W150xL110xD70mm, India
Today for the ASIAN FOLKCRAFT we have a tool.
This is a well used piece of bunta, the wooden stamp used for fabric printng in India.
This beautiful video explains how the stamp is carved and how the printing is done.
Archives for posts with tag: wood
W60xL330xD20mm, China
In the book Dream of the Red Chamber (Chapter 35), the young Pao Yu described a soup he had, one with young lotus leaves and lotus flower. These leaves and flowers are little ornamental dumplings placed inside the soup. The book went on to describe the moulds for their making. A set of 4 silver moulds, each just over a foot long and an inch thick. The moulds are the size of beans, of chrysanthemums, plum blossom, lotus seed, water chestnut. The Red Chamber is a family of culture and wealth and for the ordinary folks the moulds are made of wood instead of silver. With the pace of modern living, this delicate soup has now become the 疙瘩汤 … soup with comes from a stock cube and dumpling simply squeeze out of a plastic bag.
Isn’t this sad …
W50xL100xH140mm, China
This is the figurine of one of the five goat riding saints, the legend goes back to 880 B.C. when Guangzhou was constantly hit by famine and plague, there were 5 saints each with a different colour garment and each riding a different colour goat. The 5 saints each offer 6 stalk of rice to the residence and bless the city to be free of famine. The goat 羊 is homophone to the word blessed 祥, which resulted in Guangzhou being also known as the 5 Goats City. It was a wish for the ancient farmers, never to stave again.
W500xL450xH500mm, Philippines
This is the mystical chicken from Mindanao of the Philippines, a predominantly Muslim island in the south. In Islamic legend, the prophet Mudammed found a bird in the first of the 7 heaven, the bird is so large that its crest touches the second heaven. Its crow would arouse all creatures except humans and judgement day would arrive when the crowing stop.
The word “sari” means colour / garment, “manok” means chicken. This is expressed clearly in the sculpture which is a symbol of blessing.
The Maranao believes Sarimanok is a totem bird called Itotoro which has a twin bird called Inikadowa. Inikadowa is a spirit bird that is unseen and through Itotoro as a medium, one can access the spirit world.
L160xW90xH60mm, Indonesia
Great imagination to take a piece of wood rose and made it into a broody hen!
The wood rose is an unique material, it is actually the gall developed by the tree who has been parasites by mistletoe. Mistletoe, apart from the kissing part, is actually a parasite which cost great damages to trees that they host on. The wood rose is the masses of woody tissue the tree tried to defend itself from the mistletoe and the mistletoe on the other hand leaves mushroom like malformation on the wood.
W40xD50xH100mm, China
This puppet head is that of a glove puppet, it is of the character Qing Hua Junior of the Jing (painted face) catergory. Qing Hua Junior can portrait characters of a villain or a hero with an explosive attitude.
The making of the puppet starts from selection of Zhang wood (Cinnamomum Camphora), apart from the nature of the wood its also has a function of being a wood pesticide, the required size would be taken out and together with the trimming to the rough form all done by use of a hammer. The details are then carved out, once the carving is completed a thin layer of white slip is applied as a filler to smooth out the knots of the wood. The base colour is then sprayed by a mouth piece and the features hand painted. If there are hair to the puppet, it would be added at the final stage.
DIA90xH60mm, China
Mu Yu is a form of Chinese percussion musical instrument, it comes in different sizes from DIA 40- 850mm producing different sound at each size. The smallest size is only for the used in the Buddhism recitation. The name Mu Yu (wooden fish) is believed to be a reminder for the monks, as the fish is awake and alert in the day and at night, Buddhism should be practiced just the same.
Here is what it sounds like with chanting:
And here is a Maywa Denki version:
W230xD230xH270mm, China
This is an octagon tea cosy, it was used as an insulator for the ceramic and metal teapot which gets cold easily. The small opening is for the spout of the teapot while the top two is for the lock of the lid which unfortunately is missing.
Here is another tea cozy made with bamboo.
W40xD50xH100mm, China
This glove puppet head is of the character Gong Guang, belonging to the Jing (painted face) category, a supporting actor in today’s term but always representing a figure who is upright, loyal, strong and fearless of high power, it is denoted by the word Guang and the red face (gong). He would play the character of a courageous warrior such as JianWei of the 3 Kingdom.
The puppet is carved out from a single piece of wood and with hand painted features.
DIA130xH50mm, China
Comparing to the wooden box shown in the previous box, though both of the boxes are round, this is a more economical and sustainable way of achieving around wooden container. Unlike the previous post where the box is lathes out from a solid piece of wood, this box smartly uses the idea of wooden bending and of course a circular cylinder is always the strongest form (apart from a sphere).
This item selected by Furze for the Something Old Something New exhibition and is available at both Mountain Folkcraft and Soil.
Mountain Folkcraft 