Transforming The World, One Bowl At A Time

When I was about 14 years old, I had become grossly consumed with making ornate-looking bowls out of week-old newspapers. Unlike the old newspapers that my grandfather would save for the scrap collector, who would buy bundles in exchange for some petty cash, these bowls would serve little practical purpose around the house. They were fragile - would bend or break at the slightest of involuntarily strains - meaning they had to be discarded almost immediately after being put into use. Reconciling with this loss was quite hard for me since I would toil for hours to perfectly craft the seemingly meaningless bowls. My mother - almost in response to the predicament my bowls faced - started storing and displaying these creations on a higher shelf in the living room to keep them safe.

Making those bowls was a strange fixation for me. The process - of measuring and cutting strips of the newspapers individually and rolling them thinly at an angle into sturdy, long pieces, that would eventually be rolled into coils to construct the base and the ornate outer structure of the bowl - was very time-consuming and painstakingly monotonous. I didn’t own many professional crafting tools, so I relied on my patient hands, my trusty scissors and my mother’s kitchen skewers to make this process as efficient as possible. The most frustrating part of the process was holding down each individual coil to the base structure and waiting for the glue to dry; I eventually bought a hot glue gun that would make this operation much more convenient. After leaving these to rest overnight, the next morning, I would paint these awkwardly constructed bowls in bright and cheery colours, being extra cautious and delicate so as not to mess with the form, that I had tired over so hard to make as symmetric as possible.

By no means was this a relaxing recreational activity. I would strain my neck and my eyes for days trying to get these bowls to turn out as perfectly as I envisioned them. However, it was extremely meditative and almost soothing in a totally different way. The making process allowed me to be alone with my thoughts, reflect on my day-to-day and sometimes simply tune out and observe the movement of my fingers. My cousin would often joke about this odd interest in such a seemingly frustrating hobby, to which I didn’t quite have an explanation back then. My stoic grandfather who didn’t really understand this meticulous but seemingly purposeless pursuit, would however nod and slightly smile in encouragement at the final results and that would make the effort all the more rewarding. For a few more weeks I would continue to consume myself with this fascination into constructing exquisite newspaper bowls - till I graduated to making sturdier pen stands out of plastic bottles, containers for holding small items out of my mother’s old bangles and other functional items out of the old, broken and neglected.

As I carried out this personal mission of repurposing waste into something productive, it was as if every object around me revealed its potential as a material resource for my creative manipulation. Plastic spoons could be cut into different shapes to make wind chimes, old t-shirts could be cut and stitched into cushion covers, pages from old books could be glued together to make interesting gift wrapping, old socks could be filled with rice and warmed up to be used as hand warmers (not to mention - leftover socks for sock puppets!) and the newly delivered washing machine’s cardboard packaging, big enough to fit me and my cousin, could be used as a covert playroom… These ideas constantly flooded my brain and seemed to become increasingly complex as I carried out more and more creative projects. That’s not surprising at all, right? As we take on the challenge of cultivating skills for learning a new craft, our powers of creative problem solving are enhanced along the way.

With my inclination towards finding creative solutions for problems, pursuing a career in design came very organically to me. My curious interest in looking for alternative uses for material objects has stayed with me in my career as an industrial designer. Do-It-Yourself (DIY) has always been my go-to strategy and I try to employ the same vision as I’m designing my products as well. The DIY culture takes the conversation of sustainability from a purely political realm to one that is very individual, and that can be addressed and mitigated by anyone across the globe through their own journey of experimentation.

Along my journey of experimenting with materials through trial and error, I’ve formulated a set of guidelines that have never failed to inspire creative solutions.

Sourcing: Find a material or an object (preferably waste) lying around your house, your office or on the street. It could range from something as basic as an empty soda can to something as complex as a kid’s bicycle. If you’re a beginner, it would be more fun to start with something small and move up to more challenging objects, because the idea is to get the most out of this practice.

Recontextualizing: Interact with the material/object. Approach it with the curiosity of a child. Engage with it like you’ve never seen something like this before. Without judging it based on your preconceived notions, try to think about what its form reminds you of? Feel its texture. Knock it against a surface and listen to the sounds it creates. Try folding it, bending it or even throwing it around if that feels necessary to your process. The goal is to try to unlearn your stereotypical understanding of the material/object and find new affordances for it.

Replacing: Once you’ve gained a brand new understanding of your subject in focus, try to think of ways you could put its affordances to use in your lifestyle such that it fits your natural way of being. Try to visualise what this object looks like in its new form and what functions it serves you. Does it have any appendages? Or have some parts been removed to make space for others? Has it been reinforced with other materials to give it additional strength or functionality? Maybe it’s been disintegrated into numerous parts to add a range of material capabilities to a bunch of different applications? Or what if it’s been broken down to its simplest component and used as building blocks to create something that takes advantages of its tangible properties? The possibilities are endless.

With these basic steps, I’m trying to illustrate the idea that it is possible for absolutely anybody to embark on the journey of pursuing a creative practice just by reimagining the potential of things around themselves.

I suppose I would like to end this essay by posing a challenge to all my readers - Follow the steps of sourcing, recontextualizing and replacing to create something that adds meaning to your life. Immerse yourself in the process of making, and you will find yourself interacting with the material world in a totally transformative, contemplative and therapeutic manner.