Thank you for the Good Sweat!

Photo by Edward Teo

Sometimes when I take a pause and look back 10 years back when we were just messing around making Tshirts under "ampulets supplies", I realise how time has flown by and how much older we've become - after J quit being an employee in 2006 to start his design studio under the "ampulets" name as well, plus "Neighbourgoods" in 2012.  It's important to not take things too seriously, I think. We need to just feel the ground we walk on, breathe, and keep mostly still. The important things in life never change. And they are never complex.

Anyway, read J's reflections on ampulets' third edition of Good Sweat under his studio's product label Neighbourgoods:

"Good Sweat 3 was launched last Friday, 04 Dec. 

It was really great and heartwarming to see friends coming together to help with the launch, check out the installation, pick up a hankie or two, and simply to chat and catch up with each other. 

Some of you probably know how Good Sweat got started. Some years back, my sister told me that my nephew had expressed interest to do "your kind of work"(a designer). She seemed rather worried, so I told her "做甚麼都好，用心做就好” - it doesn’t matter what you do, so long as you do it with all your heart and it comes from a right place. (Btw, my nephew was a real help to set up this year's installation!) That year, we embroidered that phrase onto handkerchiefs.

There were folks who were touched by the message so we began to ask ourselves if there were other similar phrases or stories that friends and people we know doing creative work would hold on to. So came Good Sweat 2, where four photographers and designers we admired shared with us their "wise words". 

We didn't think of doing Good Sweat 3 because it really was difficult finding someone in Singapore willing to make the handkerchiefs at such small quantities and willing to tahan our scrutiny over the embroidery and all. Maybe some factory in China would have done it. But we want to work with someone in Singapore - to talk and work through the process together, face to face. And to support local industry. Good Sweat handkerchiefs were first made as a big favour by a friend who went into men's tailoring, but he could no longer convince his boss to continue supporting this project which was tedious and not profitable. 

So why Good Sweat 3? Because I use handkerchiefs daily, I personally benefitted from the simple encouragement of the phrases each time. They are reminders when I am down or frustrated. There are always people around us too whose work or attitude are inspirational to us - and I will always wonder what is their story, what motivates them, what "phrase" would they think of if I set them the Good Sweat challenge. 

Selecting the five folks for Good Sweat 3 was tough because there are just too many people we could have asked. We wanted to work with old friends and new people we've met, friends not just within the design circle but doing different kinds of creative work and to hear the voices of not only men (Y will complain!) but women. 

Then we met the young Singapore company Kamilinen and they were keen to take up our challenge and tahan my obsessive fussing on details. We really like their attitude!

When we looked back there has already been 12 phrases, one for each month of the year, so we designed a calendar poster that goes into the pack with each hankie this year.

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So friends, thank you for being part of Good Sweat in big and small ways. This is probably the last time we will run it because I always kena white hair from the process! Haha. I would really like to thank the following people for helping to make Good Sweat 3 a reality:

- Theseus (WORK), Kenny (BooksActually), Tan Pin Pin, Carrie Yeo (插班生/ The Freshman) and Edwin (Supermama), for trusting me with their ‘words of wisdom’
- Lester & Serene for helping out at the launch day and many more
- Ebenezer for help on the set-up day
- Edward Teo for event photography (credit for current pic as well)
- Meng Kwang (of Supermama) for the logistic support
- Supermama for being the venue sponsor and adopting our gravel

My heartfelt thank you to all of you and those we support the project. smile emoticon

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We will be doing a one-day pop up at TripleOne Somerset (next to Somerset MRT, Level 2) on this Sat, 12 Dec, 12-8pm at the Letter J pop up event. 

Hope you can swing by to say hi. The hankies are also available at:

- Supermama at SAM (opens till 7pm)
- Supermama Pop-up store at Liang Court (next week onwards)
- Select Pop-up store at the Art House
- BooksActually (next week onwards)
- Gallery&co (TBC)

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Each Good Sweat hanky is retail at $42, including a Good Sweat calendar poster in every pack. Part of this proceed goes to a charity - a donation has been made to the Chen Su Lan children's home in the name of this project. 

Good Sweat series 3 are all made with Baltic linen, embroidered with gold coloured thread.