It takes one month and up to $1,000 to make a single pair of Peranakan beaded shoes, but Ms Bebe Seet, 59, does not count the cost.
To her, the forgotten art of the Nonyas is both her heritage and a legacy that she wants to leave for future generations. 'It was beading that led me to be more interested in Peranakan culture and even wear kebayas,' says the boutique owner, who has been teaching the skill since 1995.
Her new book, Peranakan Beadwork, My Heritage, is a 228-page volume on the history and how-to of making Nonya shoes. It will be sold at her boutique Rumah Bebe in East Coast Road from tomorrow at a special launch price of $88. From Monday, the book will cost $117.70 and will also be available at Kinokuniya, Select Books and the Museum Shop.
The book is funded in part by the National Heritage Board's Heritage Industry Incentive Programme and is a rare volume on the beading techniques used by Chinese settlers who came to the Malay archipelago in the 17th century.
'Beadwork is something that is so domestic that nobody wants to document it. It's not like porcelain or jewellery,' says Ms Seet. It took her years to cobble together the techniques in her book because of the lack of written records.
Beading methods were usually passed down through word of mouth, with mother training daughter in the Peranakan community. The women preferred colours such as turquoise and pink in their work, and used Victorian motifs such as roses and children in Western dress.
'Beadwork is used in many cultures, but only the Nonyas used it to make shoes,' says Ms Seet, who has two grown children. She decided to take up the art in 1993 after her interest was piqued by a pair of beaded slippers in the private collection of a merchant in Malacca.
Back in Singapore, she was lucky enough to encounter the mother of a friend who had made shoes in the Nonya style since she was 13. 'She told me that there was so much to learn that I had better come to her every day. So I did, for six months,' she recalls.
When the older woman died, she was left without a tutor. She began trawling antique shops for samples of beadwork and would pick them apart and put them back together in order to understand the beading techniques used.
She began holding classes to pass on what she had learnt. The first sessions were held in 1995 at a friend's shop in East Coast Road. Four years later, she moved her classes to her first shop at Katong Village and then to Rumah Bebe in 2000.
She has carefully decorated the two-storey shophouse to evoke the feel of a Peranakan home. Inside, kebayas and traditional jewellery jostle with porcelain and spicy treats, while sepia photos and heirlooms add to the old-world atmosphere.
Apart from selling clothes and accessories there, Ms Seet sees about 80 students a year, only half of whom are Peranakan. The rest include Singaporeans from all communities as well as Japanese expatriates. They learn to carefully stitch beaded patterns on canvas to make the decorated upper straps. The slippers are then put together by a cobbler.
It takes about 20 bundles of beads to make a pair and students often opt for a cheap, Japanese bead brand that costs only $2 a hank.
Beads of the sort that the Nonyas used do not come cheap, says Ms Seet. These are faceted so that they sparkle in the light and cost $20 a bundle. With cobbling charges, the footwear she makes can cost up to $1,000 - a price that about four people a year are willing to pay.
She also makes shoes on special order for some customers and the most unusual she has ever created was for a friend, who gave her tourmaline gems to use in place of glass beads.
'In the end, it weighed 1kg, so you couldn't even walk in them,' she recalls.
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Peranakan Beadwork, My Heritage is available at Rumah Bebe for $88 from tomorrow to Sunday. From Monday, it will cost $117.70 and be available at Kinokuniya, Select Books and the Museum Shop.
This article was first published in The Straits Times.
