Sunday, January 19, 2014

DIY Chinese New Year Decoration : Beautifying the Mystic Knot "如意结"

Hey Folks,

Here's a great kick-start for the up & coming Chinese New Year!

I have decided to place my bets with the great auspicious Mystic Knot which had been my all-time favourite ...

The Mystic Knot which is also known as Endless Knot or simply known as "如意结" in Chinese is something that I hold near & dear to my heart when it comes to home decoration and even fashion accessories.
 
It is represented by the infinity sign drawn 6 times and symbolizes an endless amount of good fortune & is believed to neutralise negative energy coming towards one's way.
 
The Mystic Knot is also one of the 8 auspicious symbols found in Buddhism and is a common sight in temples.
 
My idea of beautifying a ready-made mystic knot had been inspired by the existing décor at shopping malls.  I'm sure many of us might have a strong urge to bring back one of these pretty-looking décor for the Chinese New Year! 

Unfortunately, it isn't for sale ...



I started scouting through search engines for more ideas.

Finally, I got inspired into doing something similar with a mystic knot after I chanced upon this photograph which was taken by a blogger at The Heeren during the Chinese New Year 5-6 years ago.



This is my version which I made using a ready-made Chinese New Year decoration that was faulty at the centre and ready to be discarded by a retail store selling such décor.  The bright red loops made up for part of the mystic knot all around the sides & there were a huge gaping hole at the centre where some decorative object was missing.


The store was kind enough to let me have it as they couldn't sell something that was faulty.

I was worried that my idea of attaching these flowers at the gaping hole would come to naught and bought a red solid looking mystic knot made of red velvet from China Town as part of my contingency plan.

For a brief summary on how I DIY-ed the floral arrangement using the Mystic Knot, please watch my video titled "Blooming" the Mystic Knot as shown below:
 


I'm sorry that some of the photographs weren't able to show how pretty the Mystic Knot looked against the wall as there were backlighting issues & my walls were painted with a glossy paint that deflected lighting.
 
As such, the real item when seen in person looked a lot more saturated in terms of colour vibrancy just like how it is seen in the photograph below :
 
(Tips :  U could purchase a mini décor of your choice & tie it like what I did to the bottom of the larger Mystic Knot which would normally come with its own pair of red tassels.  I have decided to omit using its gigantic red tassels as it's too much of a cliché.  Hence, I decided on trying something new by tying a miniature décor of my choice at the bottom to give it a customised outlook.)
 
And please do pardon me for any grammatical errors of the caption shown in the video ... It was too much of a hassle to make amendments & reload the video all over as it is very time consuming to do so.  Sorry about the eye sore with grammatical errors!
 
May this 2014 be a prosperous year for all.  Gong Xi Fa Cai !


 

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