The unused garbage always have a value to the creative one…

Because you could win RM3000. Research & Development Unit, Melaka Chief Minister Office will organize a competition that based on used and recycled items. With all the disposal, you must create a souvenir. You must send the proposal of your invention at the department. Recycled and used items are like glass bottles, news papers, wire,tin cans or boxes.

The closing date of the proposal supposed to be closed tomorrow 18 Jun 2010. But you can talk to Ms Nur Hidayah at 06-2326694. You can fax your design to 062320024 or email to phykasso@yahoo.com. Your complete / finished invention must be presented at Dataran Sungai Melaka (Melaka River Square) on 23rd June 2010 from 8.00 to 10.00 pm to be judged by the jury.

Dataran Sungai is at at Quayside. You can read the full brochure here.

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One of Allentan painting…get it here.

Do you know Mr. Allentan? A painter and an artist? I don’t know too.

But if you are an art lover and can enjoy seeing abstract painting, you can know Allentan better by visiting Melaka Art Gallery here at Banda Hilir. Starting from 18th May, 89 Allentan painting will be displayed at Melaka Art Gallery. The Solo exhibition is named Trufaces.

About Allentan:

allentan is a Malaccan born self-taught artist who expresses his emotions through his art, often using human relations and psyche as his main theme. Its uniqueness is the representation of his perception of human emotions. It all started as a personal journey in 2002 to re-explore his passion for painting. His collection was initially never meant to be exhibited in public but was actually a legacy to his family and close friends. He calls these paintings “TrueFACES.”

More about trufaces and Allentan work here.

So you know the road to Banda Hilir, head to it, you will see the building before Stadhuys that write AD1931 at the top, red building. The tickets only RM1.00.

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Chinese call you a “rice barrel” when they mean you are stupid. Pic and quote from kamleung.com.

Manage to get an old article about Melaka still exist Chinese traditional wooden barrel maker at Hang Kasturi Street, Mr.Chan Cheok Tiam.

Keeping the barrel-making business afloat
Gomathy Ramasamy

MALACCA:When it comes to wooden barrels, we very often think in terms of them being used to age and store liquor.
But actually, all sorts of food — fish, meat, vegetables, cooked rice our local nasi lemak, nasi kandar and even putumayam — can also be stored and transported in them.

The wooden barrel is an old but still useful remnant of the bygone days of sailors, traders and settlers. , and hence both the intricacy involved in making it and its usage is a heritage worth treasured.

It has been used for centuries as not only as containers to store and move food and drink, but also as wooden tubs.

For the past 50 years, Chan Cheok Tiam has been making the sole wooden barrels maker in Malaysia at his shop in Jalan Hang Kasturi near Jonker Street. He is still in business though he is way past retirement age.

“I believe age is no barrier when your job is your passion. It is better than being glued to the couch back at home. In fact, that would only slow me down,” Chan said with a chuckle.

He patiently explained how at his workshop at a backlane of houses where he fashions his barrels from raw wood to beautiful barrels through a series of complex processes.

A man, skilled at making barrels, and Just like all the many of them who mastered the art from their forefathers, Chan picked up his barrel-making skill from his late father, Chan Chow.

“Just like the m “Many of our forefathers who brought their trade from our homeland back in China. My father started this barrel-making business almost 80 years ago and, I am still running it though age is catching up,”

“Barrel, although looks classic in features, but “Making a barrel involves lots of patience. In the olden days, my father old man would cut down a tree, chop transform it into moderately thick planks, fashion them into the correct size and shape of staves for a particular type of barrel, and dry the wood himself,”before he even start to build one,” he said.

Many years of learning from an expert is required to master all the skills required.

Chan said a keen eye was needed to make sure assure that wood with any deformities are not used in barrel making.

Each stave must be strong and well-made and hence, selecting the right tree for the job is key. was quite a knack and experience only comes after years of mastering it from the experts.

“TWhile the staves have to be planed to be smooth ness on the outside and a little cupped inside. The bevel on their edges must be precise or they would neither fit together nor hold water.

“In the old days, barrels were made with wooden hoops, but now, at present, each stave is taped with metal hoops made by a blacksmith,” he said.

Some of the staves are soaked so that they can be curved properly, while some barrels are burned inside. Others are sealed with glue.

“If the barrel is to be used to store food, it needs to be relatively airtight so the sealing material does not contaminate the food,” he explained.

Barrels Chan makes his barrels with are largely made of the rare and tough wood such as jati, kayu merah, seraya batu and cengal as they are noted for their firmness and quality.

“It is difficult to get these original wood pieces these days and even if I can, they are expensive. So now, I get my wood pieces from old houses but I only use the ones that are of good quality,” he said.

“The most expensive piece I have ever made an d sold was a wooden bath tub, which I sold for RM800,” he said adding that his customers come from as far as Singapore to buy his barrels.

Chan, a father of three, believes that said, since he is now the only barrel-maker left in Malaysia. As and his children have who have no interest in the trade, traditional barrel-making looks set to become yet another extinct craftindustry handmade would be a thing of a past.

“Of course, we can get the mass produced ones from factories, but they will not have the original handmade touch,” he said.

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Gees Terompah, pic from berita harian.

Terompah is a word for sandal made out of wood. The closest example is the Japanese sandals. Just the Japanese sandals your wear it like a slippers, you know you got to wear it between you big toes. But terompah you just sheath your feet in it. There is one terompah maker in Melaka than has been featured on local newspaper. It’s Gees Original.

Gees Original produce and selling terompah. The terompah made by Gees Original have many design motives from original Baba Nyonya Style just red terompah to modern contemporary. The shop in Jalan Hang Kasturi are full with colorful terompah. They have terompah with cartoon and people face too.

All the terompah are hand made and the motives and paint by hand also. The terompah are available for Men, Women and Kids. Kiddo can get cute terompah with cute pictures such as fruits, cheerful color or cute animal. Well if you go to Melaka and walking around the China Town don’t forget to find yourself some pretty terompah! Start walking clack!.clack!..clack!..

Gees Original,
C,Jalan Hang Kasturi,75200 Melaka.
Email:yokyeen@gmail.com.

One of Gees Modern Terompah…

Terompah maker at Gees, pic from berita harian.

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A hundred years old Melaka house.

In Malaysia, if you talk about ‘Tangga Melaka’ or Malacca Staircase everybody will know the decorative tile from China stick to a wide outside staircase. In other Malaysian state, old Malay traditional houses will have a wooden staircase and all part of the house is made by wood. For Melaka traditional house, the main front staircase is made from brick. For your info, traditional Malay houses are build higher than the ground, not at the ground. It use pillars made from logs to stand the house up. The height is like a double storey house just no room below with pillars to support the building.

What specials about Malacca staircase are the strong brick and decorative tile imported from China. Tile are arranged creatively by the craftsmen and the more tile at the staircase represent the house owner wealth. This is because at that time tiles are imported from China and it is expensive.

Melaka staircase build with odd number of steps. The philosophy behind it is odd number represent perfection and a perfection is only for God. Odd number of the step telling that human as a God servant is weak and not perfect. Usually they will build staircase with 3,5 and 7 steps. the highest number of steps found in Melaka house are 9. Normal house will be no higher that 9 step except maybe for mosque or Sultans palace. 7 is favorite number of steps found in many houses. Number 7 means 7 layer of sky, 7 layer of earth, 7 days and other things related to cosmos.

At present house with brick staircase in Melaka are old house age around 100 to 200 years old. No new house built with this kind of design anymore. The existing are gazetted as heritage by state government and has been restored with the heritage fund.

Melaka Trademark staircase with traditional house.

9 Step Melaka staircase.

Old Melaka house usually bring childhood memory becasue nowadays we live in modern houses.

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Prisoners in Malaysia maybe are the luckiest inmates in the world. Why? This is because their work of art is appreciated by the government with the setup of prison gallery. So what’s in it? The main products in the gallery are craft based on wood, rattans, iron cast, weaving, songket, cement ferro, ceramics,foodstuff and clothings. All hand made by the inmates. Forget a while all the bad things they do in the past, the truth is their works are really nice and some have high quality craftsmanship.

Rattan base products.

National Prison Gallery is located in Melaka and situated at Ministry of Internal Affair Complex Ayer Keroh. The gallery exhibit all prisoners work from prison all over the country. Profit from the sales at the gallery also have a portion for the inmates and accumulated until they are free to walk out from the prison. Some prisoners can setup their own business because of the skills they learn at the prison and also have some money too. This products are result from Human Capital Development Plan from the government to ensure all prisoners must undergo all sort of technical training when waiting their punishment to be completed

Wall decoration.

Batik

All the products are same like other commercial products you can get in the shop, neatly wrapped, tagged and inspected for quality before delivered to the gallery. The Prison Department of Malaysia also have setup online store and you can buy the products online!. Click here for the prison gallery online store.

Here the details and contact for Prison Gallery Malaysia, Melaka :-

Kompleks Kementerian Hal Ehwal Dalam Negeri,
Jalan Seri Negeri,
75450 Ayer Keroh,
Melaka

Phone: 06-2316854
Fax: 06-2316854
E-mail: galeri@prison.gov.my

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In the old Melaka Sultanate era 600 years ago, accessories made from silver, gold and copper were famous. Tableware usually made from tin as glass was not invented yet in those days. What about pewter? Pewter technology was not known in this region although famous in Europe centuries ago. Ok enough for history lesson and proceed to the subject .

As Malaysia is famous for Royal Selangor Pewter, Melaka also have local craftsmen who made pewter for sale. If Royal Selangor Pewter are more prestigious in design with more modern ideas and also strong European influence, Melaka pewter craftsmen only made pewter in small scale and concentrating on traditional motif in term of pewter design. Two well known pewter maker in Melaka are MK Pewter and AJ Nadi. While MK Pewter make pewter more to corporate gift, key chain, pendant, bookmark and others gift set, AJ Nadi more focus on more artistic and traditional Malay design such as royal Malay hair clip, kris, local flowers motif, traditional Malay house replica, hairpin and brooch. All AJ Nadi pewter are hand made but the prices are very affordable.

Melaka made pewter can be found in many tourist spot such as Banda Hilir, Stadhuys Complex, Melaka Sentral and Dataran Pahlawan.

Malay Hair Pin from Pewter – AJ Nadi.

Baba-nyonya style hairpin – AJ Nadi.

Pewter Malay house from AJ Nadi.

Flower motif pewter for wall decoration AJ Nadi.

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