Entry #4

13th October 2018

Great day today!

It was really one of the most fulfilling days that we've had so far, in my honest opinion. The day started (sort of) early at 1130am when we met for lunch at Tanjong Pagar, which was near where we had arranged for an ornamental plants terrarium workshop as part of our R&D process. This was so that we could decide whether we wanted to venture into ornamental plants (closed terrariums), or succulent plants (open terrariums) as both were relatively low-maintenance but had different care requirements.

Great day today!

It was really one of the most fulfilling days that we've had so far, in my honest opinion. The day started (sort of) early at 1130am when we met for lunch at Tanjong Pagar, which was near where we had arranged for an ornamental plants terrarium workshop as part of our R&D process. This was so that we could decide whether we wanted to venture into ornamental plants (closed terrariums), or succulent plants (open terrariums) as both were relatively low-maintenance but had different care requirements.

At our workshop, we were given plants like fittonia, peperomias and Holland moss, and were taught how to care for them and transfer them from one container to another without damaging their roots. We also learned how to design and maintain a closed terrarium, and had a lot of fun exercising our creativity and making terrariums that really represented us. Once our base was completed we were given the choice to add in a figurine for extra customisation and personalisation. For myself, a blue boat with an oar immediately caught my eye because it reminded me of a past canoeing experience I had. I experimented with other figurines at first, but somehow I couldn't let go of the blue boat. I decided to incorporate it into my terrarium.

We realised at the end of the workshop that almost all of us had included figurines that were part of a personal story, or memory. We also felt like the best terrariums out of all of ours were the ones that were able to tell that story effectively. That gave us the idea to move towards incorporating stories into the terrariums we would sell, which we thought would be a great unique selling point.

(from left to right) Jiaxin, myself and Shun Kai working on our terrariums, featuring the top of Ram's head at the bottom right corner.

Wow. Look at that concentration.If only I had the energy to put in even half of that effort into my academic assignments.

Making terrariums was tough and strenuous and we were all hungry by the time we finished. We adjourned for a second lunch, and while eating we discussed how we were going to market our terrariums - and we came to a wall. We found that this was because stories, customisation and personalisation were starting to become extremely commonplace, especially in the terrarium market, so what we thought was a great unique selling point turned out to be a moot point instead. This weighed on our minds as we paid for our meal and set out to take our team photos.

In the morning, I'd reached Tanjong Pagar MRT Station a little bit earlier than the rest and so went to scout around for nice photoshoot locations. I found really nice garden/park that I felt would be the perfect backdrop and was so relieved that we didn't have to travel too far.

I'd instructed everyone to wear white and denim beforehand, so that the colours would coordinate and look good when we took our group photo or when we placed everyone's photos side by side.

It took 5 people to open 1 tripod stand...

Lots of over/under exposure issues for our tanner and darker skinned friends... (cameras generally favour lighter skinned people so it's really unfair that way)

Lots of test shots

SHIJU WHERE ARE YOU

SORRY GUYS ITS THE CAMERA I SWEAR

Lots and lots of outtakes because I couldn't make it there before the timer on the camera went off....

And also my biggest regret, this team photo that could've been really nice but didn't work in the end because of positioning issues :(

We also took some photos of our terrariums, just for reference's sake.

Following that, we decided to head down to Ikea to see if they had any glassware designs that we could look out for when sourcing our terrarium base. We looked at wineglasses and candleholders, jars and jugs, and the idea of having terrariums in household glassware came up briefly but we decided that it might not be too practical because of how narrow some of the glasswares were, which made it hard to avoid leaf-rot.

We quite liked the shorter and wider based glasses, like whiskey glasses and tea light holders, so we decided to search online for similar ones and share our findings when we next regrouped.

In the meantime, I'm going to go find a nice spot for my new terrarium (which I'm honestly quite proud of, considering it's the first I've ever made!)

Till the next post!

Cleo

27th October Edit -

I'm so happy i took photos that day because my terrarium is absolutely devastated right now. Just like my feelings. RIP.