“I love you so mad so mad.
And I miss you so bad so bad.”
Celeste Koh
#190520#
Today is 520 Day! It is the second unofficial Valentine’s Day widely celebrated by couples in China after the western holiday. The date “520” was chosen as a couple day because “520” sounds somewhat similar to 我爱你 in Chinese (pronounced as wó aì nî, which means I love you). This year is actually my first time jumping on the bandwagon of celebrating this day like many Chinese couples in mainland China. This day is in fact not so popular and well-known in Singapore, but I decided to celebrate it now simply because I wanted to find a reason to give this set of handmade resin jewellery to Taenggu for.
Just a few weeks ago, I attended a 3-hour workshop on a Saturday to learn how to make our very own resin jewellery. Using resin to make artworks and jewelleries seems really popular these days so out of curiosity and passion to learn something new during my free time, I signed up for this workshop that was organized by Naiise. One of the key things that attracted me to this workshop was that the participants were allowed to bring their own little items that hold special meaning to them (e.g. your baby’s hair, little gemstones etc) to add onto their resin jewellery too. Instantly I had an idea to use my saga seeds which I had picked and collected myself at various saga tree locations in Singapore 1-2 years ago. I had previously used these seeds to make into bottle keychains to sell on Carousell and give away as gifts to Taenggu and my friends and even as 10th anniversary presents for all SNSD members (related post: Lyrics: Sailing (그 여름) (0805)). Now I still have few seeds left before I go pick new ones.
The workshop was held at the Naiise shop at Wisma Atria. The process wasn’t actually too difficult. The most troublesome part if you really want to make these jewelleries by yourself at home is to find and gather all the right tools and materials required before you start. For us, it was easy because all the materials were already provided for us, from all kinds of tiny embellishments, useful tools to help us position the items nicely on our jewellery parts and UV light machine to help dry the resin faster, and of course the bottles of resin itself. Probably because I already had some hands-on experience of making my own pieces of jewellery before, I was able to learn and make them quickly. As a result, I actually left much earlier with my finished jewelleries before the full 3 hours of the workshop ended.
What we made that day was 2 pieces of large dangling earrings and a small pendant necklace. Of course, they had some imperfections on them as it was only my first time working with resin. There is still much room for improvement. But I am proud to give my virgin resin jewelleries to my one and only lover, Taenggu. I feel that me spending money to attend all these art and jewellery making workshops has become even more meaningful to me if I join them with the intention of giving the products I would make during the lesson away to someone I love.
I lovingly transferred my resin jewellery into a nice pink jewellery box that I actually purchased at The Green Party much earlier in time. I have always wanted to put my own handmade jewelleries into this box and give it as a nice, presentable gift to Taenggu. Now my chance is here.
More detailed shots of my saga seed resin jewelleries in the box. 📸
For those who have no idea what saga seeds are, these really pretty, glossy scarlet red beads symbolise love in many countries and are uniquely found in certain parts of Southeast Asia, Africa, the Pacific and the Caribbean Islands, and of course in Singapore. They are known as “相思豆” in Chinese which literally means “longing peas”. People in a relationship usually would give bottles of saga seeds to the person whom they love and miss dearly. (reference) These seeds convey your longing for that person, oftenly due to LDR. Thus, the act of me giving saga seeds to Taenggu symbolises how much I miss her because of the long physical distance that separates us apart.
That’s why I decided to name this set of saga seed resin jewellery “Love You, Miss You”. I hope whenever Taenggu puts on these jewelleries, she would be reminded of how much I love her and miss her.
I love you so mad and I miss you so bad, 탱구야!! Happy 520! 我爱你 💜
