Beadwork Needlecase Heirloom And Election Fever

Hello dear friends,

It's been a very exciting week for Singapore. Have you heard? Singapore is holding a general election and for the very first time for a very, very long time, majority of the seats (82 out of 87) are being contested. This is pretty unusual for Singapore as most times, it's a walkover for most constituencies resulting in many citizens having never ever voted in their entire life. Well, for me, I'm of course very happy to report that I get to vote. Yeah, yeah, I'm still sore I did not get to vote in the last election. Actually, all seats would have been contested if not for a goof-up by the team aspiring to contest for the remaining group of 5 seats. They submitted their nomination forms late by 35 seconds.

So I've been occupied with reading up on election news and totally neglected my blog reads. I'll catch up next week, promise. Meanwhile, my beading continued. Hey, check out my beaded needlecase necklace. I finally completed it. Hmm.. I can't be sure but I think some of you guys are drooling over it!

Isn't she a beauty? It took hours and hours to complete. I have no idea how many delicas I used. They are really tiny, itsy-bitsy beads and many times I send some flying in the air, into my T-shirt when I knock my tray. I have one golden rule when beading. Once the beads are gone, I don't try to search for them. It's a waste of time. For those of you who have never beaded and wondered how I manage to insert the needle into the beads seeing how the hole is so tiny? Well, the trick is you have a pile of beads and you just stab blindly at the pile. At least one will enter the needle. If you have more than required, you can just easily flick it from the needle. Ah!!!

If you've been wondering why this is a needlecase, now you see? The needles go into the wooden tube and you just cap it on. Although I can't imagine wanting to put needles in this baby, for sure!

Making this needlecase required knowledge of two techniques. For the cylindrical body, you need to learn even count tabular peyote. For the flat top and bottom, you need to learn even count circular peyote. All these terms may sound exotic but they're just techniques to arrange the beads in a certain order to get the shape or pattern you want. If you have crochet experience, beading would be a breeze for you as the concept is very similar. The execution of course differs as in beading you use needle and thread/beading line.

Here's a look at the cap top which is made using circular peyote. This is a lot harder to make compared to tabular peyote. Guaranteed to make you scream the first time around.

The fringes are the easiest to make. You just twist the thread! I really have nothing related to beading lined up just yet so I'll probably get back to my sewing for a while.

Tomorrow, Friday is Cooling Off Day. I'm guessing Singapore must be the only country in the world to have a Cooling Off Day before Polling Day which is Saturday. For those who are unaware, Singapore has been ruled by one party since 1959. I am old enough to have lived thru' 3 prime ministers. This is possibly the 4th time I'm voting in an election although I cannot be 100% certain.

During this past week, to woo the electorate, sweeteners offered by the candidates have ranged from upgrading of estates including walkways to being the people's voice in parliament. For me, I live in a pretty new estate. It is only 12 years old. When I bought my home, I noticed that the architect had thoughtfully incorporated walkways and made use of existing structures to provide shelter when it rains. He gave us a nice mini park, an exercise area, an amphitheatre, a court yard for ball play and two playgrounds. Plus a very nice garden. So you could say residents in my estate pretty much have it all. I always wonder why other estates did not get all the goodies that came with my home. The constituency I live in is not a "hot seat" being contested. That probably explains why we're not being wooed with anything. Like I said, we have all the good stuff.

This year's election has become more widely discussed than before. Possibly due to the fact that this year, many of the candidates from the opposition parties are not your usual riff-raff. Even kids have jumped on the wagon. My kids who literally don't care about anything beyond games or korean pop asked me a few questions about the election. It seems the kids too wondered who they should vote for, if given a chance. When they started to repeat stuff they had heard in school regarding the election I found myself warning them to be careful about what they say in public.

What are we afraid of?

My kids asked me.

It seems that fear of speaking about politics in Singapore has been instilled in me for so long that I no longer know what I'm afraid of. Do I teach my children to be afraid like what my mother had done?

With my one single vote, I vote for a Singapore that tolerates differing views on politics. I say No to an iron fist rule. I vote for BETTER.

But what does the majority of Singaporeans want? That question will be answered on Sunday.