Final update with Nur. I did a second round of interview with Uncle Robert (the craftsman) and he is not interested in working together with me for my design brief. He is unapologetically traditional, he is not even welcoming to the idea of having more than one person in a workshop, because when he teaches a workshop he wants the student to concentrate instead of "having fun". I was discouraged at first but quickly realized that it's not a bad thing because the point of passing out the craft is to move forward from the source. So instead of relying on the craftsman, it would make more sense to rely on the "Future Cultural Representatives", the new wave of people who embody the craft by practicing it such as myself. It is then reflected in my critical discourse framework where I have removed the craftsman out of the picture and focus more on these "Future Cultural Representative" because they are the ones who are going to bring the culture and the craft forward. The craftsman has done his job teaching it and carrying it along with him thus far.
I've illustrated in the previous post on what the idea of the beading kit should look like and what should it contain. Now it's time to put all of those idea into realization. First, I'm going to look for alternatives of the materials. I've mentioned before that traditionally, cornstarch glue is used, it's a mix of cornstarch powder and water, however you must achieve the perfect consistency and there is a lot of determining factor that could contribute to its failure such as the amount of cornstarch and water, the temperature of the water, and there is no exact recipe to that. See below video, a very interesting process of the glue creation and application, and another video below it showing the craftsman making the traditional style pindangan.
However, this is not feasible to do in large batch. So I tried different kind of glue + fabric combination, to see which performed best, and to find the modernized alternative compared to the traditional one.
Next, I'm looking at the pattern creation. I digitalized the process, and I created different level of difficulties for the participants to choose from. All are inspired from the Peranakan patterns. The easier level would only include 3 colors and includes a lot of geometric pattern, and the more difficult one will include more color and more abstract pattern like butterflies and leaves. I also had to go through the process of creating the perfect sized square guides because of the size of the glass beads. They are slightly bigger than the one I used from Uncle Robert, therefore I could not just use the same measurement of the guide, I had to develop my own, and I did a round of testing to do that.
I also have an idea to create a more introductory level of the beading to give out to kids or those with challenged eyesight by using bigger beads (plastic beads as alternatives), and I've managed to find some (pictured below). Also using bigger needles and thicker threads. Or even create a tool (different than the digital one) for kids to crate their own pattern.
And it will include how to setup your workspace, how to read the pattern, the actual sewing technique, and mistakes to avoid/how to fix mistakes.
On top of that I will also be creating a website as a form of communication, to aid the real-life beading experience. To use design as an educational tool. The website will also include the iconography of Peranakan patterns that are commonly found in their beadwork. I did some illustration of commonly found flowers like roses, peonies, chrysanthemum, and animals such as deer and phoenix.
On top of that I also want to ask other designers/business owners to come up with different versions of the beading. To challenge how we can push this beading technique further.
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