Visit Madam Low to learn making Knot Button and Frog Fastener

15 August 2005 9.00 am

After picked up my grandma at her house, we went to buy Dim Sum as hand-gift to visit Madam Low. We reached her house at 9.15am. Madam Low welcomed us with a warmth smile. We had breakfast together with Madam Low’s family members. At 9:30am, we started our lesson. Materials and tools needed for making a knot button and frog fastener are needles, thread, cord, and clamp. I had prepared few cords to make knot button but Madam Low insisted me to use her cord because is easier to recognize the route and also easier to handle. Cords I bought were the modern one with flat surface. In the old days people used to sew their own cords which formed a cylinder strip. Madam Low was too tensed to teach and I'm not able to catth up with her. She kept making her own knot button without checking my progress. But under guidance of my grandma, I able to handle the cord well. Madam Low demonstrated about six times to me and she let me do my own knot button at last. Even if I shown her I already know how to make, still she wanted me to do a few more times to make sure I really picked up the skill.

While I was making my knot button, Madam Low and my grandma talked about their good old days. Their mother hired a couturier to pass on sewing techniques to the daughters. Sewing skill are the basics and the couturier taught each of them different special skill. Grandma was taught to stitch floral pattern on blouse and Madam Low was taught to make knot button and frog fastener. And the others were taught different skill. In the past, women were to learn how to sew as sewing was considered a must to a woman. Since Madam Low picked up sewing skill, she started to do her own business at the age of 18. She made blouse and skirt. Knot button and frog fastener required extra charges. She had quite a good business because they did not have boutiques and shopping mall selling women’s clothes. According to Chinese belief, there must be five knot button and frog fasteners on the blouse. Four is considered as a bad luck number.

At 11.00 am, I “formally” announced that I had learnt how to make only the knot button. I learnt how to make pattern with the cord where knot button left behind. And also I created another fastener and end the cord with the same pattern as the button’s. Madam Low showed me her works. She created various fancy patterns. Most of them are floral motif. I chose the easiest motive due to time limit. My motif contained only two spiral motive. I was to sew the cord while forming it into a spiral shape to fix the pattern. My sewing skill was not smooth and familiar because I seldom sew. At 11.30am, I had done my ever first Chinese traditional knot button and frog fastener.

Madam Low showed me her sketches before she started to do a knot button and frog fastener. There were various floral patterns; I wonder how creative she was to sketch those patterns. She insisted to use her old method that is to sew her own cords because she thought that makes the knot button and frog fastener looks mire feminine and exquisite. When I told her market price for a knot button and frog fastener cost only RM0.30, she was shocked and followed by sad. During the past, she can make RM1.80 for each knot button and frog fastener. She admited that modern technique has take over hand-made things, sad but true. My eyes spark with amuzement when she showed me other handicrafts she made. Brooch is in trend now. When she saw a floral brooch in the newspaper, she simply followed how the brooch looks and it works! It looks exactly the same. It cost RM13.90 in the market and Madam Low make it with materials cost not over than RM0.20. Also, Madam Low stitch traditional floor mat. It costs RM5 per piece. When she was young, she lived in a house near to a factory. The factory threw wasted strip which they used to tie the boxes. Madam Low secretly collected them and made it into bags and basket. So the tradition pass on until now, she made bags and basket with strips and sell them. Madam Low earns little money with her handicrafts. She inherits this skill to no one as nobody is willing to learn.

Madam Low wakes up early 6 am everyday. She will go for a walk at her compound and sweep the garden. After that she will have breakfast with her family at 8am when her son is going to work. After that she started to sew her floor mat or trying on new handicrafts. At 12pm, she will have a gambling game with her friends and relatives. This is her only entertainment in her daily life. She enjoy chit-chatting with them. She watches TV during the night. That is the reason why she was happy that I visited her today, she has no one to talk to other than her too few friends.

At 12pm, I asked for permission to leave because their gambling game is about to begin. I ended my visit by taking a photo with Madam Low and my grandma.

My thoughts:

Madam Low is a perfectionist. She wanted everything in perfect, even if I told her I had already know how to make, she insisted me to do one more time to make sure I really picked up the skill. Artists are perfectionist. When I looked at her sketch, I found that the ways she worked were actually like us. We always sketch out our ideas before we start our project. Same to her, she sketched her desired design before she started to stitch the knot button and frog fastener. She wanted to give me her sketches but I rejected because they were a treasure to a craftsman. People used to think that old people are old fashioned, out-dated and unskilled. They were wrong. You will be shocked to see how creative Madam Low is to create a fashion accessory with only a simple picture as reference. After this visit, I started to appreciate the craftsmanship of Madam Low. As a designer, I feel that I have the responsibility to help propagate this endangered Chinese traditional craftsmanship.