[PHOTOS] This Guy Knows How To Make Full Use Of His Time At Malaysian Weddings!
Now you know what you have to do while you're waiting for a wedding to start.
By Samantha Khor — 23 Dec 2014, 10:56 PM — Updated almost 10 years ago
If you’ve ever been to a Chinese wedding reception, then you'll know that they almost never start on time. What is one to do to pass the time?
While most of us would just play on our phones, talk to people, or munch on finger food, Lee Yew Kong takes wedding door gifts up a notch by creating mini animal sculptures from - get this - chocolate wrappers
Lee's affinity for crafting delicate sculptures started at the age of 10, when he was gifted a book on modelling dinosaurs using different materials from his uncle
"My uncle gave me a book when I was 10 years old called 'How to Model a Monster'. The projects were basically making dinosaurs out of different materials; pipe cleaners, cardboard, paper mache, and of course, tin foil. So I spent quite a lot of time as a kid making dinosaurs out of paper mache mostly," Lee said.
While Lee had actually "lost touch" with the art of making dinosaurs as he grew up, it was by chance that he decided to pick it up again when he came across a wedding door gift of chocolates a few years ago
"I lost touch with it until one day at a wedding dinner in 2011, I opened the door gift which was chocolates and I decided to see if I could still remember how to make the dinosaurs. Also, Chinese wedding dinners almost never ever start on time, so it's a nice way to kill waiting time," he explained.
Besides refreshing his memory, Lee explained that inspiration from his initial efforts also came from the fact that he grew up surrounded by books on dinosaurs and fossils, as his dad used to be a paleontologist
"My dad worked as a paleontologist in the university so I grew up surrounded by dinosaur books and fossils," Lee explained.
For those not in the know, a paleontologist is a scientist who studies fossils.
Once he got the basic idea, Lee decided to experiment with other animals such as turtles, monkeys and elephants
Sometimes, the sculptures are created based on the couple whose wedding he is attending, such as when he made a spider to commemorate his tarantula-loving brother's wedding
Seeing as these foil wrappers are pretty fragile, Lee said that he had to be very careful when he makes them in order to get it right at first try, as he felt "kind of shy" to ask others for their wrappers
As Lee puts it, "[I] Always [get them] right the first time as I feel kind of shy to ask other people for their chocolate. Also, it probably helps that the wrapping foil is so small and tears easily so I have to be careful when I make them.
While each of these delicate sculptures take about 15 to 20 minutes to shape, Lee said that - much like the dinosaurs - these sculptures are now "extinct" as he does not bring them home for safekeeping
