Group of Sabah housewives, single mothers craft 40kg beaded Jalur Gemilang
24 Aug 2023 05:18pm
Boduvan Bead Design Group spent RM8,000 of their personal funds to buy material and dedicated three to four hours of their time every night to craft the flag
This year, a group of Sabah housewives and single mothers in Kampung Tinangol, Matunggong, near Kudat chose to fully utilise their beading talent and expertise to design their own interpretation of patriotism and create a Jalur Gemilang made up of 284,928 beads, which was started in 2019.
The leader of the Boduvan Bead Design Group, Hanna Porodong, said the beaded Jalur Gemilang, is 4.8 metres long, 1.95 metres wide and weighs more than 40 kilogrammes.
Hanna, 57, said the group spent RM8,000 of their personal funds to buy material and dedicated three to four hours of their time every night to craft the flag.
"It is about 99 per cent completed, just some finishing touches to tidy up the stitches and ensure the beads are secured. We expect to finish it this Saturday,” she said when contacted by Bernama here.
Hanna said the biggest challenge was to get the crescent moon right, just like on the actual flag, and one beader was assigned solely to string that part.
"Forming the crescent moon and stars with beads was the hardest and most complicated part of this Jalur Gemilang design.
"As for the stripes, we made it one by one using strips of beading, which was joined afterwards,” she said.
Hanna, who has more than 20 years experience in the craft of beading, said she got the design idea in 2019 and proposed it to the women beaders in the village.
"So far beading is limited to accessories, so why not make (a beaded) Jalur Gemilang? As beading designers, this is one creative way to show our patriotism as Malaysians, which has never been attempted in Sabah,” she said.
She said, in 2019 the group produced a 1.93 metre by 0.97 metre Jalur Gemilang weighing 5.3 kilogrammes with 54,442 beads, and a 5.1 kilogramme Sabah state flag which was 1.93 metre by 0.95 metre, using 53,790 beads.
Armed with that experience, the group started the bigger flag project the same year, which will be completed this Saturday as a bid to enter the beaded Jalur Gemilang into the Malaysian Book of Records.
"We received RM3,000 from the Community Development Leaders Unit for the first project. That beaded flag was framed and exhibited. But we funded this larger second one ourselves,” she said.
"The flag can actually be completed in three months but due to shortage of funds because we were using our own money to buy the materials, it took a long time to complete,” she said.
"Through this activity, we tirelessly instilled the spirit of cooperation, to see our craft come alive,” she said, adding that the group plans to sell the beaded Jalur Gemilang to any party that is interested, including government departments.
Hanna said the group’s passion and commitment to create the design is aimed at putting their village on the map.
Kampung Tinangol is located in northern Sabah, about 149 kilometres from Kota Kinabalu, and is famed as the centre for beaded crafts in the state since the 1990s.
The name of the group, "Boduvan” originates from the Rungus language of northern Borneo, which means women who are skilled in making handicrafts.
It also signifies the diligence of the village women who support their families through economic and tourism activities in Sabah, she said. -Bernama
