Art Artistry Artisan - Mrs Lee Gek Khim

Peranakan beaded slippers, also known as kasot manek,literally meaning shoe beads, is a type of shoe that dates back to the early twentieth century. It refers to beaded slippers worn by a nyonya to complete her Sarong Kebaya outfit, together with chained brooches (kerosang) and a silver belt (tali pendeng). The slippers are made of Peranakan cut beads (manek potong), which are treasured as these beads are no longer available. Vintage kasot manek are intricate and finely stitched, a testimony to the fine workmanship of yesteryears. The intricacy and fine workmanship of a pair of beaded slipper is also a hallmark of highly accomplished Peranakan women, also known as nyonyas, whose skills in embroidery and beadwork are highly valued.-----Wikipaedia

I don't think I have ever seen my housemate FaiZ as excited as he was 3 weeks ago, at the prospect of hosting a guest. It is after all the legendary, much loved and very respected Mrs Lee Gek Khim, FaiZ's secondary school English teacher. FaiZ attributed his As in Literature, a subject which might well be Greek to him to this remarkable but now retired teacher who has relocated with her family to Australia. To this day, many of her ex-students regarded her as their best teacher ever! In the short time I have known her, I have come to truly enjoy her company. 

Mrs Lee or Khim as I addressed her since I was not her student, is a true blue nonya and to my delight, I found out that she loved beading. This pair of beadwork is for her 9th pair of kasok manet. She brought them to Singapore, hoping to find a cobbler specialising in Peranakan slippers. 

I could not stop admiring her work 

 and even love the back.

Khim made me feel like stitching again and I actually did last night. 

I will miss her sorely when she leaves. 

My Maharajah's Palace Projects-Carpets

This post is an excerpt from the one at My Maharajah's Palace Day 64. I have added 1 more picture and more pointers from Casey in this post. I hope that my mistakes and Casey's pointers will help newbie-"weavers" with some "do's and don'ts" of stitching a mini rug.

Picture above is added. I am showing off the back of my carpet. Despite many shortcomings, one thing I am rather pleased with is that my back can pass off as the front for a few seconds. MarJ saw the back when I was holding it and actually went "wow, your carpet is looking good" not knowing any better. When I showed her the front, she actually said "oh..." I guess to her, my back looks better than the front. Quite an accomplishment, don't you think?

Saryk-Turkoman Rug (5" by 8 1/2" including fringe)

I started this rug on 22 Feb 2009 according to this journal at Day 32. I finished it today, 81 days later.

At 2 months, this is where I was (left pic). The carpet was crooked and it was getting more so by the stitches. I remembered I was very demoralised at one point and actually stopped working on it for a while. Didn't help when I saw how other "mini -weavers" are doing such a great job with theirs.

The thing about stitching though, is that it is very portable, calming and makes waiting for anything tolerable. Just take out my carpet which I bring with me everywhere and I can wait, even for hours.

To say my rug is not exactly great is being kind. I made so many mistakes. 1stly, wrong number of threads,-should have used 3 instead of 2 (see white spots?). Also, not sure how I created a trapezium rug. Mum said it could be me pulling too hard. Maybe it was sewing through to the next stitch in 1 move instead of patiently doing the sew through and then out method . Perhaps I should have used the hoop.

Anyway, as I was also not sure how to finish the rug edge and fringe, I sought help from Casey who so very kindly did a post on finishing a rug. When I still couldn't get how to straighten it, she told me this :

Sans, Take your rug and face down, spray it with water and stretch it, pulling diagonal corners so that it goes back to square. Sometimes you can simply do this several times, ironing with steam between pulling and it will eventually square up. If that doesn't do it, then I resort to pinning it. When you do that you have to just let alone until it dries completely....

That's what I did. I watered, pulled. Next day, I steam-ironed and then got Fafa to help pull. It became better but I lost patience. So I decided to edge and fringe 1st (using Casey's suggestion -3rd method).

After that, I called on my men for help:

BUT they kept falling down. Spoilt, rich and completely useless! So my next resort:

Yea, see my baby elephant? New to the palace and so very cute. Alas, he was too strong for my camel. So my LAST RESORT:

Ok, some defects can't be cured even with a whole convoy of camels and elephants.

With that, I decided this shall be the story of my rug. It is an old antique piece not unlike this Dowry Kilim, Inventory Number: 3725. Age: Indeterminable, Price: Expensive.

Tomorrow, I will try and pin it. Thank you Casey! Don't give up on me, my next one will be straighter!

The following pointers given by Casey are very useful (you can also find them at the comments box of the post) :

Sans wrote to me privately and asked that I post a little check up on her rug. Sans, it is beautiful, but I fear that you may never be able to get it quite square. I wouldn't try pinning it now because you will probably pull out some of the stitches along the edges! Always pin in the margins outside of the worked area before you trim the rug.

I think that you have already realized that you are pulling too tightly when stitching. You have also already hit on some of the remedy. Using the "poke" method of stitching leaves less distortion that the "scoop". If you use the poke method(up and down in each stitch) it might also help to put your fabric on stretcher bars or a scroll frame. You do that before you start the stitchery. This will force it to stay more square. The main thing is to learn to relax and use a good light when stitching. As you go, you will be able to see to keep the stitches at a uniform size.

As for the rug that you just finished, putting a double edge on it may be keeping it from being straightened also. With your next rug, just do a single row like the rest of the rug. Now that you have done one with the glue, I think that you will have more confidence about cutting the edges.

This is part of my reply:

Hi Casey, your comments are deeply appreciated. These pointers are so useful for newbies to stitching because most how to books just assume (rightly of course) that most users are beyond elementary. The remark you made which really hits the ail on its head is a) that I was probably not relaxed enough and b) not enough lights. I stitch to de-stress so yes, my 1st few lines each time maybe a trifle "angst-sy" lol. I also like to stitch in bed just before I doze off. That's why lighting is not great. I will not pin the rug. Knew there must be a reason why I should have done there before trimming. I am going to post this and your comments on my projects blog. Thank you again, Casey for your encouragement. I am starting a new one today.

New Rug starting today:

Musings-Tribute to My Mother

This post is a short tribute to my mother. It does not in any remote way say ALL my "thank you"s and "love you"s but I am glad I am finally able to pen and share with you a tiny dose of my mum's selflessness.

I have often whinged and whined about how no one else shares my mini passion. Having said that, my mum did something so wonderful for me I am now taking all of that back.

Mum is the kind of woman who is really good with her hands. I have no doubt that she can be a great miniaturist if she ever had the chance. But life was a lot harder then and not only was she deprived of an education because she was an adopted child, she had to start work when she was barely in her teens, hawking cigarettes illegally.

Now that she can afford it, her eyes are no longer good enough for mini work. Even then, she had been knitting for me, little blankets/ rugs / throws and each time she showed me unfinished samples, I kept saying: "smaller, mum, smaller" and she would go "Ok, I will try, no problem I can do that". See the little white cover (4" by 4" without fringes") and the round rug with colourful flowers (5" in daimeter)? They were made by my beautiful mum.

After I picked up miniatures, I just wanted to do as many of the craft work myself as I possibly could. Mum is the one who points me ever so often in the way I should go with them . I wished I had started this earlier then maybe by now I would have learnt all the needlework from my mum. She can quilt, crotchet, knit, sew, embroider. I remembered how she had crotchet or knitted an animal from balls of wool.

I was young then and thought many of the stuff she made tacky. Now, I wished she had kept all her handiwork so I could show them off here.

These days whenever she goes "you should not have stitched so hard, you pulled the string too much, that's why your rug is now crooked" or "just be patient, and do it a few more times..." or "hmm, that's not bad" (all in my dialect of course ), I feel really close to her. As I was never interested in cooking, sewing and all the other girl stuff, I believed these are our 1st real mother-daughter bonding moments.

And during these moments, I feel like a teenager again. Its a nice feeling, this Curiosity (which I thought I had lost), or the Awe of my mother's talent, better yet, the sense of Accomplishment after I have completed a simple craft. But most importantly, this feeling that my mum loves me and is teaching me something that she is good at...now that is a feeling few can top.

You know, making these little rugs was hard for mum because her finger was injured from a bacteria attack that never went away. But does that stop her? No. Even after I told her not to make any more, she just kept asking me to buy her more threads.

So on some weekends, after Mum, Dad and I had our breakfast, she would ask if I want her for company, either to hang out at hobby shops or Daiso or Little India. Most of the time, it was for me to shop for My Maharajah's Palace but sometimes, we hang out at Spotlight to look for threads for both of us.

Now, the next time, you hear me whinged and whined again, give me a kick in the butt and tell me to shut up because you know it is not true no one shares my passion.

Love you so very much, Mum! I know I have wished you already but here's another " HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!"

About the picture at the top of this post, it was done by my ever talented bro, Win. He made this poster for my mum on her 68th birthday this February. The photo is of my mum when she was pregnant with her third child, Shir, also my 2nd younger sister. My mother who is as vain as all beautiful women should be, had an 18 inch waist before that and I think, 21 when she had my sis! Mum was over the moon that Win made her so beautiful again. In case you are wondering, it was a poster selling fabric set in the early 50s or 60s. Isn't that just so apt for this post? If I didn't tell you that is my mum, I am sure you will be wondering who's this Oriental beauty is, no?