PETALING JAYA, Jan 28 — When it comes to making pretty things for your parties and visually appealing window displays, Nat Teh Cheau Huey, 32, is the person you look for. The multi-talented founder of The Nuttie Workshop believes in hand making everything with love.
You’ll be surprised to find out this is actually a part-time venture fuelled by her passion to create things. “Since small, I have always been kinda designing,” she said.
She has enjoyed drawing since Standard 2. Later in secondary school, she tells us that she used to volunteer to make posters. For her, that love for making things carried on to adulthood.
When it came to choosing her future job, Nat tells us that she wanted to pursue a career in advertising. After talking to a few people in the industry, she decided to drop it since it would be hard to make it in that tough, competitive industry.
For some time, she even considered industrial design but changed her mind when she saw a student cut his finger during a project. Instead, she turned to fashion design which she studied at Limkokwing University of Creative Technology since she likes to hand sew.
In her early days, she kickstarted her fashion career by working with a local designer. Later, she applied for a job in local lingerie brand Xixili.
Once she picked up lingerie design, she ventured further into the field and became a lingerie buyer for an established British retailer. “I wanted to try something else... the business side,” she said.
In 2010, Nat debuted her hand sewn dolls under The Nuttie Workshop brand at the KL Design Week. “I learned sewing when we were studying and during college so it helps a lot,” she said.
Known as the Tivii dolls, these were huggable plushies decked out in colourful, bright fabrics that grabbed your eye. She also made sock toys and mini owls in contrasting fabrics. Later in 2011, she also designed and sewed various costumes for a children’s stage drama.
After an introduction by a friend, she started working with party planners who hired her to help them make the props for their events. This includes flowers, a pet favourite of hers. She adds, “I like to do flowers but people also ask me to do them.”
One time, she even hand sewed superhero toys as party favours. She is happy to work with these planners since it gives her new things to do. “Usually we try to be different and we’ll explore together whether it’s workable.”
Nat’s latest venture is working on window displays for brands such as Xixili and L’Occitane. Unlike party props, Nat feels that window displays last longer. “For windows, things are not so wasted as they put it in for a while unlike parties that last only one day,” she said.
Usually, it’s a long process that begins when she proposes ideas to the client for their window displays. She plucks ideas from her travels and sometimes from the Internet.
For instance, Japan is one of the places she draws her ideas from. She adds, “Their packaging and presentation are quite amazing and incredibly different.” The process between the client and Nat can be a back-and-forth one, until they fine tune the whole concept.
Sometimes it can take up to one and a half months. Once they give the green light to Nat, she’ll start making the items bit by bit. Sometimes it takes her up to one month to prepare everything.
Occasionally, she explains, it is not easy to translate the ideas on paper to real life. “You create it but sometimes it’s hard when it turns out not like what you intended or what the clients want.”
Last Chinese New Year, she fashioned large maroon and orange coloured roses from Manila paper for a Xixili window display. The orange colour was chosen to match Xixili’s collection, while the maroon fitted the festive occasion.
Nat had to do a lot of experimentation with various types of paper, using crepe paper, tissue and cardboard, until she was happy with how they turned out.
For the display, she made three sizes of roses but unfortunately the large ones were just too big to fit into the window! For last Christmas, she dressed up the Xixili mannequins in tutu skirts inspired by the Christmas tree. Last year, she also made meadowsweet flowers for a launch by L’Occitane.
Since she holds a day job, she allocates time during the weekends or after work for all this. Assisting her in this part-time venture is her father. Previously working in Port Klang as a warehouse manager, Nat’s father has a passion to build things, just like her.
“For the set-up of the window display, I’ll go with him as there is a lot of things to bring,” she explained. It’s also safer for her to be accompanied by her father since the display is only set up around midnight or early morning, to avoid any disruption to business.
This Chinese New Year, catch Nat’s work at the Xixili windows. The display features her version of himmeli, a type of traditional Finnish mobile ornament. She adapted the mobile decorations with glitter balls and tassels to give it a Chinoiserie touch, making them into modern and unusual lanterns. The tassels feature two hues, a peach colour to match the latest lingerie collection and maroon colour to signify Chinese New Year.
Traditionally, the himmeli is made from straw or reeds but in this case, she fashioned them out of pipes since they are much bigger. The work took roughly about two weeks to complete. Initially, they wanted to create a smaller himmeli lantern within a larger one but due to the weight and size, they dropped the idea and made different sizes of himmeli lanterns instead.
For Nat, the himmeli holds a special significance. “Before I made my first himmeli, I only saw pictures on Pinterest and Instagram and I felt that they were very pretty,” she said. Later when she received her first enquiry to make different sizes of himmeli for an industry themed wedding, she was incredibly excited.
She adds, “I started to love himmeli after I completed my first-ever himmeli, which I still keep in my room. I believe there is still a lot of space to explore making various types of himmeli.”
Moving forward, Nat is planning to organise craft workshops for adults and children. “It would be fun and interesting to share crafting with other people. I might also get new inspiration along the way too.” She also has lofty ambitions to come up with her line of products. “I want to do a lot of stuff, like my own bra and line of products, that is usable but cute.” And of course, she’ll love to do crafting on a full-time basis but at this moment, she admits it’ll be tough.
The Nuttie Workshop
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