Handcrafted with Love
At Studio Asobi, we believe that there is a place in this world for beautiful creations crafted by hand – slowly, lovingly and uniquely.
Our clay vessels each bear a name and a little haiku, and just as we have enjoyed making them, we hope that they bring the same joy to whoever holds and uses them.
The pictures below are a glimpse of our pottery works and creative process. Larger sculptures and installations can be found here.
We welcome you to join our pottery journey too, with our individual workshops, corporate sessions, or spiritual retreats.
One of our recent customers sent us this photo after receiving their cup, and I must say I definitely shared the joy! That wonderful feeling of unwrapping a gift like this, and then enjoying some lovingly brewed coffee in it... that`s one of the reasons we love making pottery.
But it also reminded me that so many of our moments each day are spent in the disembodied realm of the digital world, including much of our interactions with one another. While that has brought great convenience and also helped us transcend physical boundaries, I do feel that some things get lost in the process.
And in these times when social media has evolved to a stage where countries have to ban access for children in order to protect their safety, it really makes me reconsider my exposure to social media, even as an adult.
Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, and we thought that perhaps in this Lent season it would be a good time to have a social media fast, the same kind that Huiwen had when she spent a month in Japan before the genesis of Studio Asobi.
To spend time with God, with people we love, with ourselves, with projects that we have unwittingly put off in favour of doomscrolling.
Perhaps we may unwrap a beautiful surprise in the process.
Feb 19
KRABI `10
There lives a moment
Turquoise sea meets sapphire sky
Never the sun sets
I still want to feel young but it`s hard to ignore the effects of ageing on my brain. I respond slower to things, take longer to find words, and struggle to recall important events in my life. But it`s also been quite interesting to note the memories that are etched most deeply in my mind, that time doesn`t seem to be able to wash away.
The pristine sand and sparkling blue waters at Krabi, the bright, crisp snow in Hakuba, the dreamy clouds sweeping across our feet in Alishan.
I treasure these lovely memories, because of how they envelop my senses with beauty and wonder, making reality feel magical in that moment. But also because of who is accompanying me in these memories.
That`s also one of the reasons we make clay vessels. Because they, too, hold memories, hold beauty, and hold a drink that takes time to be consumed. And in that time, hearts meet and journey together for a precious little while.
Feb 7
BLOSSOMS AT DUSK
As the wind descends
Its veil spreads across the land
Opening our hearts
These tulip cups aren`t easy to make! We`ve got to trim and dimple the cups at the right time, then blend in a curved petal at just the right angle to create a handle without it looking like an additional attachment. But I love this idea so much and all our cups at home would be in this shape if they didn`t take so long to make...
Talking about making, I just spent yesterday afternoon making 3 plates and failing at each one of them, until I gave up and went to the swimming pool with our son. We have learnt from experience that "finishing our homework" isn`t the only way to satisfactorily complete the day. Getting a backache and swimming away that backache also counts!
Feb 4
Our very first handmade ocarina! Actually not our very first - about a decade ago we tried making one, and it almost made it except for the fact that we were so fascinated by its sound that we couldn`t stop playing with it before even firing it, and to our absolute dismay it cracked open during drying. So this time, we really tried to resist blowing into it too much, and thankfully it made it out of the kiln unscathed! And working!
Learned a lot of science in the process too. About how air is split by the labium of the ocarina, and the resultant vibration creates the resonant sound. And how every hole changes the size of the air chamber on the ocarina, resulting in different pitches. What a geeky vessel to create!
But this has to be one of the most special vessels I`ve created to far - one that fuses my love of music with my love of pottery. can`t wait to make more!
Jan 22
I like to write words. So when I was a child, I enjoyed 习字 (anyone else enjoyed it too? :D).
Copying out song lyrics, quotes from books, keeping a diary etc was also one of the things I used to do as a teenager in the pre-internet days.
I guess it was a natural extension when I decided to pick up 书法 (Chinese calligraphy) as an adult. I learnt the 楷书 script, but I kinda prefer the 隶书 look. Kenneth challenged me to come up with my own font script, so here is my attempt!
It was part 习字, part response journaling as I was watching a sermon while writing. It is so easy to feel sick and paralyzed in today`s messy world. Stuck in limbo, feeling lost, weighed down by the past, not knowing how to decide etc etc.
So here are some words for you, my friend.
出来吧，朋友！Step out and breathe some fresh air; get some sunshine on your back. There is always hope and kindness to be found.
放下，更轻松！Let go of the heaviness of bitterness, anger and emotional baggages. Receive the inner healing you need and believe that a more beautiful way of living can be found.
I know this, because I have seen it:) Sending my best wishes to whoever is reading this! May 2026 be a year of breakthrough for you ❤️
#hope #breakthrough #slowliving #书法 #studioasobi
Jan 21
It`s been so long since our last painting on this wall. We had promised Tobie a Christmas Tree last December, but the holiday just came and went so fast! He was pretty forgiving though, instead of a Christmas tree he said he could settle for an Ang Bao tree since Chinese New Year is just around the corner. So today being our Sabbath, we decided to really get going on this 馬 themed painting, complete with an Ang Bao sakura tree to shower blessings upon whoever sets foot in Studio Asobi!
2025 has been a wonderful year by the grace of God, and here`s to a vibrant, adventurous and joyful 2026! May we continue to have the time and space to discover and create new things!
Jan 12
New year, new beginnings. For some, you may feel all ready for 2026. For others, you may feel like the new year does not hold much meaning because everything is happening everywhere at once and all that spinning feels a tad destabilizing.
“事缓则圆, 人缓则安“。It is perhaps when we are feeling busiest - that the time is ripe to give ourselves a gentle breather.
Come and be refreshed at our spiritual retreat, where we gather to experience the unforced rhythms of grace. May God meet you where you are and touch you at your deepest need :)
More info can be found on our website (link in profile).
#christianretreat #spiritualretreat #pottery #studioasobi
Jan 9
Nothing impressive here if you`re a barista or coffee enthusiast, but guess what, this is done with a Nespresso Aeroccino 3! Which I hear is notoriously challenging to create latte art with. I`m not really a coffee person so I`ve been reluctant to invest in anything more expensive than our simple machine, and so every time we have a barista come for our pottery workshops, we would give them the Studio Asobi Nespresso Aeroccino Latte Art challenge to see if they can create something decent.
So far, it`s been tough to say the least! I`ve been told there are various reasons - Aeroccino microbubbles not the correct size, Nespresso coffee has no crema etc. But if you`re a barista and think you can do it, please come and give it a shot and help us up our game!
But still, after lots of research and hacking and coffee drinking, I`m proud to say that this kinda looks like it?? I just want to believe that one day I can do a proper fern leaf with the Aeroccino haha. If you want to help us along in this journey, come join us for a free coffee!
Jan 4
EVENING HUES
When day is resting
You wake me with your mystery
And we fly away
We have a son who isn`t particularly fond of sleeping (except when he needs to wake up). The other day, we switched off the lights and he spent a good amount of time complaining about various aspects of darkness, including the fact that everything has no more colours and even the pink stuffed toys are grey.
Well, grey is a beautiful colour too! Just as beautiful as these three evening glazes in our palette - Dusk, Mocha and Black Forest. Been awhile since someone picked these colours, but I must say they are some of our favourites!
On another note, our studio`s glaze development has restarted in earnest, thanks to Andy and Vanessa who are hard at work concocting new potions for the next season! Hopefully we`ll have some delicious new creations soon!
Dec 22
HOMEWARD
For a time, frozen
Pining for the rising tide
To carry her home
This little dragon snaked its way up the craggy rock surface of an East Coast Park breakwater, flames dancing at her jaws as she gazed out into the sea. It wasn`t long before the tide rose and carried her away, so we were glad to have managed to finish satisfactorily before the elements took over!
This sculpture involved many hands - me, Tobie, our pottery student Andy, a whole bunch of children from our camping group, and even a mum who was happy to climb onto the slippery rocks and work on the dragon wing!
I love these opportunities to just stare at a bare rock face, let the imagination wander, and then furiously dig and spread the sand out before we run out of time. To create just for the sake of creating, and then to release the creation into the water, without having to think of profit, or productivity, or practicality. Just to enjoy time passing, enjoy the company of friends, and enjoy beauty.
Dec 10
EVENING TULIP
Dusk softly descends
Even the colours find rest
But I still feel you
I love how this cup feels in my hand. The gentle curves, the way it wraps around my fingers. Some vessels are made to look beautiful, others are made to feel good. Some are made to hold important things. But all are precious in the eyes of the potter.
Nov 13
2025的下半年，感觉比从前忙了许多。需要处理的事情如潮起潮落，一波波地陆续到岸。
忙 - 很容易让人"心亡"。我们对此的解药就是把休息看得与事务相同重要。
大人们的忙，本不应该盖过小孩成长所需要的养分。毕竟事务是做不完的；而童年则会一去不返。
所以最近的假日，我们就奔向了大自然。还没生小孩前，我们喜欢爬山。那种一步一脚印，踏踏实实地感受沿路遇到的风景，是非常疗愈的一件事情。
我们跟朋友带了快八岁的孩子，攀登了他人生中的第一座“山“😂。他超乎了我们的预期 - 没埋怨，没停顿地“环山”绕了一圈。我希望蝉叫声，光线若隐若现的样貌，脚底踩着树叶的清脆声 - 会在他心里生根，日后冒起棵大树。
我们也跟家人朋友们去了露营！那种不看表过日子的体验，是非常稀有和珍贵的。挖泥沙，荡秋千，看日出，吹海风 - 我们希望孩子们的童年是甜甜参杂着海水的咸。
人生许多的美好，其实是举手可得，不用高消费的。感情的培养，人生观的传递，回忆的编织，这些都是我们值得花时间去做的最重要的小事。
愿大家在这周末能开开心心过上充实有趣的一天！
Oct 26
Judging from the claw marks and little cat fur stuck on the tampered pottery, we could tell that one or both of them were involved in this act of "creative expression" 😂
Putting to practice what we just learnt on Sunday about "keeping a good spirit" when things don`t go as we hoped for, I decided to improvise from our cat`s design.
It was fun and therapeutic to try and create order and beauty out of chaos. It led me to think - would anyone else find this interesting to do? Comment below if you would, so that we can assess if our cats can pivot to a new career swiping at wet clay works for humans to repair haha!
#cats #pottery #makinggood
Oct 13
We have friends whose children just completed PSLE and this morning I heard a song which made me wonder - do graduating classes still have the tradition of having a "farewell" song to conclude this chapter in their lives?
During my era, it was 小虎队`s 祝你一路顺风 (May your road ahead be smooth) and it was fun learning the song and having a big sing-along while pledging to stay friends forever.
Childhood is so precious and we are reliving our second childhood as we grow alongside our P2 son. We tell him we love him so much all the time and we hope he will always be secure in our love.
In our years running Studio Asobi, we have met and talked with people from all walks of life and we recognise that childhood memories may not always be pleasant for everyone.
Many of us adults are bearing pains and wounds from childhood days. As a parent myself, I am discovering that it is so easy to be unaware of our own struggles and mistakes, which may then impact our children in ways beyond our control. May we all, as parents, receive the healing and restoration we need even as we do our best for our children!
It is also not easy to be a child in this day and age, having to deal with the complexities of expectations, social media and the rapidly changing technological landscape. On this full moon night, let`s give our family and the children around us a big hug and let them know that they are loved, that home is a safe harbour.
That song I heard... It is called 《总会有人》. May it encourage you today.
夜深了 眼泪很吵
是谁让你如此煎熬
感情路上摔了跤
不代表你就不够好
对的人 总是会迟到
就当作命运开的玩笑
不是你的就别再勉强
是你的想跑也跑不掉
总会有人 把你看得比自己更重要
会有人 发现你身上所有的好
总会有人 拥抱你微笑背后的伤
让你觉得世界不算糟
总会有人 放弃所有也不把你丢掉
会有人 在你身边就引以为豪
总会有人 想借你的肩膀来依靠
让你觉得自己也会被人需要
天亮了 继续奔跑
再多痛苦都付之一笑
无人问津的路上
一定把自己照顾好
对的人 总是会迟到
就当作命运开的玩笑
不是你的就别再勉强
是你的想跑也跑不掉
总会有人 把你看得比自己更重要
会有人 发现你身上所有的好
总会有人 拥抱你微笑背后的伤
让你觉得世界不算糟
总会有人 放弃所有也不把你丢掉
会有人 在你身边就引以为豪
总会有人 想借你的肩膀来依靠
让你觉得自己也会被人需要
总会有人 把你看得比自己更重要
会有人 发现你身上所有的好
总会有人 拥抱你微笑背后的伤
让你觉得世界不算糟
总会有人 放弃所有也不把你丢掉
会有人 在你身边就引以为豪
总会有人 想借你的肩膀来依靠
让你觉得自己也会被人需要
#reflection #childhood #parenting #studiolife #总会有人
Oct 6
We`re happy to announce that Studio Asobi is now a partner of the SG Culture Pass!
Did you know? Starting from 1 September 2025, Singapore Citizens aged 18 and above will receive SG Culture Pass credits worth $100. These credits can be used to offset ticket purchases for eligible local arts and heritage activities and programmes offered by authorised ticketing partners. You can visit sgculturepass.gov.sg to explore events and use your credits!
If you have been wanting to try pottery or to do something fun with friends & family, you can now use your SG Culture Pass credits for our 3-hour Living Clay Pottery Workshop:)
If you are not using SG culture pass credits, you can still make a booking via our website directly too.
Feel free to share about this scheme with your circles! Thanks so much and see you!
Photo: @chronicler.photography
#sgculturepass #pottery #potteryworkshops
Oct 3
How does a potter deal with brokenness?
These cups may look just like any of our commissioned works, but they are actually cups that have been used for a few years and brought back to us, each chipped in numerous places. Thin and delicate cups look beautiful, but they also get damaged easily. And one chip at the rim can render a vessel entirely unusable, because of its sharp edges, and because it just looks broken.
Many of us have seen the art of Kintsugi, where broken pottery is pieced back together using gold-infused lacquer, celebrating the cracks instead of hiding it. Kintsugi is beautiful, and visually powerful. But it is just one way in which damaged pottery is restored.
For these six cups, we held each of them in our hands, turned them around, looked at the positions of the chips, and imagined how they could look if those damaged portions were not patched back but erased. Then we ground the rims down using a rotary tool, thinning out the trimmed areas so that they matched the profile of the untouched areas. Finally, we layered on the original glaze over the bare clay, and refired them to the same temperature.
This process took the same time, if not more, than the time spent making the original vessels. Yet we could not charge our clients the cost of the originals, because they would likely have decided against repairing. Neither could we bear seeing these pieces thrown away, and so we did the best we could so that these vessels could be used again, not as damaged goods that are tolerated, but as brand new vessels.
To do this, parts of these vessels that were nor damaged had to be removed. Grounded down into powder. The clay body around the damaged areas had to be laid bare. The glaze had to be re-applied, much more slowly than the original process, because fired pottery does not absorb glaze well. And the refiring bore risks of other glaze defects as well as clay warping. All for that chance that they will be beautiful again.
What if we had a broken vessel? Would we throw it away? Would we have it repaired, if the repair cost was more than the original cost? Would we embrace the outcome, regardless?
What if we were that broken vessel?
Oct 2
We found this lonely Giant Leatherback Sand Turtle that had gotten disoriented while laying eggs, so we comforted it and pointed it back to the sea. It took awhile but finally, when the tide rose, it managed to make its way back!
We haven`t been posting much lately because of a number of things - vessels to make, projects to prepare for, new undertakings, but also a desire this year to spend more time outdoors with our boy.
We became more conscious about how precious time was, and whenever I thought about doing a post, I would wonder, is there something else I could better spend my time doing right now?
Just before the Sep holidays, we went for our first family camping trip ever, after being invited by our church friends. It was such a wonderful experience, to pitch a tent in the wilderness (albeit with 7 eleven just 5 min away), slowly dig trenches in the sand, build a fire, play the guitar and sing to the wind. On the first night, as we sat down beside our tent and ate together (ok McDonald`s take out), Tobie declared, "This is the best day of my life!"
We have gone overseas for holidays, seen majestic mountains and explored magical theme parks, but the best day of Tobie`s life so far involved sitting in a tent with no Aircon, no videos, and insects flying around. And a giant turtle of course. It made me wonder, what exactly does God want us to provide for this child He has entrusted us with, in this day and age?
Recently we read the book Hold On To Your Kids by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté, and it made us question many of the assumptions we had about parenting. But it strengthened one conviction that we`ve always had, which is that we will harvest whatever we sow in our child`s life right now. So whether we know what we are doing or not, whether we do the right things or not, we want to sow in his life love, joy, faith, hope and peace. May this journey be a beautiful adventure for all of us!
Sep 26
Today is our 11th anniversary! Thank you for your support all these years:)
Sep 18
Delicious burger recently crafted by one of our students. It`s even deconstructible! But the creative credit goes to our son for making the first prototype (sans cheese). I love how clay can be made into just about anything, as long as we are willing to imagine, to slowly mould the clay in our hands, and to delicately paint it.
We too, like clay, can become anything!
Aug 23
<What we do on rest days>
We really look forward to Mondays - our designated rest day! Today happens to be a school holiday as well; so we could all sleep in until we 自然醒.
Like most others juggling work and family, we too have to continuously make decisions about how we should spend our time. Isn`t that one of the biggest questions in life? For how we spend our days, is afterall how we shape our lives.
We have a general flow and structure to our week; but we also make it a point to have generous stretches of unstructured time so that it is possible to have buffer and freedom:)
And this freedom extends to both responsibilities and fun. We are raising a primary school child, so we too face the Singaporean experience of preparing for 听写😂
In teaching our child the words, we find ourselves having to exercise creativity in breaking down the components and making up stories to explain why a word is written in a particular way. It gives us an opportunity to reflect upon the meaning of the words and the reasons why we need to learn how to recognize and write these words.
It is not always smooth and easy to teach our own child; but it is immensely rewarding when we manage to find ways to help him understand what he needs to know and in so doing, also help him build character and resilience in getting through something difficult. Pottery has also trained us in patience!
Now that we have finished 听写 prep, we are looking forward to our camping tent shopping later! He has been asking to go camping and I imagine it would be an awesome time experiencing God`s creation under the stars:)
May each of us find rest in meaningful ways and find rest even as we parent and raise our children!大家加油！
Picture: His impromptu drawing!
Aug 11
