Tuesday, 20 June 2017

Southeast Asian Folk Arts

Tunku abd rahman.jpg
The songkok or peci or kopiah is a cap widely worn in Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, the southern Philippines and southern Thailand, mostly among Muslim males. It has the shape of a truncated cone, usually made of black or embroidered felt, cotton or velvet. It is also worn by males in formal situations such as wedding feasts, funerals or festive occasions such as the Muslim Eid ul-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Songkok came to be associated with Islam in Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, while in Indonesia the peci can also be associated with the nationalist secular movement. 

Batik (Javanese pronunciation: [ˈbateʔ]; Indonesian: [ˈbatɪk]) is a technique of wax-resist dyeing applied to whole cloth, or cloth made using this technique. Batik is made either by drawing dots and lines of the resist with a spouted tool called a canting (Javanese pronunciation: [ʈ͡ʂantiŋ], also spelled tjanting), or by printing the resist with a copper stamp called a cap (Javanese pronunciation: [ʈ͡ʂap], also spelled tjap). The applied wax resists dyes and therefore allows the artisan to colour selectively by soaking the cloth in one colour, removing the wax with boiling water, and repeating if multiple colours are desired. 
Wau bulan (Jawi: واو بولن) is an intricately designed Malaysian moon-kite (normally with floral motifs) that is traditionally flown by men in the Malaysian state of Kelantan. It is one of Malaysia's national symbols, some others being the kris and hibiscus. The reverse side of the fifty-cent coin of Malaysia (1989 series) features an intricately decorated wau bulan with a hummer on top.[1]The logo of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is based on the wau kucing (cat kite). There are many types of wau in Malaysia, each with its own specialty. Wau kucing (cat kite) and wau merak (peacock kite) are some of the variants. 
The Merlion (Malay: Singa-Laut) is a well-known marketing icon of Singapore depicted as a mythical creature with a lion's head and the body of a fish. It is widely used as a mascot and national personification of Singapore.

The Merlion was first used in Singapore as the logo for the tourism board. The Merlion is similar to the heraldic sea-lion which occurs in a number of different artistic traditions. 
A Bulul is a carved wooden figure used to guard the rice crop by the Igorot peoples of northern Luzon. The sculptures are highly stylized representations of ancestors, and are thought to gain power from the presence of the ancestral spirit. The Ifugao are particularly noted for their skill in carving bululs

Sunday, 18 June 2017

Grade 8 Arts first quarter Lesson 1 PART 1 arts and crafts of Thailand, Cambodia and Laos and Vietnam




Thailand's SKY LANTERN FESTIVAL

Flying lanterns are made out of rice paper with bamboo frames, which contains fuel cell or small candle. When the candle or fuel cell is lighted the flame heats up the air inside the sky lantern making it float.

In Thailand, flying lanterns are used in the Loy Krathong festival. This is the festival held in the night of the 12th moon usually in November and believe to have the brightest and most spectacular celebrations.

Wander down to the beach on most nights and you will find locals selling wish lanterns for a small cost. Light your candle make your wish and once your wish lantern is floating skyward sit back and enjoy.


Cambodia and Laos

Indigenous people represent 1.4 percent of the total population in Cambodia and the majority of them live in remote rural areas within the country. Often referred to as highlanders, their ways of life are different from the lowlanders both from a cultural and economic perspective

Handicrafts are part of their traditional culture and their livelihood as they produce textiles, baskets, jars, pottery, and other tools for their daily use.

In this country, they make paper by hand in the wider region for over 700 years using the bark of the local SA or mulberry leaves. The bark is crushed and soaked in water until it dissolves into a paste and is place in a thin layer on a bamboo bed and dried in the sun.

Sa paper was used for calligraphy and for making festive temple decorations, umbrellas, fans, and kites and is now used for greeting cards, lampshades, bookmarks, and writing papers.

Grade 8 Arts first quarter Lesson 1 PART 2 Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei


Click here to know more about Batik

The most common to both countries is the BATIK, The term batik is an Indonesian-Malay word, believe to be related to the Malay word TITIK, which means point, dot, or drop. The drop refers to the process of dyeing the fabric by making use of a resist technique; covering areas of cloth with a dye resistant substance usually wax to prevent absorbing colors. The technique was taught thousand of years ago.

Two batik designs
1. geometric design - modern designs usually depend on the creativity of the designers
2. free form design - naturalistic motifs are leaves, flowers, birds

Malaysia and Singapore batiks produced
1. hand painted - the artist uses canting, a small copper container with one or more different sized pipes
2. block printed - done by wielding together strips of metal to form a metal block. The metal is dipped in molten wax and pressed against the fabric to make a pattern

In Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia the batik is featured as the uniform of flight attendants for their official flag carrier airlines.



Leaves and flowers in Malaysian batiks are incorporated to avoid interpretation of human and animal idolatry., in accordance to their Islamic doctrine. This features look like to that of Indonesia


Brunei

thier traditional textile is also BATIK byut uniquely different from Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Its designs have their national flower simpur, sumboi - sumboi (pitcher plant), air muleh

different techniques are used in Brunei's batik like airbrusing, cracking, bubble, rainbow, sprinkle, geometry, and marble. It used to make apply batik in different kinds of fabrics.

Batik can be done in four ways
1. hand drawn
2. using metal blocks
3. screen printing
4. digital printing





 

Thailand, Cambodian, Laos weaving Grade 8 First Quarter Lesson 1 PART 1

Thailand

Thai silk is produced from cocoons of the Thai silkworms. It is primarily originated in Khorat which it the heart of Thai's silk industry. The Thai weavers feed mulberry leaves to silkworms as their steady diet.












Cambodia

It is done as early as the first century since textiles are used for trading.

The 2 classification of Cambodian weaving
a. Ikat technique - to create patterns, the weavers tie and dye portions of the weft yarn before the weaving even begins. Patterns are diverse and vary by region: common motifs are lattice, stars and spots.

b. Uneven twill - it yields single or two color fabrics which are produced by weaving three threads so that the color of one thread dominates on one side of the fabric while two others determine the color of the other side of the textile

Uses of Cambodian weaivng

sampots - wrap skirts
pidan - pictorial tapestries
furnishing
exports for money
Krama - check scarf worn universally by Cambodians





Laos

Stories of their history were not passed on orally nor was it written, they were woven. Thread by thread Lao stories were weaved in the intricate dense patterns and motifs of cloth. Unfortunately, some are elaborately fantastic and motifs are so cryptic, that in many cases only the weavers can actually accurately interpret the story.

Shin - the Lao women's ankle long skirt whose form is undeniable but whose patterns are uniques to each skirt.

through the skirt simple and elegant She uses folk icons to express personal views. The symbols are crabs for resourcefulness, snakes for fertility, butterfly for beauty, birds for success and so on.

Vietnam

Golden thread silks were born in Vietnam. Many Vietnamese fabrics came from Ha Dong. the heart of the weaving and sericulture for centuries. Old looms are still used in weaving.

Some popular Vietnamese fabrics
1. shantung taffeta
2. bengaline weave
3. ebony satin