My elective posting project is about selling products made from resin which are bookmark and keychain. I have gathered supplies from Shopee and research on resin for this week. Basically, resin is a two-component systems consists of epoxy resin and hardener. With a correct ratio, both components are mix together and left in a high temperature room to hardened. I also spent some time to practice making bookmarks and keychains. 

2. Points to remember from week 1

A list of do(s) and don’t (s) in the making of resin product. 

3. Your feeling and thoughts

Surely I have experienced roller coaster emotion in the first week. I went from “oh this is fun, let’s do some more!” to “I shouldn’t picked this as my project, is it too late to change?”. However, nothing is easy without practice and determination. I reassured myself that as time goes by, with practice, I would be better than I am today. 

4. 1 good thing from what you did that you can practice now

Besides making product, this project also taught me to have more patience. I am well known for being impatient, but through resin making, it is safe to say that I am able to suppress myself from ruining the process. 

5. Any difficulties/concerns? How did you cope?

Yes, I have encountered a lot of difficulties throughout the resin making process. One popular mistake that everyone, including me, makes in resin making is stirring the mixture too fast causing a lot of tiny bubbles to appear in the mixture. This bubbles would not look good after the resins are fully cured, so we need to remove them. I usually remove larger bubbles using a lighter, meanwhile smaller bubbles using toothpick. Can you imagine picking up all the small bubbles using toothpick? It is enough to give me backache by the end of the day. But fret not, a good music and good companion will makes all the ache go away. 

6. 2 words to describe ep progress so far

Fun and enjoyable!

7. Your plan for next week

Since I have established an account for my resin product, I would focus on promoting and making more resin product for ready-stock purpose. Hopefully, my resin sells well. Please support me at @resinbyvera on Instagram, thank you everyone :)

2. Points to remember from week 1!

- To order stickers earlier since they take quite some time to be shipped.

- To plan out my feed properly instead of simply posting then deleting whenever I feel like I have better pictures. 

3. Your feelings & thoughts 

To be honest, I was quite worried at first for this project especially in trying to promote decorated toploaders outside the kpop community, but the support I’ve received so far really motivated me to continue. Plus, I love the fact that I am able to do the stuff I like such as decorating and exploring my creativity.

4. 1 good thing from what you did that you can practice now!

I learned to always plan a rough idea beforehand to ensure that I dont mess up the designs as some stickers leave residues which are very hard to peel off once they are misplaced. 

5. Any difficulties/concerns? How did you cope?

- A difficulty I faced was trying to prevent dust from being easily trapped into the toploaders. However, I’ve managed to overcome this problem by storing them in an airtight container before use. Additionally, I also bought plastic sleeves where I will insert the decorated toploaders to protect them from collecting dust and supply buyers with an extra strip of washi tape just in case. 

- Another concern Ive faced was in regards of the self-printed polaroids as it is quite difficult to ensure that the pictures came out clear. However, with the help of my friend I managed to change the settings to make the quality acceptable.

 

6. 2 words to describe elective posting progress so far

 - Exciting and productive

7. Your plan for next week (Week 2)

- My plan is to start selling my products and continue promoting my designs on available platforms. Aside from that, I would like to explore more challenging designs that may attract more interest towards my product. I also plan to figure out cheaper postage options (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)

I have decided to start a small business selling mini paintings for my elective posting. I have bought supplies needed for my project from Shopee beforehand, and painted several artworks inspired by various arts I found on social media (TikTok, YouTube, Instagram etc.). Since I already have an art account on Instagram, I just upgraded it and turned it into my business account (@mini.artsyy), and used it to post some artwork I have created. I spent my Week 1 mainly on practicing on my painting and creating designs I could paint through Canva before painting it on my canvas. Also, I created my own Thank You card using Canva and printed out some of them.

2. Points to remember from Week 1.

-Have a rough guideline as a reference on what I am going to paint

-Make sure to prepare few canvases beforehand to avoid starting an artwork later than expected

-Buy more paints with extended colours

3. Your feelings and thoughts.

I have mixed feelings about this project initially. It was calming because I could do something I was passionate about for my project but at the same time it was tiring as it takes a lot of my time and energy. And there was that one thought, saying that my project would not be as successful as I expected it to be and that I would not get enough support. But it turned out that I should not worry that much because I did receive a lot of support from my friends and family. That was the boost I needed to continue my project.

4. 1 good thing from what you did that you can practice now.

I learned to persevere whenever I paint, as the beginning of the process may be hard, but as long as I persevere and trust the process, everything will go well.

5. Any difficulties/concerns? How did you cope?

Whenever I paint, I would have a hard time finding the right shades of the colour I wanted to use and I would end up wasting more paint than I intended to. And there would be a lot of paint residue on my palette which was tiring when washing it off. The way I overcome this is by using just a little bit of the paints needed for mixing and I also use online colour mixer on the internet just so I can get the right idea of what colour I would be getting if I mix two certain colours. Not only that, since white paint is the colour I used the most in every artwork, it runs out fast and I could no paint certain artworks until I have white paint. The only way I overcome this is by buying a larger tube of white acrylic.

6. 2 words to describe EP progress so far.

Fun and calming!

7. Your plan for next week (Week 2)

I will start selling decent paintings I created so far to my friends and start promoting on social media. I will also open commission and start taking custom orders. In the meantime, I will practice on my sketchbook to improve my painting skills and restock my supplies.

 

2. Points to remember from week 1!
On the last Wednesday, Chef Wan came to bring his mother for her jab. We got to take a picture with him and he was so friendly towards us, the volunteer. Plus, as I have been doing this project for 2 weeks now, I get more familiar with the other volunteers, doctors and staffs there so it became more fun to go to work everyday and see them.

 

3. Your feelings & thoughts 
Volunteerism is quite tiring but pretty fun too. I get to learn alot of things especially on how to deal with vaccinee with patience and polite. I get to gain experience and broaden my social connection as well as improve my self-esteem. I am so grateful for all these experiences and happy to be one of the manpower in achieving ‘herd immunity’ of Malaysia.

 

4. 1 good thing from what you did that you can practice now!

 I get to practice my medical knowledge alil bit as I am in charge for registration counter where there is one doctor in charge to consult vaccinee and gain consent before their vaccination. I get to learn from the doctors on how to consult and how to handle situation such as when vaccinee said they wanted only this one speficic vaccine and so on.

5. Any difficulties/concerns? How did you cope?

 Volunteering for 5 to 6 hours, 5 days per week do make me feel tired and drained abit so I have to make sure that I stay hydrated by drinking a lot of water and have enough sleep at night. During weekend, I make sure to have a very good rest so I am ready to start fresh for the upcoming week.

6. 2 words to describe elective posting progress so far

 - Enjoyment
- Comprehension

7. Your plan for next week (Week 2)
I would like to try other counter as well. For the information HCTM drive through vaccination program consists of 4 main counters so I would like to try all four for my elective posting :)

2.WHAT HAVE YOU DONE

In the first week of our EP we started with brainstorming a few ideas on what we want to sell. At first, we decided to sell gift boxes but after a long thought we had come to a decision to sell burgers as somehow we are always craving to eat burgers at night but all stalls had closed early. We named our company as Burgermbira. We also had searched for a place to sell burgers around the college compound only.  Furthermore, we also created our own logo and social media page to increase engagement.

3. POINTS TO REMEMBER.

4. YOUR FEELING AND THOUGHT

I feel so excited! I never  thought of selling burgers where we make the burgers ourselves. However, I'm also quite nervous and a little bit worried as it is something new for me and my friends as I had never experienced this kind of business. 

5. ONE GOOD THING FROM WHAT YOU DID THAT YOU CAN PRACTICE

One thing I learned from the first week, problems will come, and it will never get easier, so you really need to have perseverance and never give up on what you want. We had faced many problems in the first week but luckily we managed to resolve them as we really work as a team. Therefore, I am now aware that I need to face the problems rather than avoid them.

6. ANY DIFFICULTIES/CONCERNS? HOW DID YOU COPE?

We had faced many problems like what was the appropriate way to sell burgers around the college compound while complying to the SOP  and how we should set up our stall. After all, it's very important to work as a team. Thankfully, we could also manage to settle all  the preparations needed before we can start selling. cafe

7. 2 WORDS TO DESCRIBE ELECTIVE POSTING PROGRESS SO FAR

 Excited and curious.

8. YOUR PLAN NEXT WEEK

We will set up the location and start selling our burgers,  and record our business progress.  We also decided to have a feedback session every day after we finished selling. Our goal in the first week is to gain back money used as the ‘modal’ for our business and hoping we could manage our budget  thoroughly especially when buying wet ingredients as it cannot last long.

For introduction, I have decided to continue my small online business since MCO 1.0 implemented last year which is portrait/drawing commission. To restart the business, I made some promotional posters and videos via Instagram since it has been abandoned for quite some time. I review and update my price list for different types of portrait drawing. Mostly, I spent time by practicing my art skills using Procreate app in my Ipad during this week 1 since the last time I drew was before third year starts. Whenever I found myself stuck and clueless, I will browse some art drawings in Pinterest website to get inspiration. 

 

·         To search more ideas on how to promote my Instagram page

·         To practice on my art skills

 

 

I feel excited to restart this mini project of mine, as i really enjoy drawing during my free time. It has been so long I drew anything that I forget about how calm and solace it is to draw while listening to songs and sipping iced coffee. Although it might sound a bit exaggerated, but it is one of the things I enjoyed doing. Plus, who wouldn’t love some side incomes? hehe

Practice, practice and practice. For me, passion plays an important role in making arts but practice is undeniably essential to improve our skills.

My concern is I won’t get much customers as last time since this pandemic has really taken a great toll on everyone’s life including finance. But I remember the motive I started this project, which is to create and learn more about digital arts instead of focusing in making money.  Plus, this elective posting has provide a great chance for me to restart this business which I am really grateful for.

 

Joyous and calming

 

·         To start on some orders I have received

·         To gain more followers/customers by doing more promotions

Since I have using MaryKay product as my skincare, so I decided to start my online business with Marykay. I want to share about how important to practice basic skincare routine in our daily life and the benefits of using good product as our skincare. MaryKay has a lot of product, every set has different benefit based on customers skin type. 

Every Mary Kay beauty consultant has to log in Mary Kay Intouch Website which all the useful materials and product knowledge are available in the website. I also get my ‘Starter Kit’  and business tools to help me kick start my Mary Kay Career. 

I also joined skincare classes, business conference and also editing class using canva app. Canva app  is an easy-to-use, free graphic design software that helps me create professional looking design for my social media platform with ease. Since I registered using education email, I could assess all the template, elements, fonts and structure for free. 

In my personal view, I never think of starting a business because somehow i do not have courage and confident about it. Elective Posting made me get out from my comfort zone. It is not easy to start a business. Its need consistency, hardworking and very good planning. But glad that i have done the first step which is ‘start’. 

I learned a lot of things in very first week especially about skincare based on our Asian skin type and also editing skills using canva app. I feel very skillful right now😋 and I plan to create and design my own instagram feed next week. 

Difficulties that i faced during the first week is internet connection😅. Seems like all the classes, canva apps and social media platform like instagram had used a lot of internet data. So to solve this problem, I have added another 20GB High-Speed Internet into my monthly internet plan.

Busy and fun

My plan for second week is to create my own business instagram feed, post video and information about MaryKay product as well as to start promoting.