Oriental Charms

Finally I get my camera back from my mother-in-law. All of August I was glued to the TV watching Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics, mostly table-tennis. Singapore won its first medal (Silver for Table-tennis) in 48 years! Yeah! I'm very happy to report that 48 years ago I was not even born yet.

I was very into table-tennis growing up. In primary school, I joined the school team but didn't even get to hold the bat. In secondary school, I joined the school team and finally got to hold a bat only to end up as a sparring partner and ball retriever. So I did what any table-tennis loving gal would do. I joined the queue at the void deck where a forward thinking government officer had installed a table-tennis table to keep kids in my neighbourhood out of trouble. Everyday during the school holidays, there would be a game going on. Void deck table-tennis is tough. Only the winner gets to continue playing - usually some tough boy who could spin, underspin, chop with superhuman reflexes. You only get to play 5 balls with the ping-pong king. When he wins, he'll shout out, "Next better player!" It's humiliating but that's how I picked up table-tennis.

During the long, very long and exciting matches between Singapore and South Korean and finally China (over in a split second), I was so hopped up I actually saw myself playing along with every move, spin, stretch. I was The One. I could slow-mo a ball, leap in the air, smash a ball through the opponent. Funnily, in my fantasy, I always see myself playing FOR China.

Now I play table-tennis with my husband on our dining table. We use a toy bus as a net.


So, to commemorate something Oriental although it's a bit late, I did some charms which I picked up from this book Decorative Knot Craft by Kim Sang Lan. The instructions for the knotting in this book is incredibly hard to follow. I've only managed to figure out Ginger Knot and Ring Knot. I have the idea of using these charms as either pouch charms or just as a simple zipper puller.

One new thing I'm doing with my pictures is all my pictures will have an everyday item so one can tell how big it is since I never bother to mention the dimensions. My husband suggested it to me and I thought it would be fun.

The red ball is the Ring Knot. The rest are Ginger Knot.


What's interesting about two ring knots is you can make the length of the braid change by moving the ring knots. Amazing!

Small (Note the distance between the 2 ring knots and the length of the braid)


Big (The ring knots are close together while the braid has lengthened)


Ring Knots as zipper puller