They find it hard to repeat the same attractive looks, i.e., the decorations on the tree and the different types of gift with creative wrapping ideas displayed under it.
I am glad that my labour for love is well kept and well used by like-minded library support staff and librarians.
I recalled now and remembered that the Christmas tree and a few decorative items were purchased with library fund and the balance was donated by Mrs Wong-Yip Chin Choo, Deputy University Librarian then and me who was the Senior Assitant Director.
As both of us like to look at beautiful and creative works, hence to create a good display to usher the new year then and have it set on "Christmas" theme was something we both supported.
In order to save cost on Christmas display in the 2000's, Mrs Wong make a request for funding and asked me to help with the project. As it is hard to ask for funding every years, we decided that the Christmas display should be good and nice enough to be used "permanently" during Christmas seasons for Lee Wee Nam library in NTU.
As library promotion and exhibition fund is rather meagre at that time, we were given a budget of less than $100 for everything needed. Since the sum is so small, both of us help to defray the rest of the cost.
As we have to capitalized on all the resources we had and not to overspent and burn a big hole in our own pocket, I decided to design and create most of the decorative pieces, like ribbon bows and little toys etc for the Christmas tree.
Most of the ribbon decorations, art designs and craft works was created with the help of Mrs Yap-Kwok It Land, Ms Vanitha d/o Murugayen and Ms Stella Crystina Devavaram with "innovative" hands-on training by me.
The "Innovative Hands-on" training method I used was to break the steps into small chunks, create and make thing beautiful in units, have a sense of achievement in minutes. With the basic units done in advance, build the big work step-by-step is not too taxing.
At the end of the project, when all the beautiful pieces are put together, we created the "WOW" effect and amazed a lot of Librarians and Library Support Staff!
In the work room, the end result look great in the hands of creators. When we move it outside and have it at the library lobby, it attracted a lot of attention from the students and academic staff of NTU. Just remember, it was the firt time NTU Library have a Christmas Tree set up and well decorated in time for the seasons!
Though most of the art designs and craft works were done during lunch during that period as we have no time to spare during our office hours. Most staff who volunteer themselver for the project were so supportive and delighted to get involved.
Some of them told me lately that the skills they acquired were something that they treasured and the hours that they "work together unofficially" were time they enjoyed very much. They thank me for creating their sweet memory with a good cause.
As art designs and craft work is rather additive and therapeutic, creating Christmas decorations made them feel that time passed very fast. The extra and "overtime" hours seem too short though at that time we had one whole hour for lunch, unlike the present practice, lunch is only 45 minutes.
Since art work required time to create and the lunch hours we had were rather limited, I had to create many gift wrappings at home to make the Christmas display looks elegant and great in quantity.
Hence, a series of wine bottle wrappings, T-Shirt bag wrappings, gift boxes with butterflies on top, gift wrappings with roses and ribbon bows etc... were made at wee hours. After the first Christmas, with so many good comments received from both academic staff and students, I think the extra gift wrappings that I made at home will give library readera many "Merry Christmas" memory in return, hence, it were donated and become the "permenent collection" in Lee Wee Nam Library, NTU.
Hence if you are looking for some of my master pieces in terms of gift wrapping ideas, visit NTU library during Christmas season. You may just miss it this year, so remember to mark your calendar and do it next Christmas!
Here is a photos I took with some of the wrapping works:
(Click on the photo to enlarge it!)
I google on the web and found one more memory I had created during my NTU Library "Attachment" and the readers of this blog who like exhibit and display works may enjoy reading it:
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Source of information:
http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/lib/pub/v11n2-3.pdf
Ms Dexterine Ho Soo Miang (seated left in photo above), Senior Assistant Director, Resource Dept, with guest speaker Mrs Wong-Yip Chin Choo (seated right), Deputy University Librarian, shared their experiences with an audience from academic and school libraries at a Library Association of Singapore talk on Monday 14th October 2002.
Exhibitions & Displays: experiences of tertiary education libraries and beyond
Mrs Wong provided a macro view of the elements required and the outcomes an academic library can obtain when committing to a programme of exhibitions and displays. She explained how NTU Library in 2001 had taken the unique opportunity of a major face lift with the then renaming of its Library 1 to the Lee Wee Nam Library to create a display-event space and to plan at management level towards an ongoing display-exhibition programme.
Dexterine brought the discussion to the micro level by looking at the practical aspects of planning and production of exhibitions and displays. She highlighted the need for display planners to be alert to their target audience especially with regards to what appeals to them, what are their needs and interests.
Source of information:
http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/lib/pub/v11n2-3.pdf
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If you like to have course on Innovative classroom displays, school displays or creative gift wrappings, I think I have some skills to share with you and your group! You will have the ideas of creating interesting display works without stressing your days.
Just let me know your areas of interest and we can work out a course which is tailed made to meet your school or organization needs!
Dexterine Ho Soo Miang
HP: 9660 4692
http://dexterine.blogspot.com/
view my other blogs through my profile
email:
smho@e.ntu.edu.sg
dexterine@yahoo.com
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INNOvative HANDS-ON, INNOvative minds-on
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