INTERVIEW: Carrissa Wu

Meet Carrissa Wu, Beeliar Boodjar based local maker and small business owner of Jotterbook Flowers. Carrissa handcrafts delicate paper flower bouquets, accessories and decorations with you in mind. We sat down with Carrissa to talk about her upbringing in Singapore, how she got into making paper flowers and eventually turning it into a small business, and what she’s learned from the Black Lives Matter Movement on social media. 

Artist portrait (2020), Photographed by Jonathan Wu @j.wu_visuals, background mural by Tahnee Kelland.

How did you get into making paper flowers? What was the context of that story?  

I grew up in Singapore, and moved here with my family about 10 years ago. We joke about how we’re “educational refugees” because in Singapore, there’s a really strong focus on maths and science, so if you’re an arts inclined person, you might not get the chance to grow as much or you might feel bad about not being great with the more technical subjects. We moved here to see if we could get more opportunities in the arts because my brothers and I are clearly not math and science people, same with my parents. My parents have defied the “Asian parent” stereotype by always encouraging me to pursue the arts! 

So when we got the chance, we moved here and I did 2 years at a private school and then 2 years at Applecross with their arts program. I think that’s where I got to really further my skills and got the privilege of meeting other people who were passionate about the arts too.  

I went on to study Fine Arts at Curtin University where I met even more amazing colleagues and tutors.  I think uni really stretched me because the focus wasn’t on your technical skills, it was more on what kind of ideas you had and how you would use materials to convey them to the audience.  It was very abstract which helped me grow my lateral thinking, and most importantly, taught me how to create freely without feeling too pressured.  

After graduating, I couldn't find any work. I remember searching ‘art’ on Seek, and all that came up was Sandwich Artists for Subway, which by the way I admire sandwich artists, but it wasn’t quite what I was looking for. It was my sisters-in-law who taught me how to make paper flowers. I was meeting my now-husband’s family for the first time in Melbourne, and they were making flowers from coffee filter paper for his sister’s wedding arch. I joined in and started making them because it meant that I didn’t have to talk to anyone, I could just quietly sit there and make flowers. I found it really calming and exciting at the same time, and it also helped me be less shy and make conversations with people. I came back to Perth and started making paper flowers for markets and workshops soon after.  

Everlasting paper flowers to gift, wear and display (2020). Photographed by Carrissa Wu.

 What does the name Jotterbook Flowers mean?   

I think it’s very much a Southeast-Asian thing, jotterbooks are a type of notebook that has a thin cardboard cover and about 30 thin blank pages inside. I would buy jotterbooks all the time growing up and would slip them into textbooks and smuggle them into class to draw and doodle flowers in. It’s one of my favourite pieces of stationery, and to me symbolises the simple joy of a “blank slate” where anything is possible. 

Making paper flowers started off as a small hobby for you, what gave you the push to turn it into a small business?  

My dad is an entrepreneur, so growing up he’s always talked to me about making money work for you instead of working for money, how to attain financial freedom and how having his own business gives him a lot of flexibility in life and to do things as he sees best. I think in my teens I was trying to rebel against that, thinking “Normal jobs (being an employee) are fine, that’s what I want.” But after graduating, I couldn’t find anything that I wanted to do, so I thought, let’s create my own job and see what happens. The paper flower business was initially named Fidget and Shy after two of my mum’s cats, but I also ended up getting a full time job that’s not in the arts industry. My manager and colleagues are amazing, they make the job so pleasant. It’s very corporate though, I don’t get to make things and be artistic, but it’s also nice to have a different job to rest my brain from the creative side. In saying that, running Jotterbook Flowers is incredibly fulfilling, challenging and joyful; if I could, I’d love to do it full time! 

There’s this common discussion about making a hobby you love into full time work. Some people advise not making your hobby into a job because you can end up hating something you love or losing your passion for it. What are your thoughts on this?  

I remember having that exact thought when I graduated from Fine Arts, which is why I chose to study a postgrad diploma in Creative Arts Therapies at Murdoch. I was interested in how creative arts can be used as a tool to help people, but I’m realising that it already does that on its own (without sitting under the umbrella of “therapy”). I think there’s also the belief that there is no, or very little money in art jobs. Maybe after three years of Fine Arts, I felt I had to take a step back, but after getting this full time corporate job, I felt so stagnant with not having the time or energy to use the gifts I was given.  

I want to be less presumptuous, I mean, it would be very sad if the thought of potentially burning out from making a living from my hobby was what stopped me from trying in the first place. In saying that, it’s also important to have finances for day to day living, and having a stable job helped me to save enough capital to start up a business.   

Strangely, I thank God for being stood down from work due to COVID-19, as that time away from work allowed me to reconnect with my craft and I realised how much I had missed having a creative outlet in my life. Art helps me to connect with myself and with others in such a joyful and powerful way; I think there is a huge need for more arts workers in our community and it’s totally valid to be making a living and getting paid from doing something you love. I honestly don’t have a sure answer to that question, but I would say that the most important thing would be is to find a balance between paying the bills and working on your dream, no matter what that looks like.  

Paper Protea Deluxe Bouquet (2020), Photographed by Carrissa Wu.

We’ve been enjoying your Instagram content and especially your support of other local makers, how important do you think that kind of support is within the WA arts community?  

I think it’s so important because I have been on the receiving end of that support. Initially, I was very protective of my work, thinking I had to be the best in everything, but the more I thought that way the more shut-off I became from people doing beautiful things around me. Over time, local makers have lifted me up and I see them lift other people up, and truly believe that that’s the way to go. I can free myself from competition by not seeing it as competition at all, but rather as a community where we’re all in it together. I love seeing and sharing the beautiful things other people make! I think if people thought like that all the time, it would be a much safer and more supportive world. The element of community is so important, I don’t exist as an island at all.  

You’ve also been sharing your support of the Black Lives Matter Movement which has led you to learn more and share about Indigenous culture including knowledge about native plants. Social media is a great way to learn as well as be vocal about causes. What have you learned? 

The biggest thing I realised was that I really don’t know anything! I think there was a lot of internal conflict in my heart and a lot of uncomfortable feelings that I had to acknowledge. Why did I feel like I just wanted to turn off my phone? Why was I so tempted to ignore something that actually happened and is happening in our society? Growing up in Singapore, Chinese people like me are the dominant, and often privileged race. Since moving to Australia, I feel I have been so busy battling with my own sense of displacement, suddenly having to reconcile being a person of colour in a Western country, as well as a minority race in many contexts. While that is a really important process to go through, I have to admit that I didn’t give much thought to Australia’s colonial history. 

I started learning a lot more about our First Nations people, how they have been displaced and ripped from everything that they knew, and the ramifications of that today. At first I assumed that I had missed out on this knowledge because I didn’t grow up in Australia, but later realised that they don’t really teach this side of Australia’s history at school at any level. Thoughts about systemic racism are more integrated into my everyday life now, realising the deep  prejudices that I hadn’t noticed before because they are, sadly, the norm. We’ve been shaped in a lot of ways to see things in a perspective that benefits people in power, whether their power comes from race, social standing, financial situations, gender, etc. I think one of the first steps for me was to just acknowledge this and slowly become more understanding of how different groups of people in our communities have been impacted by it.  

Specific to Jotterbook Flowers, I’ve been learning and sharing things like Indigenous knowledge around native flowers. The banksia I found was actually named after Joseph Banks, a European naturalist who travelled to Australia with James Cook. Banks was hailed as the first to collect and classify banksias. One of the banksia’s Indigenous names is bwongka, and they were a source of nectar, cough medicine and even torches for the Indigenous peoples long before Mr Banks came into the picture.  

Paper Rose Baby's Breath Flower Crown (2020), Photographed by Carrissa Wu, modelled by Jacia Vermeulen.

Why paper and not fresh flowers? I know it’s completely different but did you have any interest in becoming a florist? 

I like the tactile nature of paper, how it’s lightweight, accessible and doesn’t cost much, there’s so much I can do with it. It’s something I can easily pick up and put down whenever I want. I mostly like the flexibility of it. Real flowers are beautiful and where I get my inspiration from, but the fact that they are perishable and need to be preserved before they start to wilt probably doesn’t match up to my current time-management skills! 

Do you have a favourite flower?  

I mean it’s really basic but it has to be the rose. If you ask me what type of rose though that would be more difficult to answer. There are so many types of roses and some of them don’t look like the classic rose, like dog-roses and French roses, which is insane to me. Roses also hold a special place in my heart because it was the first flower I made from tissue paper when I was 12, and I also made 99 clay roses for a uni project. My favourite native flowers are Everlastings and Geraldton wax.   

What do you want to do in the future?  

It’s a humbling thought, but I would love to have a stable art thing going, where I can make a living and also offer it to organisations, schools and art communities, to do a number of things, firstly to celebrate what you can do with your hands and secondly, possibly generate an income for a community that would benefit from it.  

Shop Carrissa’s beautiful Jotterbook Flowers creations here, and follow her on Instagram to get updates on her current work. 

INTERVIEW BY: YOSHIKA KON