Jan DSaIt was a few days before my favourite handcrafted souq in town. I usually make it a point never to make any new pieces of jewellery
Wire wrapped beaded wrist cuff from my Ramen Girl collection
at the last minute, but instead to mentally prepare myself for the whole souq day, because I pack, display, sell, and take care of the whole works on my own.
However, this time round, things were different. My hands were itchy (and no that doesn’t mean I’ve got a skin disease or something) which was a big sign that I should take time away from writing and graphic design and concentrate on a bit of jewellery making. So there I was playing with a bronze coloured wire reel, not knowing what I was going to do except go roll, unroll, roll, unroll.
That’s when my attention drifted towards the TV screen where I heard a smatter of Japanese and late Brittanny Murphy’s voice. The movie, The Ramen Girl, was something that I had not heard of before. But I’ve always been inspired by the Japanese language and with Japanese movies having watched quite a few on my visits to Hong Kong.
So while Murphy was figuring out how to make Ramen, I was busy trying to figure out how I was going to make a piece of jewellery with long noodles of wire. To understand where I’m coming from, I take one step back and focus on the background of the movie.
Wire wrapped beaded wrist cuff from my Ramen Girl collection ©
Wire wrapped beaded wrist cuff from my Ramen Girl collection ©
Basically Murphy decides that she really wants to learn the authentic way of making Japanese Ramen and doesn’t want to return to the US. However, no matter how many times she makes the ramen (and it does look like ramen), the chef teaching her says, “You have no spirit in your heart when you make the ramen.â€
For those who don’t know, Ramen is a Japanese noodly meal with lots of shredded meat, vegetable and broth –a lovely whole hearted meal in itself! For Murphy, the only way to make ramen from her heart (and not just with her hands) was to cry her tears into the ramen. And that’s where the miracle started for her.
And for me. I realised how important it is to connect with each and every piece of jewellery that I make, each piece of writing that I do, each graphic design concept that I may come up with. Or, in short anything I do in the wheel of life.
Murphy even strayed from the traditional ramen concept by adding tomatoes and pepper – in keeping with her style. True, that
Wire wrapped beaded wrist cuff from my Ramen Girl collection
 didn’t leave the best impression on the grand Ramen master (who nevertheless appreciated her innovative streak) but she did come away with a few lessons in her own life and the next step of life’s journey…which was to open her very own quaint food shop back on US ground called ‘The Ramen Girl.’
By the time I finished watching the movie, I had made my ramen girl inspired jewellery cuff – luscious mix of all beads I could think of with earthy toned wire to make my own, lovely ramen girly wrist cuffs. My collection may not be your perfect idea of a gift to someone, but it is important that I did it and carved with it some lovely pieces of creativity, love, imagination and energy that I so want everyone around me to feel.
Just like The Ramen Girl.
And here questions of type such if honestly strike me not much as I wrote everything higher. It is visible you simply you don’t want to read all this. As my parrot does.