Reviving the fading culture...

Songket and Tenun Pencil Cases for sale!!

Posted by Culture on Jul 5, '07 12:26 AM for everyone

These pencil cases are made of songket (8 pcs) and tenun fabric (2 pcs).

Prices:
Songket - S$10
Tenun - S$8 (PC04 & PC07 only)

Stock is limited!

HOW TO PLACE AN ORDER:

1. Leave us a PM or email us at culturecouturesg@gmail.com, with your name, contact number, email address and the item code #. We'll get back to you as soon as we can, to confirm the order
2. Payment can be made via bank transfer (POSB/DBS). We will provide the account number in email
3. Kindly make payment within 24 hours upon order confirmation or the item will be given to the next interested buyer
4. The item will be sent out to you by post within 2 days upon receipt of payment (see shipping and handling below)
5. All prices quoted are in Singapore Dollars
6. Do note that bogus buyers will be blacklisted and ignored in the future
7. If you like any particular colour not shown here but would like to order, please PM/email us and we will process for personalised order
8. All items are brand new and fresh from the factory
9. For general enquiries, please email us at culturecouturesg@gmail.com

SHIPPING AND HANDLING:

For shipping in Singapore:
1. The estimated delivery of standard mail items within Singapore is 1 – 2 working days, after the item is sent out.
2. You can choose to have it sent by registered or normal post.
3. Normal postage costs $1.50 (all over Singapore, for weight not over 500g). Add $2.20 to that if you're opting for registered mail.

We can also ship worldwide. Kindly let us know where you are located so that we can advise shipping cost and delivery details.

Happy shopping!

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Songket Coin Pouches for sale!

Posted by Culture on Jul 5, '07 12:23 AM for everyone

These babies are made of songket (Kelantan) and are small enough to carry around, but big enough for your little coin collection. They are going for S$6/piece. Stock is limited!

HOW TO PLACE AN ORDER:

1. Leave us a PM or email us at culturecouturesg@gmail.com, with your name, contact number, email address and the item code #. We'll get back to you as soon as we can, to confirm the order
2. Payment can be made via bank transfer (POSB/DBS). We will provide the account number in email
3. Kindly make payment within 24 hours upon order confirmation or the item will be given to the next interested buyer
4. The item will be sent out to you by post within 2 days upon receipt of payment (see shipping and handling below)
5. All prices quoted are in Singapore Dollars
6. Do note that bogus buyers will be blacklisted and ignored in the future
7. If you like any particular colour not shown here but would like to order, please PM/email us and we will process for personalised order
8. All items are brand new and fresh from the factory
9. For general enquiries, please email us at culturecouturesg@gmail.com

SHIPPING AND HANDLING:

For shipping in Singapore:
1. The estimated delivery of standard mail items within Singapore is 1 – 2 working days, after the item is sent out.
2. You can choose to have it sent by registered or normal post.
3. Normal postage costs $1.50 (all over Singapore, for weight not over 500g). Add $2.20 to that if you're opting for registered mail.

We can also ship worldwide. Kindly let us know where you are located so that we can advise shipping cost and delivery details.

Happy shopping!

Tags: songket kelantan, songket, coin pouches

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SOLD!!! Ash-blue Terengganu Handwoven Songket

Posted by Culture on Jul 3, '07 1:04 AM for everyone

Dear all, this beautiful piece has been sold. Thank you, Zarina for the purchase and thank you, everyone else who have shown interest in it. Do check out our site often as we will have new stocks soon, Insya Allah.

Tags: songket, songket terengganu

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Ash Blue Terengganu Handwoven Songket- Open Market !!!

Posted by Culture on Jun 29, '07 1:12 PM for everyone

This piece we have here captured quite alot of interest. Some have pm us, while others left msgs on our messengers. At this point of time, we have 5 interested parties for this piece. However, artists would tell you that no two pieces of Art are the same, and handwoven Songket, being an aged old Art comes only one piece per colour per design.

We will leave this piece to the open market for the next 6 days. We will sell this to the first person who can confirm purchase for this Ash Blue Handwoven Terengganu Songket.

Details on how to purchase can be found on top of the pictures. :)
Let's see who gets this !!!

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Get the REAL stuffs

Posted by Culture on Jun 28, '07 1:20 PM for everyone

It all started with a set of Songket meant for a wedding gift. My good old mum bought a set for me, for after all I was leaving Singapore for good 3 days after my wedding. I got excited and all, really apprieciated her gesture for she paid about SGD$180 for that full set, bought from a shop on Arab Street. It was tailored to be a baju kurung pesak set. I was proud to think that I own a full set Songket, authentic and handwoven-- as stated by the man in the shop.

Fast forward.

Malaysia. I wore my Songket set to important functions here. Since I work here and it has become and will be my home for a while, I guess it is only appropiate that I dress as the culture here would apprieciate. Until one day, someone, from the East Coast of Malaysia - the birth place of the Songkets asked me THE question. ' How much did you pay for this set in Singapore ?' Innocently, I answered ' Ohh.. it was a gift from my mother.. she paid SGD$180 for it '

Her eyes were wide and she gave me an incredulous look. Not wanting to be rude, she tried to contain herself by quietly saying , ' Kak, do you know that this is machine woven? And that in my home town in Kuala Terengganu, you can get this piece for a mere RM 100 ??? I rasa you dah kena tipu lah kak..Songket tenun tangan paling murah RM 450... yang akak pakai ni Songket tiruan buatan mesen! '

I felt cheated. Very cheated. And I am determined not to allow other Songket lovers like myself go through the same plight. Now, I go to the songket factory myself. Get the real stuff and bring it to you here. So all of you out there can get the real authentic pieces which only real Songket lovers deserves.

For that record, the real handwoven pieces are being sold in Arab Streets for SGD $ 300. From the same shop I bought my tiruan ones. That's still a rip off.. tsk tsk tsk

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The Story of Songket

Posted by Culture on Jun 26, '07 1:00 PM for everyone

Songket belongs to the brocade family of textiles. It is a rich, luxurious, ceremonial fabric, handwoven in silk or cotton, and intricately patterned with gold (and sometimes silver) threads which stand out in subtle relief on the background cloth. The interplay of light and gentle shadow on the fabric creates a gorgeous shimmering effect, making it undoubtedly, the 'queen' of handwoven fabrics.

The term 'songket' comes from the Malay word menyongket, ‘to embroider with gold or silver threads’. Strictly speaking, songket is not ‘embroidered’. It is woven using what is commonly referred to as the supplementary weft technique. In the songket process, extra (supplementary) metallic threads are inserted in special lengths in between the silk weft (latitudinal) threads of the main background. These special lengths - or weft ‘floats’ - pass over three, five, or seven silk warp (longitudinal) threads and under one on the loom to form designated patterns which contrast in colour and texture with the ground cloth. It is these even-sized metallic floats forming distinctive patterns, which distinguish songket from other types of hand-woven textiles.

On antique pieces, the contrast in texture between the background cloth and the songket weaves is more pronounced since the gold threads was usually rounded and made by winding the gold filament round a thick core thread.

The amount of gold patterning in each length of cloth varies. Some pieces are completely filled with intricate designs and are known as songket penuh (literally, ‘full of gold thread’). Such pieces are usually worked on a darkish red silk background which highlights the complexity of the gold patterning. Others have relatively little gold songket decoration, perhaps a sprinkling of motifs on the main body of the fabric, but, with more heavily decorated borders.

(The above excerpts of information were taken from here)

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Our trip to the Pondok Songket

Posted by Culture on Jun 26, '07 10:09 AM for everyone

In our quest to get nothing less than genuine, authentic and handwoven songket, with the help of our native Kelantanese friends, we were taken to their kampung in Khota Bahru, Kelantan. There, we had a homestay program where we learnt their kampung lifestyle, their craft and their culture. We were taken to Cik Minah's place, also known as Cik Minah Pantas Batik. The place looked like a huge kampung house where below the house is where all aged old grandmothers gather to painstakingly tenun each kain like a sacred craft.

This is the thread making machine. The threads used in songket making are processed through this machine first.

As you can see in this picture, the two neneks are getting ready to start on a new piece of songket. This particular one that they are making is a special request from a VIP of Malaysia and only one of it's kind and design. The piece that they are making now cost
RM 8000 for labour, thread and design only. Not selling price yet mind you!

In the process. Because of the intricasy of this particular piece, two neneks are required to tenun it at one go.

Delicate hands weaving in and out. It's very laborious !!

For the video of this whole process, you can check out our video segment on how the compatriots of Cik Minah, the famous songketer of Kelantan weave the songket that you buy from us!

Happy shopping!!! Together, we revive the fading culture !

Cheers,
Culture Couture Team

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Reviving the fading culture...