THE look of the fabric, blue with woven gold thread, is almost deceiving.
It is soft and light, as indicated by the fold and texture.

The light against the thread shows different shades of the fabric, and
although captured on a painting, it looks alive. The piece was painted by
Tang Ying Min who, in her latest work, pays tribute to one of the nation's
fashion heritage, songket.

Titled, "Thread of Gold", it was painted using oil and pantalit on
canvas.

She said big paintings (eight feet long and four feet wide) allowed her
to better capture the beauty of songket.

Tang, who started painting songket two years ago, said this was her
first exhibition with big paintings.

In the "Songket and Sarong" series, Tang exhibited 32 of her works - 18
on songket and the rest on sarong.

"You have to follow the pattern. This gets especially hard when you are
not calm, because you cannot find where the patterns begin and where they
end,"

She said she bought every piece of songket she painted, from shops and
friends, who did not want the fabric anymore.

The Songket and Sarong Series is sold at the main lobby, Balai Berita,
The New Straits Times Press (M) Berhad, Jalan Riong, Kuala Lumpur from

10am to 6pm daily until July 2.