Chinese Knots, 13 Aug 2007

I went for Chinese knots teaching class last Saturday. The class was postponed to last week due to lack of student intake.

The traffic on last Sat was pretty bad, and I was running on the street trying to get there in time.

Sigh... I have learned my lesson -- Don't run with slippers/flip-flop/whatever you want to call it -- I fell down on the walkway while attempting to skip onto the curb. And there were quite a lot of people around.

Anyway, the experience of falling down in front of the public wasn't that bad. It was quite strange and come to think of it, I really haven't fallen down for quite some time. My right knee is covered with blue-blacks now, and slight scratches on my right elbow.

The Chinese knots teaching class was pretty good. There were just eight students including me, all females. We learned our first skill -- Shuang Lian Jie (Double Union Knots, 双联结). Here are some of my work, will post my homework later when it is finished.

I made this in the class. This is supposed to be my homework number 1 -- making 10 of these knots and align them properly.


This is just a practice. With two different colours, it is much easier to see my mistakes. The background are some of tools -- some pins and a board. Other tools include a tweezer, sharp head plyer, cigarette lighter and a pair of scissors.


According to a book on Chinese knots, it is said that Jie (knots, 结) was originally existed as a form of helping people to remember things. Larger knots for important things, smaller ones for less important things. Jie (knots) also symbolise for promises, bonds and affiance, teamwork and co-existance, and harmony.

Furthermore, Sheng (rope, 绳) shares a close pronunciation as Shen (God or Diety, 神). The way to tie the Chinese knots is similar to a sleek dragon, therefore most dragon images were created using rope during the ancient time.

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UPDATE 23 Aug 2007

This is my homework no.2, a bracelet. It takes me about half an hour to finish. -___-"

The first picture to come is taken when the bracelet is half finished.


The beads are porcelain, provided by the teacher. Here's the finished item. I haven't got the hooks to install at the end of the rope yet.