Double Coin Knot n Jade Yuan Bao Necklace

I made this "lucky" necklace to ring in the New Year.

It is composed of the double coin knot as a central piece with button knots and ancient Vietnamese glass beads making up the rest of the chain. The double coin knot is a decorative motif composed of two antique Chinese coins overlapping one another and symbolizes prosperity and longevity. Dangling from the knot is a jade yuan bao which also represents old Chinese coin or money. Gold is the symbol of wealth and so the gold color satin cords add emphasis to this manifold auspicious necklace ! How cheesy can I get ? :)

Here's a close up of the necklace :

Well so much for welcoming the New Year, as 2008 draws to a close I am not without sadness. In my favourite comfort columnist AY's* words the year has not been without "its sadness and joys, relief and regrets" And for my last post of 2008, I'd like to shed a silent tear for all partings, good byes, personal losses and pain which has been.....

Postscript: Sadder still, AY passed away suddenly in June. So, no more consoling words... He has touched many lives, including people he did not know.

Sa Huynth Earrings

This funny shaped three pronged stone (maybe nephrite ) ornament was purchased from South Vietnam. I think it belongs to the the nephrite earrings (sometimes called lingling-o) from the Sa Huynh Culture of Vietnam (1000 BC to 200 AD), a late prehistoric metal age society on the central coast of Viet Nam.

However my specimen may not be genuine Sa Huynh. I somehow got the feeling that it is a replica. The seller being uneasy himself, had said that it is from the Champa Kingdom, a later civilization and that could bring it as far down as 1800.

The curled up C-shaped ornament also reminds me of the Chinese Hongshan (3500 to 2000BC) zhulong(pig dragon.) The zulong is descended from the jue(slit ring) and the jue-form is also used in Vietnam although later than the Chinese period. So from this chain of reasoning my impression that the lingling-o and zhulong are distant cousins, relatives or whatever, may not be too far fetched ! Though I must admit that my assumptions are completely unscientific !

Are my eyes or mind playing tricks on me ? Seems like the more I look at it the more I see the zhulong pose (minus the prongs) in the earring ornament. Here are two views:

The picture on the left is a lingling-o looking view (the earring view) usually shown in books and other sources. The picture on the right shows a different view. Does it not resemble the curled up zhulong ? Wish I could post a picture of a zhulong for comparison. Unfortunately, I do not own one not even a replica. However jade collectors would be familiar with this legendary artifact and the Net would also have many images of this illustrous mythical animal.
So is this a fake lingling-o that looks like a zhulong ? Well I must say this is one tricky piece and the faker must be having a good chuckle baffling hapless collectors like me. :)

Here is another C-shaped, lingling-o/zhulong lookalike ornament made from glass also purchased in Vietnam.

Vintage unknown.

Large Spherical Jade Bead

This emerald-green satin cord of snake knots sits well with my large pale green spherical jade bead.



I used this piece as practice for making snake-knots and it looks not too bad ? Hehehe! Self applause and loud clapping ! As a l-i-m (learn-it-myself) crafter I must admit that my project was not all smooth sailing and I did encounter obstacles. First of all my cord dimensions although taken from a pattern in a book, ended on the short side. It may be due to typo error or it might have been due to the loose tension in forming the knots. Although the snake knot is one of the easiest of the Chinese knots, the tension still took a while to get the hang of. I had to unpick and start over many times. Oooo ! what a pain in the neck that was ! With chinese knots the mantra is not only "practice, practice, practice !!" but also "patience, patience, patience" It is also dash difficult to get the snake knots to lie flat, they keep on undulating like a typical snake !

My poor grasp of the chinese instructions was another handicap. On the bright side I actually picked up and learned some new vocabulary...
Back to my bead .. like all things Chinese this necklace has many auspicous meanings. The large bead is carved with the Chinese character "Shou" for longevity, while the snake represents - rebirth renewal and healing. It is also regarded as a source of good luck as well as guardian of treasures.

The surface decoration of the bead consists of two roundels with the character "Shou" and surrounded by spiral patterns. I guess this is a new bead of not more than 20 years. It's large size 2.5cm across makes it a good centre piece for a choker necklace. Close-up below:

Here are 5 more similar looking beads in various sizes.