Charming and trendy Penang Peranakan-tile inspired jewellery

Do you want a piece of nostalgia? The founder and designer of the Either/Or jewellery brand, Teoh Su Ling, makes pretty polymer clay jewellery inspired by Penang Peranakan Tiles.

Born and raised in Penang, 36-year-old Teoh started her artisanal jewellery brand, Either/Or Design in 2019. She was attracted to the nostalgia of the heritage tiles, which evoked her childhood memories.

Since then, she has been painstakingly and meticulously crafting the tile-inspired jewellery, especially her best-selling earrings and brooches, using high-quality materials.

While the inspiration comes from vintage tiles, Teoh highlights its beauty and makes the jewellery contemporary that it appeals to youngsters.

“I make contemporary jewellery by combining my handcrafted miniature Peranakan tiles with other elements like metal components, glass beads and fresh water pearls,” according to Teoh.

Her signature collection, titled “Heritage Collection”, has intricate details and vibrant and soft pastel colours. Made from scratch, each piece features a unique vintage tile design and looks beautiful.

Q: What inspired you to create handmade jewellery inspired by heritage tiles?

Being born and raised in Penang, I am deeply connected to the cultural heritage of the state.
I wanted to create something unique that is applicable to the modern lifestyle, yet carries the historical significance of the Peranakan culture.

Because of its unique beauty and application, the Peranakan heritage tile has become a significant representation of Penang’s history and cultural heritage. Even though the Peranakan tiles are commonly related to Penang, there are very few contemporary designs that represent this part of our culture.

Q: Where do you get your ideas or motifs?

Nature. I particularly like to create motifs of botanicals like fruits and flowers.

Q: Apart from clay, what other materials do you use to make your jewellery?

18k gold-plated components, glass beads, fresh water pearls, tassels, natural crystals and others.

Q: What is the most challenging part of jewellery making?

Handling polymer clay is the most challenging part. Polymer clay is a sticky yet stiff material that is difficult to work with. Much like kneading a bread dough, working with polymer clay is highly laborious and time-consuming. Dust sticks to it easily and it picks up scratches and fingerprints all the time. All these need extra effort to clean up.

Q: Why is your jewellery special or different from others in the market, as there are others who are also making tile-inspired jewellery?

All my polymer clay tile pieces are handmade from scratch in original tile motifs that
I designed, as opposed to other tile jewellery made using off-the-shelf tools like ready-made silk screens or decals, which render generic motifs and can be easily replicated.

My signature technique used in making my own tile motifs allows me to create motifs with extra-fine details, even on tiny pieces less than one centimetre. To create my tile motifs, I first build the motif in a 3D form.

Polymer clay of different colours is layered together in a specific orientation to build a block of clay. Each piece of clay that is sliced off the block will then contain the motif embedded in the block of clay.

The block of clay can be compressed into any size and produce the same motif in different dimensions without losing the details.

Q: Tell us about your new collection of jewellery and the inspiration for this new collection.

My new collection for my signature line, “Heritage Collection,” consists of heritage tile earrings, necklaces and brooches in bright colours like hot pink, bright orange and teal.

The bright colours give a modern, young and fun appeal to the tile designs, which are not commonly associated with young vibes. I want to break the stereotypical view of cultural elements like Peranakan tiles as being something of the past that is not trendy.

Q: What is the most memorable piece?

My most memorable piece would be my heritage-framed tile, Tile Dangles. It was my first earring design in the Peranakan tile motif.
I created it when I first started practising my signature technique, not expecting to achieve any reasonable outcome.

Despite the technique being highly challenging, I decided to experiment with it. The tile motif turned out to be perfectly symmetrical and successful. I made the tiles into earrings and orders started pouring in.

Since then, I have made many variations of that design in various colour palettes. It is still my best-selling design today.

Q: When did you start the online business and what were the struggles and challenges you faced?

I started my online business in 2019. Many will compare my price with the price of mass-produced costume jewellery. Unless you explain it in person, it is hard to demonstrate the time, effort and cost of producing slow-made designs.

Hence, I share my process videos on my social media to demonstrate the intensive labour that goes into each piece. Even so, it is hard to capture every aspect of the process in videos.

Q: What is your future plan?

I plan to create more designs that incorporate cultural elements that represent our country with a contemporary take on the modern lifestyle. I hope to highlight the beauty of our nation through contemporary designs.