Tucked away on a green hilly little street in Kuala Lumpur, House of OMA feels like the kind of place where ideas and hands are meant to move freely.
Its walls are lined with art, separating an exhibition and workshop space from a tattoo parlour, cigar room, pub, and an airy outdoor patio overlooking a calm bonsai garden.
The entire place is as dimensional and thoughtful as a Studio Ghibli character, which is, according to staff, a stark contrast to a few months ago, before the owners of OMA bought the place.
But now, the space is made beautiful and conducive for various types of craftsmanship to inhabit.
Saturday afternoon, I was 15 minutes late for the workshop I had booked. KL roads and its many million diverging lanes had me taking the wrong turn twice.
But when I finally set foot on the OMA grounds, I was greeted with big welcoming smiles from two ladies, my sifus for the afternoon: Sabahan sculptor Hannah Bhatt and bead artist Venice Foo (a.k.a. Chau Xhien).
When I took my seat, I was also met with friendly looks from participants, some of whom were influential local creatives whose works I had already been following.
The group was intimate, made up entirely of women spanning different ages, from seasoned artists, to beginners just looking to try something new. Among us was a mother and her six-year-old daughter, the youngest creator of the day. The energy in the room was warm and easygoing.
As sunlight was streaming in through large windows, our small group turned our attention to Hannah as she gave us our first lesson: sculpting spirit into clay.
Sculpting with Hannah Bhatt
Hannah’s story is an unexpected one. Originally from Kota Kinabalu, she studied law and worked in marketing before discovering ceramic handbuilding about a year ago via Clay Expression.
What started as personal exploration soon turned into something bigger—exhibitions, workshops, and now her very own ceramics brand, Uncanny Valley Studios. Unlike wheel-thrown ceramics, which require precision and symmetry, Hannah’s handbuilding approach embraces organic shapes and fluidity. “It’s jazz,” she would put simply.
She guided us through the sculpting process, encouraging participants to let go of expectations and feel the clay move in our hands. There was no rush, except from the relatively fast rate of the clay drying. Otherwise, we were all given unlimited time to play, mold, and refine.
Some pieces took on soft, natural curves, while others became more abstract, shaped by each artist’s intuition. From monsters and chimeras, to simple minimal structures. What was captured in clay were the real-time manifestations of the ephemeral spirit within the creator. This activity needed no thinking, just doing.
Beading with Venice Foo (Chau Xhien)
Venice, also from Kota Kinabalu, has been immersed in craft for years, from crocheting to traditional indigenous tattooing and beadwork. Her part of the workshop focused on beading—an art form deeply tied to Bornean heritage.
Initially friends from their love of tattoos, the duo made the decision to create the entire Guardians of the Rainforest series during a creative session hosted by Hannah, where she asked friends to add onto her works.
As quoted from Hannah in The EDGE’s Options’s article, “[Venice] hung beadings on the sculpture […]. Beads, clay and thread just gel well together. They make it look alive.”
Due to the precision, intention and care that bead threading requires, Venice made sure that each participant was set up for success. She prepared us with a generous variety and quantity of beads to choose from.
One participant, who had made a Little Shop of Horrors-esque monster for her sculpture, used red beads to create gemstone blood drooling out of its mouth [Update 28/4/2025: photo of the finished artwork below].
And what of my own beading? Well, I learned that my natural talents lay more in sculpting. So, after feeling impatient with trial and error, I cheekily decided to use most of my beading time to paint my creature instead–supposedly to help me envision the bead structures I wanted.
Nevertheless, many of us required more time to complete our bead sets. Knowing from previous workshops, Venice had containers prepared for participants to tapau as many materials as we wanted.
Honoring the Flow State
The session was planned to last three hours, but time quickly stretched.
Reassurance from Hannah and Venice enabled many of us to be deep in our flow states, working for nearly five hours, sculpting, underglazing, and beading at our own pace.
None of us were aware that the Sun, which had gleamed on us earlier, was quickly disappearing from the horizon.
In a world that often pressures us to move fast, this was incredibly refreshing. It provided the reminder of the joy in making—without deadlines, without pressure, just for the sake of creating.
By the time we finally set down our tools and packed away our items, there was a quiet sense of accomplishment. And so we left with our hands dusted in clay and minds full of inspiration.
More than just a workshop, what Hannah and Venice had given us were memories to keep, new skills to hone, and spirits to face our next bit of life with.
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[Update 28/4/2025]
We have photos of the finished products!
Tas Anayli (she/her/dia) is a multi-passionate creative, interested in ecology, education, arts and social impact.
Header photo credits: Lobach
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