SG50

2015 is Singapore's 50th birthday since independence in 1965, there will be massive celebrations to mark this special anniversary coined as SG50. Many organisations, whether private or public driven, have lined up various programs and events in the name of SG50. The Ministry of Manpower declared an additional public holiday for residents to bask in the celebration, in hope that everyone gets a chance to commemorate National Day one way or another. I am certainly thrilled ;p

In conjunction with SG50, I decided to come up with my personal SG50 needle felting challenge, meaning I will needle felt 50 items that are either iconic or representative of Singapore leading up to National Day, August 9.

It will be a challenge for 3 reasons. Firstly, compiling a list of 50 items is a task. Singapore is a very young nation, with rather weak heritage and culture teemed with non existent natural resources, it is relatively difficult to list 50 icons that uniquely identifies Singapore. I cracked my brain real hard and merely coughed up with 30 plus names. I had to broadcast an appeal for ideas from friends on my Facebook to boost my list.

Secondly, the feasibility of the ideas that poured in. The synergy of brain power yields wonderful contribution :-) However, not every suggestion is viable to be needle felted in this challenge due to intricacy of details, which ties in with the third reason - time constraint.

Essentially any idea may be needle felted so long as one has the imagination and patience. The craft of needle felting is a time consuming process, a project involving complex and intricate details will command man hours in weeks or even months. The 1st item for my SG50 challenge was The Merlion, a project I started last July, hoping to complete in time for last year's National Day. It was supposed to be a mini Merlion of height 5 inches but as I poked, it turned out bigger and bigger due to the detailing. It became tiresome and boring, I dropped it last August and only picked it up again this March to finish it off.

Thirdly, as aforementioned, time constraint. I could only needle felt during my free time, which mounts up to an average of 2-3 hours daily. It is 15 weeks to my dateline of 9 Aug, translating to an average of 3 features per week. It means I have to be selective in my choice of items, that they have to be simple and quick enough for me to complete. Thus friends, if I do not needle felt your contributed idea, it is not because I do not like the idea but due to time constraint. My apologies in advance!