Art jamming, or the act of creating art collectively as a group, has been gaining immense popularity in recent years. Perhaps the pandemic played a big role in this, with months of lockdown and social interactions taking a back seat leading people to explore new avenues for stress relief.
Or perhaps it's the idea of rediscovering the 'childhood artist' in us, as we create something from scratch with our two bare hands. Often people belittle the things they can create with their own two hands, myself included.
When it comes to hands-on workshops, the likes of canvas painting, scrapbooking, and even sewing comes to mind. Today we explore one of the latest trends in the local art scenes - tufting.
Firer and her assistant
Tufting is an ancient textile manufacturing technique used for making warm garments. The modern iteration involves punching yarn through a taut fabric base with a tufting gun. Who needs live rounds when you can go trigger happy with tufting, and with an art piece at the end to boot.
Go trigger happy with this gun
We were invited by WeTuft, a tufting studio located at Cineleisure, for a 2.5-hour workshop. Generally, WeTuft recommends the 2.5-hour workshop for 50cm x 50cm frames, 4-hour for 70cm x 70cm, and 5.5-hour for 90cm x 90cm. You can even request for private event tufting sessions.
Located at the second floor of Cineleisure, the studio overlooks a busy stretch of Orchard Road. With its full-length glass windows, it helps that you can relax your eyes and gaze outside in between your triggering sessions.
Artists at work
Fret not if handling an automatic punching machine is not your forte - neither was it ours. But we found the overall experience to be fun, enjoyable, and in a way therapeutic. With each punch of the fabric brings with it a teeny-weeny portion of our stress. So yes, license to be trigger-happy granted.
1. Step One - Choose Your Picture
The first thing you need to consider is the design of the rug you want to create. Being first timers we opted for a simple smiling flower with only 3 different colours.
Don't worry, be happy
2. Step Two - Tracing
The staff will help to beam your image via a projector and onto the fabric base. Use the markers provided to trace the outline of your image.
Two hands are better than one
3. Step Three - Load Ammunition
Decide on which colour you want to tackle first. Generally, it is a better idea to start with the outline.
Loaded and ready to roll
4. Step Four - Trigger and Enjoy!
This is where the fun begins. Fill the canvas with yarn by triggering your gun line by line in an upward direction. Reload or replace the coloured yarn as and when necessary.
Start with the outline of the image
It is not ugly, it is our art piece
What you are working on is the back side of the rug, so there is no need to worry about it looking ugly (for now).
5. Step Five - Finishing (to be done by the staff)
Your job is complete once you are done filling up the canvas with yarn. The next steps involve glueing the loose ends of the yarn, drying the glue, and trimming the final product. These will all be performed by the staff. Your art piece will also be delivered to your place in 3-4 weeks' time at no additional charges!
Glueing the loose ends of the yarn
Giving the rug a final trim
Some final cleaning
6. Our Masterpiece
This is how our smiling flower looks like after the finishing has been completed. Not bad, isn't it?
A smile is a curve that sets everything straight
Final Verdict
Coming from the last two persons on planet Earth who would call themselves artists, we found the overall experience to be thoroughly enjoyable and therapeutic. The triggering of the tufting gun allowed us to live our Rambo fantasies, even if it was for a mere 2.5 hours. The fact that this is a bespoke rug handcrafted by our own hands, which cannot be replicated or bought anywhere else in the world made it all the more special.
We were also immensely grateful to the friendly staff at WeTuft, who were thoroughly patient and helpful to the both of us. Help was always just a hand raise away.
Real artists hard at work
A really cute piece done by another person
merewards Deal
Fancy rounding up a few friends and trying your hands at creating your own bespoke masterpieces? Enjoy 10% off workshops at WeTuft when you apply our promo code here during registration!
Check out WeTuft at Level 2 of Cineleisure
Address: Cineleisure, 8 Grange Road, #02-06, Singapore 239695
Opening Hours: Daily 10am - 10pm
Nearest MRT Station: Somerset Station
Contact Number: 9343 0206
Website: www.wetuft.com
Get 10% off your workshop bookings at WeTuft here
Looking for fun activities to do in Sentosa instead? Check out our guide here on how to enjoy the best aerial views Sentosa has to offer!
This is an independent review brought to you by merewards.