The Art of Textile Malaysia

Tekat Benang Emas

Another cultural heritage of Perak is the gold embroidery, or also known as Tekat Benang Emas. The beautiful artistry of gold embroidery is created by stitching gold thread over the entire surface of templates, shaped from layers of paper, bringing about raised relief on velvet. Traditionally, these delicate decorative art graces may be found on Malay cultural artifacts such as sitting mats, pillow cases, pillow surfaces and betel-nut boxes. Nowadays, the applications of tekatan have diversified to include on handbags, wall decorations and so on. Tekat Benang Emas is available at Kampung Padang Changkat, Kuala Kangsar and at any of Perak's handicraft centers.

Tudung- I don`t get it

Tudung Wardina is fine with me. Tudung Bienda is also fine with me. Tudung Waheeda is fine with me too. Wardina, Bienda and Waheeda are pretty faces in our music and entertainment industry that look good in tudung. But I don't quite get Tudung Erra Fazira because Erra is not wearing any tudung. Since I don't follow all her movies, probably she's wearing one in one of her movies. So the sellers name a tudung after her. If that is not the case, I don't know what are the basis of using her name for the tudung . But even worse than that are Selendang Mawi Original, Selendang Mawi, Tudung Mawi 1, Tudung Mawi 2. Now, I'm sure Mawi never wears one. I got nothing against the tudung 's name actually but I find it ridiculous because I can't really explain what I want to the shopkeeper. I saw a tudung style I like but the design and color is not really to my liking. So I ask the sales girl what is this tudung style called. She told me it is 'Selendang Aisyah'. Then I went to another shop, I saw the tudung with the same pattern but this time, it is called 'Selendang Mawi'. Then when I walk around some more, other sales girls called out to me and show a different style of 'Selendang Mawi'. In another shop, the similar selendang is called 'Selendang Sarimah'. Now I'm confused though the 'Selendang Sarimah' sounded more logical because she's wearing one. I continued walking and saw two signs, 'Tudung Mawi 1', 'Tudung Mawi 2' and all of them have different styles. Sigh! I'm sure even Mawi's fiancé didn't wear the Mawi tudung or selendang. I stop mentioning the name of the scarves but instead describe the style to every salesperson selling the scarves whether they have some in the stock. Sometimes I'm too lazy to look around for myself. Finally, I bought one but don't ask me what it is called.