House of traditional craft - 8 Nov 2012

A free 'n easy walkabout at the KL Craft Complex, Jalan Conlay to visit the 'Craft - Inspired by Nature' exhibition. There were many activities lined up for the occasion including craft and traditional cuisine demonstrations, cultural performances, traditional weapon art carvings, sales of all sorts of craft products, art exhibition, craft fashion, craft garden decor and others.


Artisans demonstrating the wooden blowpipe with darts from Pahang (top) and traditional pottery from Sabah (bottom) - I was attracted to the small, simple kinds of earthenware pottery which could be made with very little tools.


Kids were quite intrigued by various traditional animal traps especially the quail trap from Kelantan (bottom). They were very exquisite. Also many types of carvings from wood, stone and bamboo and Sape, a traditional string musical instrument from the Kayan indigenous tribe in Sarawak.


Fun with coconut shell - I think we've to work much harder if we want to sell tis.....


Saw many types of weaving like the colourful traditional food cover (top). We met a very engrossed artisan, whose main expertise was carving 'owls', there were many interesting carvings and sculpture in his workshop - all owls - using very basic tools.


My helper couldn't help but join in the traditional food demos - rice packed in a cone-shaped banana leaf with fillings, a delicacy from Kelantan. We loved the pandan fried chicken and steamed rice flour cake (bottom) too.

 This exhibition offered a big service to the children by letting them touch the materials and try their hands at making some of the crafts themselves. Indeed we could learn a lot from doing crafts that not so long ago were a way of life. As we observed the skilled artisans, their fine manipulation skills, attention span and dedication to their tasks were simply brilliant.

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