My New FIMO Bangles & Pendants

Just recently I came about to learn how to make these bangles. I have never made any bangles before this but I have made FIMO bracelets many times before. Bangles are kind of fun to make and looks so pretty.

The bangles collection I have below are my first attempt. They are not perfect yet but I think with more practice I can make it better in the future. I put hard wire inside these bangles when I made them so that they are stronger and won't break.

My Latest Pendants; Sanded, Polished and Varnished. The two round flower pendants are mounted on metal plate.

My Fimo Fascination

As I was making a living out of FIMO in Honolulu, after about 8 years of selling nothing but FIMO jewelleries, I had to make my way back to my home country Malaysia and focus on the market in Malaysia specifically in the Kuala Lumpur.

I was doing very well in Kuala Lumpur for several years but when it was slowed down I managed to continue my studies and add a Diploma in Fashion Designs to my resume. Then I started to design dancing costumes, bags, casual island wears and a whole lot of other stuff for my Japanese customers. And for the past 5 years, my FIMO Jewelleries were not my main bread and butter anymore however my love and passion for FIMO Jewelleries never died out.

Recently Staedtler Malaysia appointed me to be their consultant on FIMO products as they have no expertise about FIMO polymer clay in Malaysia. I was so delighted and more than happy to be involved with such projects and I get to relight my dim light of love for FIMO again. And I met Mrs. Garlinde Karg, Marketing Manager/Professional Artists responsible FIMO development in Staedtler Germany.

This time I am more confident and learning more about polymer clay from books and internet. I bought so many books on Polymer clay to add skills to my basic knowledge. And as I was reading from page to page of all the books that I have, the two books that I enjoyed the most are Masters: Polymer Clay and 400 Polymer Clay Designs. In these two books, a few names of famous polymer artists always caught my eyes and they are Kathleen Dustin, Jeffrey Lloyd Dever, Elise Winters, Dan Cormier and Melanie West are my favourite among so many of them.

If I get to choose who I wanted to meet first among these polymer artists, it would be Kathleen Dustin. Her work is just so magnificent and beyond my imagination. I absolutely love all her unique purses, peeking face pebble beads and the best of all is her women of Harem Neckpiece.I want to be like her someday but if I get to ask God, I want to be as good as her today. She is definitely my benchmark now, just like Madden back when I first started making FIMO earrings in 1998.

I got so many questions to ask Dustin and I wish I could attend her workshop so that I could acquire first hand skills and techniques from her. It would make my day definitely, much better than buying a Rolex for me. Unfortunately she lives in Contoocook, New Hampshire, USA. And I need a world map to see where that is and I am living thousands of miles away from her polymer world. Ohhh! Darn it!

Since I cannot get close to the people I admire, colourful pictures are good enough to get me started and for inspirations. I love to make sketches of all the ideas I have in my mind. I travel around town quite a lot and the malls are my playground as shopping is my unspeakable addiction that I can’t afford. But I shop anyway! So I see a lot of things, colourful flowers, beautiful bags, trendy fashions and people.

All of these made me grow as a designer and open my mind to endless of things that I could never imagine. And they all end up in my sketch book turned inside out, dissected and transformed into new things.

I hope 2011 will be the beginning of all my dreams. And I hope people will love all my new creations and would be the things people dream about.

XOXO
Dwen Ujang

MY FIMO EVOLUTION: How I Got Started With FIMO

I was first introduced to FIMO in 1998 in Honolulu by a friend and his wife. He saw some craft things that I did at my apartment and asked me to go to his house for the weekend so that they can show me some new art crafty stuff that I can work with. Sure enough I was so excited to see some of the floral earrings that they had made out of Sculpey III and FIMO.

I immediately made some flower earrings out of the clay and they were so impressed by it. And that was the starting point of my relationship with Polymer Clay. After almost a year of making Hawaiian Floral Jewelleries with them, I finally parted my own way and made my own jewelleries. And during this trial period of finding what was best for my products, I realized FIMO was the perfect material for me to work with.

It took quite sometimes for me to become familiar with FIMO as I did not read any books about how to work with Polymer Clay. I sort of created my own simple techniques to make my jewelleries. Then I found out that Ben Franklin Craft Store was having workshop on FIMO by a Hawaiian lady named Ms.Luana. I enjoyed taking Ms.Luana’s FIMO classes and made acquaintances with many Hawaiian ladies too but after a while I realized that she kept teaching of how to make Hawaiian flowers only and nothing more.

I quit FIMO workshop at Ben Franklin and venture on my own with a business partner name JP. We were quite successful because we were selling FIMO Hawaiian Jewelleries in bulk and wholesale them to retailers. We sold our FIMO jewelleries as if they came out of an assembly line and moulded by a machine. But in reality it was all hard work of making each piece carefully and hand made with a lot of love. Many of the small time crafters were envious of us. And to top all of that I was selected to join the Hawaii Crafters Guild and I was the only FIMO artists during my time there.

However, before me there were this lady named Peggy Madden who made beautiful Hawaiian Floral Jewelleries from FIMO but she had moved to the US Mainland. But she still put some of her beautiful creations at the local Mike Chang’s Art Gallery. Madden’s FIMO Jewelleries were really expensive and not everyone could afford it. At the same time I understood why she charged so much for her FIMO Jewelleries as I could see how beautiful they were and I could never made my flowers as good as hers. I constantly checked her jewelleries out as they were so beautiful and how I wanted to make my FIMO creations as beautiful as hers.

Then I have realized despite what I thought of how beautiful Madden’s work were, I managed to sell more FIMO earrings and leis than Madden ever did and paid my rent, bought a Chevy MPV and I too got my own fans. I suppose to my loyal customers, my FIMO were the most beautiful ones among other FIMO crafters there were in Honolulu. I realized that I should start to believe in my own talent and expand my skills so that I could create more FIMO Jewelleries.

A lot of great things happened to me in the year 2000. And one of them was when the newly crowned Miss Hawaii America, Miss Angela Baraquio stopped by our booth at the Made in Hawaii Trade Shows. She was in awed of my colourful creations and wanted to use my FIMO jewelleries during the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City. By the end of the whole deal after went through her rehearsals and numerous custom fittings, she finally wore all my custom designs Hawaiian FIMO jewelleries during the Miss America Pageant 2000 and the best of all, she won that pageant that night and I was instantly became famous in Hawaii.

Thank you so much to Angela who believed in me and showed my FIMO creations to 70 million viewers that night. And she was the first Asian American to ever won Miss America pageant.

I wish I could have done more for myself with Angela’s publicity but it was just ok for me but boosted our sales for a while though. It was definitely the unexpected start for me and I knew then that making FIMO Jewelleries was not just a craft for ladies to make in their kitchen during spare times. It is full of potentials to be a career for a serious artist like me.

Dwen Ujang

Dwen's FIMO Jewelry Creations

This is my recent FIMO Jewelry creations. Enjoy.......

FIMO Air Light : Flower Project (Pt.1)

I was first introduced to FIMO Air Light Modeling Clay recently by Staedtler Malaysia. I didn't know that FIMO brand also produce air-dry clay as well besides their world-famous FIMO Soft and FIMO Classic Polymer Clay.

I have worked with a Japanese brand Hearty Modelling clay and also Crayola air-dry clay for more than 10 years now. They both are different and takes practice to work with. Between Hearty and Crayola, Hearty will give a professional finish and it can be a product that you can sell. Crayola is more for kids to play with and you can't really turn it into dainty little flowers or decorations. Crayola is more to making small cartoony figurines but it will become slightly flexible after it dries out. Hearty and FIMO Air Light however will become harden and light.

So, when I first work with FIMO Air Light, I think this air-dry clay is really good and with practice of how to handle the clay, one can make so many beautiful things. Things that you can use as a decorations, things that you can sell at an Arts & Craft fair as the results are professional and beautiful.

Below are some of the things that I have done so far with FIMO Air Light Modeling Clay.











I will add more projects that I have done with FIMO in the future.

By,
Dwen Ujang

Is This Suppose To Make Me Feel Better?

Ever since I have moved to my rental two-story Terrace House 10 months ago, I have been happier than ever. It’s a nice comfortable house with front and back yard for my gardens and ample space inside the house; a master bedroom, a guess room, a gym room, huge living hall, 3 restrooms and a comfortable special room for my 8 cats too and a perfect venue for our casual weekly gathering for all my best friends.

I managed to make my own space uniquely Dwen’s as my friend would say it; warm, cozy, spacious, complete with modern equipment and appliances, filled with nice and practical furniture, a place for entertainment, a venue for a BBQ Party and a well attended gardens blooming with colourful Orchids, Anthuriums, Bougainvilleas and gardenias among the collections.

And the best part of all that I am sure of is that I welcome all my best friends to visit me at any time and I am always eternally hospitalize with their visitations or always prepared to organize any gathering or parties. I am just that warm friendly and easy going person to them. And I will always be and that’s why my home is always the place to be for all of them.

This is just how I am. I can turn a plain empty house into a livable and comfortable home that anyone would love.

The thing is renting this house is all I can afford at the moment. I got some unfortunate careless history with my credit trails that put me in a bin of unfavorable customers with the bank. I am not broke or black listed from any banking institutions. But I am just not a very good customer to them base on the merit of my records. I have been paying all my debts with them for as long as I can remember and it just never ends. But I am very casual with the payment schedule every month to the point that I do not care if I miss any deadline. I just make sure that I pay them regardless anyway at some point.

And with my business running with another set of headaches to bear, everything is almost unbearable every month. But I am grateful to Allah for giving me such a comfortable life to live, more than an average person would have. So despite my money issues with the bank, I am still good with my families, my employees and my best friends. These three, I will always make sure my best to keep them from worrying about money because of me.

I am always generous with money for them. Somehow I am more than happy if I could spare some support for them when they need my help with money. Or at least I will try first or offer some other alternative before I give up. But sometimes I think this does present a problem for me though. They often expect more from me when I know my limit is lesser than what they could have.

Recently my best friend KH has been saying that if I cannot buy the terrace house I am living now, come when my landlord ready to sell it, he wanted to buy it and let me rent it from him. Kind of like asking me to pay for my own home, but for him to own from the bank. He knows I am a good paymaster with him and he knows that I cannot afford to buy this on my own for now or for the next 3 years at least; so he thought if he buys this house and let me rent it from him, this will make me feel better and happier? Secure? What kind of fucked up idea is this? He will be happier, yes! What about me?

In fact I will feel so unhappy and feel really useless and pointless to live. Maybe it’s the ego in me, I don’t know. But I would like to buy the place that I really love with my own sweat, tears and bare hands. I don’t want my best friend to take ownership on my home like some so-called superior civilized race invaded some poor small country just because they don’t have a name for their country and do not have a freakin’ flag to wave. What kind of egomaniac stupid thing to do to someone?

Is this supposed to help me? Maybe! But it is more like helping him to own more property and turn people like me become a leech, a beggar, a second rate useless citizen and taken away his self-respect with his dignity squeeze to a pulp. On the other hand, he becomes the hero that the family will brag for years to come, meanwhile I got to fake my face of embarrassment to his family and to our friends with smiles and giggles of laughter while serving food at my own party for them.

I don’t think I am ready to be this humble despite my unfortunate fate at the moment I have to do what’s best for my own happiness. Should this moment come and my home ownership transferred from the rich Chinese to my best friend KH, I will be ashamed to live here and it will be the day my soul of happiness got crushed to a size of a pea.

Maybe, we should call it day and I will be gone forever.

My thoughts,
Dwen

Life's Coming Up Hibiscus

By TAHIR ALHAMZAH, The Star, August 29, 2002


MANY a time one’s true gift comes to the fore in the end, no matter how it might have been suppressed at a shaky beginning.

Azriduan Ahmad, also known as Dwen, is a case in point. As he holds a Science degree in Business Administration, you might think that was how he got started in business. However, as it turns out, it was his initially-thwarted artistic side that got him venturing forth and succeeding in the business world.

His company, Dwen Creations, sells flowers – fake flowers. Just like florists selling all sorts of fresh flowers, Dwen Creations offers a myriad selection of flowers – ranging from hibiscus to orchid to plumeria. Almost 90% of his flowers are based on real flowers and their colours. Only recently has he been expanding his range of artistic and stylised creations.

The products – which are hand-made – can basically be categorised into two: standard and signature pieces. While the standard ones are the FIMO Polymer clay flowers without any embellishment, the signature pieces come with semi-precious stones, crystal beads and mother-of-pearl, among others. The flowers come in the form of accessories like necklace, earrings, bracelets and brooches.

There are also individual flower pieces which one can wear in the hair, just like the typical image of an exotic tropical girl with a flower behind an ear. In fact, that is exactly what the pieces are meant for.

The demand for such flowers are high in Hawaii, where girls and women are seen everywhere with all sorts of blooms as part of their everyday accessories.
The island is also the place where Dwen established himself as an accessory designer.

Although Dwen loved to draw and sketch when he was young, he did not apply for an art and design course when he enrolled at Institut Teknologi Mara. Instead, he ended up studying business. In 1995, he went to Oahu, Hawaii, to further his studies at the Hawaii Pacific University for two years. Upon graduation, he worked as an in-store merchandiser at a United Colors of Benetton store there.

“I used to enter many drawing competitions in school. I even represented my school then. However, when I entered a technical school for my upper secondary education, I took up technical drawing. As I only had that with my SPM, I thought I would not qualify for the (art and design) course (at ITM),” Dwen explains how he ended up not pursuing his higher education in what he loved most.

Nonetheless, it was the business diploma that got him all the way to the Pacific island, where he majored in Tourism, and the place where he developed his creativity.

“I was introduced to clay by a friend’s wife. When I played with it and transformed it into roses, it was she who saw the light. She suggested that we get into business making flowers from clay.

“Next thing we knew, we were busy making the flowers and selling them. However, as the couple could not really give their full commitment, we went our separate ways, leaving just (my partner) J.P. (Kenrick) and me,” he recounts.

In early 1998, he left Benetton to concentrate on this new venture. Both partners then paid more attention to making and distributing clay flowers – arranging them into necklaces, earrings, bracelets as well as flower lei and the individual floral piece, which the Hawaiians call hairpic.

Dwen and Miss America 2001 Angela Baraquio, who wore Dwen's FIMO clay creations: a double-strand pua kenikeni lei and matching hairpic.

“As the hairpic goes into the hair, it needs to be light. However, the polymer clay which I was using is comparatively heavy if it is used to make hairpics,” he says.
Playing around with the clay substances, he came up with a mixture he named “Dwentech”. This material, which he said he “invented”, is lighter than polymer clay and also more flexible and durable than the material (a product of Japanese technology) used for hairpics by other manufacturers.

Eventually, “Dwentech” became the winning formula for Dwen’s creations. Word of mouth later made his products much sought after by retailers and consumers. Feedback he received from users were mostly positive, including one woman saying she was surprised to find her hairpic intact even after she had inadvertently slammed her car door on it!

Dwen with Angela Baraquio, Miss America 2001

Being at the right place at the right time was also partly how Dwen firmly established his enterprise in the Rainbow State; another turning point for him was his connection with Miss America 2001 Angela Baraquio.

With her, Dwen struck the right business agreement with the right person.
“We were at a Made-in-Hawaii trade fair in Honolulu when the then newly-crowned Miss Hawaii (Angela Baraquio) came to our booth. It was my partner (Kenrick) who approached her. Mesmerised by her beauty, he asked her who she was and when he found out that she was going to represent the state at the finals of Miss America for that year, we thought it’d be a good idea to sponsor her with our flower and jewellery pieces at the event,” he says.

As Hawaiians are usually associated with flowers (be it in the form of lei or individual flowers – hairpic or fresh ones – slipped just behind the ear) and it was not practical to use fresh flowers for the event, the organiser for the Miss Hawaii pageant agreed to the deal.

At the finals, Baraquio wore a yellow hibiscus (as it is the state flower) hairpic for the swimsuit segment, and a double-strand pua kenikeni lei and matching hairpics during the talent segment when she performed the hula dance. Baraquio also won the subsidiary title for the swimsuit round and when she stepped out to receive the prize, she had on a pink orchid hairpic and a triple-strand Arabian jasmine choker.
The deal worked out even better for him when Baraquio was crowned Miss America 2001.

She was also the first Asian American (Baraquio is a Filipina Hawaiian) to win the coveted title. Throughout her reign, she was seen everywhere sporting clay flowers created by Dwen – appearing on Larry King Live, Late Show with David Letterman, and when she met the US president – so much so the flower has become part of her image.
“At one time, she appeared in public but nobody recognised her. Realising what was missing, she took out her hairpic and slid it behind her ear. Only then the public recognised who this woman was,” says Dwen.

Flowers and floral jewellery pieces by Dwen have been available at more places in Hawaii ever since. Previously sold only through distributors, he now also has a boutique (opened in March this year) on Kapahulu Avenue in Waikiki, a place frequented by tourists. Besides being retailed in Hawaii, his flowers are also available elsewhere such as in San Francisco, California, and Japan.

“My products are only available at places that stock Hawaii-related goods on the (US) mainland,” says Dwen. And his products have also been distributed in Malaysia since early this year.

Having had established himself comfortably there, Dwen decided to move his base back home to Malaysia – where overheads are comparatively much lower. He officially transplanted his office from Hawaii to Kuala Lumpur only in May.

“Everything there is expensive. The salary for one person there could well pay for three here. Even when I’m making the flowers here now, the cost (including transportation of the goods there) is still lower,” explains Dwen.

Although there has been a change of address, zipcode and country on his calling card, Hawaiians can still enjoy his beautiful creations – thanks to his boutique and other business commitments he still has there, such as being appointed as one of the sponsors for the Miss Hawaii pageant since last year.

Angela won the Preliminary Swimsuit Competition at the Miss America Pageant 2001. Angela was wearing my FIMO 3-strands White Pikake Choker made to look like a famous Hawaiian flower, the Pikake/Jasmine flower. Also a matching FIMO Pink Orchid Hairpic on her left ear.