Songket & Ceramic Lighting

After visiting local artisans and being exposed to the development and creation of both traditional Iban songket and ceramics, our task was to develop a design that combines both songket and ceramics to produce a product with a ‘new zest of life’ while ensuring to preserve the tradition of both handicrafts.

Our project was inspired by the techniques developed by expert local artisans seen in both Nanga Sumpa and at Tanoti Studio. Our original idea focused upon the traditional motifs used in Songket design. These motifs formed a basis to make simple, geometric shapes in which could be applied to both jewellery and wall art.

An interest in copper wire songket weaving formed the idea to incorporate the woven copper motif inside a ceramic frame. These smaller pendant shapes could then be up-scaled and reproduced to form wall art for a corporate and high and interiors. A combination of purely ceramic tiles, frames with songket weaving and plain songket would be arranged to achieve this ‘wall art’.  This idea was successful, however was repeated throughout other groups and pushed our idea to develop into a series of lighting fixtures.

The idea for the lighting fixtures stemmed from the original wall art, using the geometric triangle shape and reforming it into a 3 dimensional form to hold a light. The newly designed lights would combine both ceramic forms and shear and copper songket moulded in the obscure geometric forms shown below. This design provides a contemporary platform to highlight the traditional Malay practices of both pottery and weaving in a modern and respectful manner. This product would be aimed at an international market for high-end interiors, but will not be limited to lighting fixtures. The shape, form will correspond to the tableware and interior of the space, creating an environment where craft and design fuse together. 

We will score polypropylene sheets into a conic shape by folding and taping. It will be then filled with plaster or clay. The form will be used to create a mould. The mould will be casted a few times in porcelain so there is space for experimentation. The base of our design will be made from these conic forms and Songket weavings with metallic threads. Throughout our process of experimentation will are hoping to find the most optimal form that considers the beauty of both Songket and ceramics.   

Considering the amount of time there is we have decided to use the top part of a local water bottle as our main form since it is already shaped in a conic, geometric form. Earthenware slip will be used to raise the chances of firing to succeed and to avoid to complications of porcelain, which can be worked on when there is more time. Most of our ceramics materials can be found at the ceramic studio. Cheap mass-produced Songket weavings will be purchased at a local fabric store to demonstrate the aesthetic and the forms incorporated with the ceramic form.   

Group Members Alif, Blake, Funy, Ion, Larissa, Nicole,
Post by Blake, Ion, Larissa, Nicole.