://www.instagram.com/p/BZ-vyU_htpU/?taken-by=taeyeon_ss
So in my VERY VERY last step, because I couldn’t find any crown sticker in my own craft material collection at home, what I did was to reuse an old crown earring of mine! I cut away the metal stick at the back and stick it on top of Zero’s head with a superglue. And TA-DA, my whole artwork was finally done! 🎉🎉🎉
More detailed photos of my finished artwork! 📸
And so, I posted it on twitter immediately once it was done, proudly announcing that it was finally 완성 (completed)!
Awhile later, a voice responded in my head suddenly with a playful tone, “Jagiya, what do you mean 완성?!! Make me more more more!!”
OKAY TAEYEON OKAY. What can I do??? I will just make you more and more artworks then as long as you like them. Coz “EVERYTHING I DO, I DO IT FOR YOU”. 😆💜
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