Empowering Bintulu’s craftmakers community

ON the spacious veranda of a modern longhouse in Bukit Bethany in Bintulu, a group of women can be seen focusing intently on their beaded embroidery works, one of the traditional crafts of the Iban community residing in the area.

The smaller the beads, the more intricate the process of creating the exquisite beadworks for which Sarawak is famous.

The women were among 15 participants of the recent Bead Craft Product Development and Production Lab programme, run under the Community Skills Development Project (PPKK) – an initiative of the Malaysian Handicraft Development Corporation (Kraftangan Malaysia) to empower local communities by enhancing their craft-making skills and enabling them to set up enterprises from which they could generate an income.

Bernama’s visit to Bintulu as well as Lusong Laku, Belaga, was part of a four-day media tour organised by Kraftangan Malaysia from June 27 to 30.

Kraftangan Malaysia director-general Datuk ‘Ainu Sham Ramli, who also participated in the media tour, handed out certificates to all those who took part in the lab programme.

‘Complicated, meticulous’

As attested by craft entrepreneur Johiam Jitui and two other designers from Kraftangan Malaysia – who showed the lab participants the finer details of the art of making beaded embroidery – the craftwork requires a great deal of meticulousness.

Johiam, 49, has been involved in creating beaded embroidery crafts for 12 years, and owns a boutique in Kuching.

“It’s not easy to make them because the smaller the beads, the more complicated it is (to do the beaded embroidery) due to its tiny hole and the delicate floral patterns.”

Among the things that Johiam highlighted to the lab participants were the skills that they would need to learn to master the fringe embroidery bead-weaving technique.

On the creation of beaded products such as earrings and necklace sets, Johiam pointed out colour coordination as playing a crucial role in making the accessories appear more exclusive and elegant.

“It takes about three days to complete a necklace, which sells for around RM150, while a pair of earrings, priced at around RM80, takes two days to finish.”

On the marketing of the beaded crafts produced by the women of Bintulu, Johiam said most of them had been selling their handicrafts in the surrounding areas, as well as at exhibitions and during festivals like Gawai Dayak.

“I, myself, help market their products in Kuching, and at my boutique.”

‘In love with beaded embroidery’

Cyinthia Amoi, 43, who was among the lab participants, said she began dabbling in beaded crafts at the age of 12, inspired by her sister’s craftsmanship.

As a child, she said, she would make the ‘tango’ with beads and use them as decorative wall hangings.

The ‘tango’ is an ornament, decorated with coins or cotton balls, traditionally worn by Iban women to cover their chests.

Cyinthia, a supervisor at Samalaju Port, said she gradually fell in love with beaded embroidery and would always make it a point to attend workshops organised by Kraftangan Malaysia to improve her knowledge and skills.

She also said several types of beads could be used for making crafts, including the ‘Naga’ beads as well as Indonesian and Japanese beads.

“I prefer using fine beads and Naga beads because they turn out into beautiful works. To make beaded earrings, one must be creative and come up with unique designs.

“It all depends on the individual. Sometimes their designs may look ordinary, but if skilfully combined with the right colours, the end-products will certainly look captivating,” said Cyinthia, who favours a combination of three colours: blue, dark red and turmeric yellow.

She also said the demand for beaded crafts had been very encouraging and thus, she hoped that more young people would take advantage of the craft development programmes provided by Kraftangan Malaysia.

The youngest participant Alexandra Adowen described learning the beaded embroidery technique as ‘a new experience’.

The 18-year-old student, who was awaiting admission into the government’s matriculation programme, said she learned to make lanyards and keychains from beads during an earlier workshop held last December.

At the recent lab session, she gained skills in making earrings.

“At first, it was difficult to master this technique as the different designs confused me. But eventually, I got the hang of it, and started to enjoy it,” she said, hoping to monetise her newly-acquired skills someday.

‘Community empowerment’

Meanwhile, ‘Ainu Sham said the lab programme in Bintulu was conducted in two phases.

The second phase focused on the fringe embroidery bead-weaving technique, while the first, which was conducted from Dec 7 to 10 last year, involved introducing the participants to basic bead embroidery techniques using loom equipment.

“The PPKK is an initiative by Kraftangan Malaysia to improve the socio-economic status of local communities by providing them with the technical and entrepreneurial skills relevant to the crafts that they produce within their localities.

“Up to 2024, Kraftangan Malaysia has successfully implemented 14 PPKK activities in Sarawak, involving 247 participants, covering textile crafts, forest products, metal products and various other crafts,” she said.

‘Ainu Sham added that Kraftangan Malaysia’s efforts and initiatives had indirectly empowered craft entrepreneurs in Sarawak.

“Currently, there are 1,237 craft entrepreneurs in Sarawak, with 49 of them based in Bintulu,” she said, adding that she hoped Bintulu would one day become a hub for the production of beaded crafts that could be commercialised, not only in the local market, but also internationally.

‘Ainu Sham also encouraged the local womenfolk to create beaded crafts with a distinctive Bintulu identity, setting them apart from others found elsewhere.

“We know beaded crafts are also found in other places like Sabah, so we want the community here to find something unique that would highlight the identity of Bintulu so that when people see their beaded products, they would immediately know and recognise them as Bintulu crafts,” she said. — Bernama