Thursday, 17 January 2013

Crafting- Malaysian style.

On our recent holiday I was lucky enough to see some examples of local Malaysian arts and crafts that I thought I'd share. They're a bit different to my everyday crafts and I love experimenting with new materials.

Batik painting
Now this is not the first time we have been to Malaysia and not my first experience with Batik painting but my first time visiting a Batik factory and seeing the whole amazing process from start to finish. The whole process is very labour intensive and produces some beautiful results.



Basically the print is stamped on in wax or, on some occasions, hand drawn. Then each piece is hand painted ensuring none of the paint spreads into the wrong area. The people that paint it have some amazing skills.
Husband and I actually had a go at our own painting on our honeymoon. We choose a wax painting from a selection of options and used paints provided to fill in the gaps. Then my kind mother in law got it framed for me as a birthday present.

It's definitely not as neat as they do it, but we love it and it's a special reminder of a very special holiday.

Pewter designs
We went to a pewter factor and saw some fabulous pewter work. We also got to attend 'the school of hard knocks' and create our own pewter bowl. We started with a pewter circle and through a lot of hitting in a specially designed bowl and using a hammer like tool we banged out our own pewter bowl (It was actually way more labour intensive than I first thought it would be and I was knocking away for a good 20 minutes- husband lovingly took over a few times too when my arm was getting sore).
having a hard hit
My completed bowl with a certificate as proof.
The bowl is perfect for holding all my hair supplies and looks cute too near the lovely bunny ring holder that husband gifted me for christmas.

3 comments:

  1. Hey Lisa,
    I nominated you for a liebster blogger award. You can check it out here http://bookgeekspeaks.blogspot.com/2013/01/liebster-award.html

    Amber

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    Replies
    1. Thanks so much. That's very sweet of you!
      L x

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  2. Ahh so that's how Batik works! I've always admired it but never worked it out. Lovely work, and what a cool activity to do while you are away overseas :)

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