Golden chersonese miniatures (2 Viewers)

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About 20 years ago, I started a company known as Golden Chersonese Miniatures to produce really unique figures based on ethnic themes and concepts, but using traditional methods of toy casting.

Due to other commitments, I have closed down the company about a year back but still have numerous pieces to continue production if requested.

I thought that I would share some of the figures and the ideas behind that journey here as they form part of my collection. The figures would be made in modular form from tin lead castings, all assembled individually so that each figure would be unique. Painting would be glossy and the eyes would be dotted differently, men looking left and women looking right. It was all part of an Art Installation project, but all done in miniature.

I hope that you will find all this interesting.

rgds Victor

 

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The figures were to be sculpted in a unique style. I was already captivated by the sensual dancing of many of these unique dance performances and decided to depict them as such, in imitation of their anthropomorphic outline. These are found in their puppet performances as well. Thus modular heads, torsos and arms were sculpted accordingly. The earliest figure conceived was a Balinese legong dancer. This dance usually involves three dancers. I decided to make a single master but to produce three different dancers wearing three primary colours.

 

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The second figure was a Balinese kebyar dancer. This is a solo dance performed by an effeminate looking man. Most of the dance is performed from a sitting squatting position. Thus the theme of Bali was started and I sourced for a company to produced two sizes of sturdy boxes. The boxes were lined inside with white glossy cardboard and the figures were tied and fitted laboriously with thread. Really old-fashioned packaging.
I further experimented with creating more prototype kebyar dancers to test their visual appeal.

 

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I started to codify the rules on how the figures would be sculpted and painted. Bases if added would be round and painted black. These were for standing figures. Sometimes, bases were added to sitting figures to fortify or protect any added accessories. For example, in the various kebyar figures, strips of sheet metal were added to represent the additional length of cloth which was allowed to drape on the floor or flicked around in an ostentatious display during the dance.

 

[MikeNick]

Hi.
Can you post your catalog?
Thanks

 

[Obee]

Victor,

thanks for starting this tread, I'm sure people will be most impressed, like I was, in seeing you work and your skill in making these most unique figures.

I see that your website is no longer there, so hopefully you can repost many of the images here?

Well done,
John

 

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Hi John and MikeNick,

the original images were taken on an older camera. Some pics are missing etc. I have the old catalog huge bytes so will figure out a way to post it.
Meanwhile I’ll take newer pics dig out other infor and continue to share the bkgd with newer perspectives.

The name of the company was chosen based on an old travel book The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither by Isabella Bird to refer to the Malayan Peninsula. It was my intention to do various series based around the East Indies archipelago.
I scoured the internet for olde images and cut and pasted them on a board. The logo and font were also done the same way, with scissors and glue.

 

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The third most iconic dance is the masculine Baris dance. Usually performed by 4 or 8 men, it features a unique triangular headdress and colourful strips of cloth worn on a white costume. The dances always carry an item, a bowl of rice, spear or small shield. You can see the round bases painted black to represent shadows. As you can see, I tried to create a semi-abstract world with these figures.

 

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The most dramatic dance is perhaps the solo Baris dance. A typical performance is usually held in one of the temples. The dancer appears in a doorway and begins his routine slowly descending the steps into the courtyard. This time , the costume is black or a dark purple and his arms and legs have gold clasps.

Here, I’ve posed my figure against one of my unfinished diorama piece which I was going to release as a set piece resin casting. The master is made in individual bricks wood with sculpted details. Anyway the unfinished piece looks typical of many unfinished temple structures in Bali, which is a volcanic place and they are always raising and repairing their temples.

 

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As with the Kebyar dancer, I also made various other poses for the solo Baris dancer. As y can see, each figure is assembled from multiple castings. A very laborious process.

I also did quite a lot of reading into Indonesian textiles. The Balinese are especially noted for the liberal use of gold thread on their stoles. Hence this Balinese series features a lot of gold paint.

 

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Here are some old pics of some of the masters comprising heads, bodies, arms and some musical instruments. The gongs were made for ok washers and coins. I think y can recognise the Legong dancer head and body.

the sitting figure with head was the first prototype master. I made a second sitting figure with a slouch and a paunch without head.

 

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Here are some old pics of some of the masters comprising heads, bodies, arms and some musical instruments. The gongs were made for ok washers and coins. I think y can recognise the Legong dancer head and body.

in the first pic, the sitting figure with a head was the first prototype master. I also made a second sitting figure with a slouch and paunch.

View attachment 288520View attachment 288521View attachment 288522

 

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I also used some of these castings to create detailed miniatures.
The legong dancer used the head and body castings.
The kebyar dancer used the squatting pose casting.

 

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I still hvn figured out a way to attach a pdf yet so will continue to rely on memory and some old pics to continue the narrative.

I really wanted to do a series of unique orchestral sets. Indonesian traditional music is mostly based on percussive instruments similar to xylophones. These orchestras are known as gamelan. There are numerous combinations. Following some research into the subject, I separated these gamelan broadly into Javanese and Balinese types. They differ in their visual appeal.

I created numerous masters and had multiple castings made. These included gongs and drums, a stringed instrument and a lady singer

The pix below is a typical Balinese gamelan orchestra set in my catalog. Multiple variations can be made and I offered smaller and unique combinations of instrument types for each set.

 

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I also came up with the idea of including small booklets for each set and had produced 5 different booklets.

 

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Here is the text to the orchestras:

A General Guide To Gamelan Orchestras

Throughout the Indonesian Archipelago, there are many different types of gamelan orchestras which differ as to their composition. Furthermore, the instruments are given names, which are sometimes used too specifically or too broadly, leading to ambiguity and confusion.

This guide serves to simplify the types, terms and composition of the major types of gamelan instruments and to offer suggestions on how the pieces may be represented in a gamelan orchestra. Specifically, this guide focuses on the flat gong, kettledrums and xylophone instruments which are represented by Golden Chersonese Miniatures. It is a working draft based on continual research and discovery, and we would welcome any inputs for future revisions.

Flat gong

The most important instrument is the Gong ageng which is made in different dimensions. We use different gong castings to represent this variation in size. These gongs are hung in various ways on supports (gayor).

Outside of the Kraton (palace) court, Gong ageng supports (gayor) are generally of simpler construction than the ornate court Raffles Gamelan Gong ageng gayor.


These simpler gayor will be featured in Sets A3 within Series A Bali. and Set B3c JAVANESE GAMELAN GENDER WAYANG ORCHESTRA.

Kettledrums

These are suspended singly (kenong or kajar) or in multiples (reyong or boning).

Xylophones

There are only two major types of gamelan orchestras:- Balinese or Javanese. The Balinese gamelan is typified by having the keys of their xylophones suspended over bamboo tubes (gangsa) whereas the Javanese gamelan xylophones have their keys placed on a wooden trough (saron). The gangsa section in gamelan gong kebyar is the largest section, consisting of 13 players.

The gender is found in both Balinese and Javanese gamelan orchestras, and is the main metallophone in wayang kulit gamelan orchestras.

An instrument using wooden keys (gambang kayu) is sometimes found within the gangsa section.

Golden Chersonese Miniatures produces musicians with the following types of mallets:

Round mallet
Padded mallet
Rope-wound mallet
Horn or Wooden mallet

The musicians with the correct mallet should be placed before their respective instruments.

The table below summarises the three main types of flat gongs, kettledrums and xylophones and their common names as used in Balinese and Javanese gamelan orchestras. Where possible, the types and numbers of mallets used are also indicated.

Tabulation on the gangsa and gender instruments and type of mallets

	Balinese	Javanese	Mallet	Numbers	Remarks
Flat Gongs
Hanging gong	Gong Ageng	Gong Ageng	Round	1	These gongs may be hung singly or with other gongs on a gayor
Gong Kempul	Gong Kempul	Round	1
Gong Kemong	Gong Klentong	Round	1
Horizontal gong	Gong Kethuk	Gong Kempyang	Round	1
Kettledrums
Single kettledrum	Kenong	Kenong	Rope-wound	1
Kajar	Kajar	Rope-wound	1
Multiple kettledrums	Reyong	Bonang	Rope-wound	1-2	Several Balinese musicians each use 1 Mallet In Gong Kebyar, a single musician uses 2 Mallets A single Javanese musician use 2 Mallets
Xylophones
	Gangsa	Saron
Metal keys	Slenthem 7 keys		Padded	1
Gender Bamboo resonators	Gender Bamboo resonators	Padded	2	With/without stool
Ugal (giying) 7-12 keys		Horn	2	stool
Pemade 7-12 keys	Saron Bonang Barung	Horn	1
Kantilan 7-12 keys	Saron Bonang Demang	Horn	1
Jegogan 5 keys		Padded	1	stool
Calung(Jublag) 5 keys		Padded	1
Penyacah 5 keys		Padded	1
Wooden keys	Gambang kayu	Gambang kayu	Padded	1-2

Golden Chersonese Miniatures produces complete sets of gamelan orchestras which have the basic and correct representation of musical instruments within each type of gamelan. A partial number of musicians are provided for each set. This assumes that, for various performances, not all the musicians are playing at the same time and some musicians are expected to double-up for other musical instruments.

Customers who have purchased any of the boxed gamelan orchestras may wish to add additional musicians to represent a full complement of musicians. The table helps them to identify the suitable musicians holding the correct mallet types and numbers to fill the gap.

Note also that the kendhang drummer may be obtained with one or two kendhang drums. Sometimes only one kendhang drummer is used; at other times, two kendhang drummers play together.

The inclusion of a singer (pesinden) is optional. The pesinden is usually part of a wayang gamelan orchestra.

Similarly, the celempung is an optional instrument in many gamelan orchestras. The celempung features in the fore of a gamelan siteran orchestra.

When ordering these additional musicians, please let us know your preference for a specific painting style, if any. We will entertain requests as we produce musicians to represent the Balinese, Javanese or Javanese Kraton (Solo or Yogya), with no extra charge to the basic cost.

Finally, note that Indonesian gamelans are specifically produced and tuned to either of two scales: slendro or pelog. Many gamelan groups actually lay out two complete sets of instruments for a single performance which may include pieces to be performed in either scale. Thus the more adventurous collector possessing a gamelan orchestra may wish to order another complete set of gamelan orchestra to represent this feast. If so, note that the two sets of instruments are usually placed at right-angles to each other. Then depending on the specific music being played, the same musicians then orientate themselves to the appropriate set of instruments accordingly.

 

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here are some pics of production models of Balinese hanging gongs. The supports are made from castings and brass tubing. As in the real thing, the gongs are suspended freely on wire to create play value.

 

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I have converted the GCM catalog into JPEG pages. So enjoy the pics. Lots more to come!

 

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These next few pages complete series A Bali and lead to the introduction of Series B The Javanese Kraton.

 

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For Series A, the approach was to create Dance and orchetral diversity using numerous castings and combinations. The painting and sculptural style was deliberately chosen to reflect colourful gaity. I was inspired by the numerous pictures and descriptions by Beryl Zoete, Walter Spies and John Coast.