Red String of Fate

Mui-Ling Teh

Red String of Fate

My origami calendar

I feel my heart being pulled when we are not together,
Longing for the day we are with each other.
The thread between us will never break;
Our destinies are tied by the red string of fate.

The red string of fate is based on a Chinese myth that the gods tie an invisible red string around the ankles of men and women destined to be soulmates. This myth is has been adapted into other east asian cultures as well. I first became familiar with it by watching anime; though in those cases, one would attempt to match up couples by tying their fingers.

This image, while on one hand based on that Chinese legend, is one that defines me. With the red thread forming the heart, I frame what is currently my greatest passion: miniature origami. I fold using tweezers, and sometimes with needles (I show a needle here, though for these hearts I only used tweezers as they are not that small). The hearts of paper and string, while representing my passion, also represent my soul, and how my fate is bound by the constraints of life. I’m in my own little world bound by a thread of fate; though my passion lies in a world of paper. While most women primarily use needles for sowing; I primarily use them for tiny origami :P

I would adjust the position of the objects here with tweezers, and sometimes got magnetic reactions between the tweezers and the needle. They say opposites attrack… but they are both metal :]

Each heart was folded from a 15×15mm piece of paper.

Taken with an Olympus FE-340.

Great for Valentines day or as love letters, because you and your loved ones were destined by fate.

For a better idea of scale:

This work has been featured in:
Macro Photography
Inspired Art
All About Hearts
Color Me a Rainbow


Also available at Zazzle


The Zazzle card consists of the little verse I wrote, but customers may customize it to have it removed or have their own personal messages written as well. The quality of Zazzle products is not as high as Redbubble but still does justice for occasions.

Works by Category

Origami
Drawings,Paintings and Graphics
Abstract Photography / Guessing Games

Flowers, Trees and Plants
Water and Waterscapes
Scenery/Skyscapes
Light, Shadow, and Reflections
Still Life

Living Creatures
Human Portrait

Japanfluence
Canada
Europe

Red String of Fate belongs to the following groups:

! ♥♥All About Hearts♥♥ !, ! 100% !, ! Inspired Art !, ! ♥♥♥Love Is (Join us!)♥♥♥ !, " Little Things To Make You Smile " , All Things Poetic, Artistic, Philosophical, Bits and Pieces , Boredom Competitions on the 24/7, Cee's Fun Artsy Friends (no holidays cards or snapshots please), Extreme Close-Ups, Featured Features - For Featured Art, Photography, T-Shirts, Writing, FEATURED ONLY, Japanfluence, Object Studies & Concepts, Olympus and Four Thirds Group, PEACE, LOVE & TRANQUILITY, PostCard Style (Describe your image please) Limit 2 per day), Still Life Photography, THE SISTERHOOD, The true beauty, The Woman Photographer **7 Submissions a week only please**, True Colors of Asia, You're Accepted and Young enthusiasts Available for sale as

Greeting Cards, Matted Prints, Laminated Prints, Mounted Prints, Canvas Prints and Framed Prints

Red String of Fate by Mui-Ling Teh
Red String of Fate by Mui-Ling Teh
  • Irene  Burdell

    Irene Burdell

    Beautiful work Mui-Ling you must have very nimble fingers. x

  • Mui-Ling Teh replied

    Thank you Irene. Folding wasn’t too hard since these hearts are bigger than most of my creations, but getting everything in the right position was; string is not easy to work with; and if I wan’t to adjust it’s position while delicate paper hearts are sitting on top of it, I very likely lose their positions.

  • Rajdev D

    Rajdev D

    Very nice work Mui-Ling, i like the lighting too.

  • Mui-Ling Teh replied

    I’m glad you do. I started out using natural light and taking several shots of the subjects at different positions; none which I were satisfied with yet at the time; then it was getting dark so I turned on my lamp which made the image more yellowing; but it works better this way.

  • BiographyofRed8

    BiographyofRed8

    simple and beautiful, great concept

  • Mui-Ling Teh replied

    Hey Red! So nice to see you here. Thanks for the fav; the colour suits you :o)

    Well it’s very late here so I’m heading of to bed now.

  • cherylc1

    cherylc1

    Gorgeous my friend!!!

  • Mui-Ling Teh replied

    You are so sweet my friend; thank you :D

  • butchart

    butchart

    besides the incredible gift you have for the art of paper folding..your final composition here is metaphorically beautiful..well thought out and captured…. bravo MLT…............b

  • Enivea

    Enivea

    Brilliant concept and execution Mui-Ling. You are a fantastic artist :-)

  • Mui-Ling Teh replied

    Thank you so much Enivea!

  • BlueKnot

    BlueKnot

    Wonderful imagery… the needle makes sense with the thread (though I hope it doesn’t SEW the thread to someone’s ankle/finger!) and also give a great sense of scale for the hearts… AND makes an ‘arrow’ for the heart. It all works so well, great job!

  • Mui-Ling Teh replied

    Thank you BlueKnot. I’m really glad you took notice of that arrow; it took a lot of effort to position it in the way to get the symbols in there meanwhile giving it a decent composition; and with the thread going through one end of the needle there is only so much on that end that could come out. There was also all the difficulty with positioning such flimsy objects, and as mentioned in the description, magnetic attration between the needle and my tweezers.

  • Alice Oates

    Alice Oates

    Absolutely beautiful image…and a really lovely thought in the description

  • kjgordon

    kjgordon

    love it…....now where did I put that string…...........

  • Rainy

    Rainy

    Beautiful work Mui-Ling

  • Gregory John O'Flaherty

    Gregory John O...

    Nice one. Thanks for the commentary.. learnt something…. now I know why I keep tripping over…. wish the person on the other end of the string would arrive,,

  • Mui-Ling Teh replied

    Then start pulling; NOW :-P

  • Nascha

    Nascha

    delicate and beautiful! x

  • Mui-Ling Teh replied

    Thank you very much!

  • Karin  Taylor

    Karin Taylorcommunity helper

    what a beautiful Chinese myth, i love the delicacy of your intricate origami, and the stories you tell us… it brings these myths into our daily lives, into our sphere of consciousness and we are better for it….i love this type of idealism…it’s very heartwarming…i love how you’ve created the heart in red thread also…wonderful work Mui-Ling :) xxx

  • Mui-Ling Teh replied

    You are very into oriental culture aren’t you Karin ;) Seeing this at first, aside from the origami, people may not be aware of the asian influence behind it, but there cerainly are a lot of things in western culture right now which have been adopted from asian influence, so you are right when you say these myths are brought into our daily lives. So gald you enjoy this Karin, hope you are well!

  • Michelle BarlondSmith

    Michelle Barlo...

    Bravo Bravo Bravo

  • magneta

    magneta


    Don’t forget to add it to the September Avatar Challenge!

  • Mui-Ling Teh replied

    Oh wow, thank you!

  • TaniaLosada

    TaniaLosada

    Creative and original beautiful work!

  • Mui-Ling Teh replied

    Thank you very much!

  • artisandelimage

    artisandelimage


    bravo !
    my best, francis.

  • Mui-Ling Teh replied

    Many Thanks Francis!

  • sassyjewel

    sassyjewel

    oh my, how intriguing and artful

  • Mui-Ling Teh replied

    Thank you very much! For the comment and the fav!

  • foxyphotography
  • foxyphotography
  • Mui-Ling Teh replied

    oh wow, thank you!

  • Kerryn  Madsen-Pietsch

    Kerryn Madsen...

    Congratulations Mui-Ling – a lovely and unique presentation.

  • Mui-Ling Teh replied

    Thank you very much Kerryn! And thank you for the fav :)

  • PPPhotoArt

    PPPhotoArt

    Mui-Ling this is just beautiful, the origami and the layout of the shot, and I love the commentary, it’s lovely – very well done

  • Taylor Sawyer

    Taylor Sawyer


    Congrats on your feature! You are now invited to enter
    this piece into Best of RED

  • Ellen

    Ellen

    This is beautiful Mui-Ling! very creative!

  • vampvamp

    vampvamp

    awesome, sooo creative & beautiful!

  • Mui-Ling Teh replied

    Thanks again :)

  • Cadence Gamache

    Cadence Gamache

    Fantastic!!! You do such awesome work! This is really a special piece =]

  • Jo Hoden   "C'est la Vie"

    Jo Hoden "C'...

    beautiful

  • Arletta

    Arletta

    This is very interesting, the description and the look and all. Thank you for sharing.

  • zarkhoc

    zarkhoc

    Wow, that is just a stunning work of art!!!

  • Mui-Ling Teh replied

    Thank you very much!

  • samedog

    samedog 28 days ago

    Love the composition of this one Mui-Ling.

  • Mui-Ling Teh replied 28 days ago

    Thank you very much Rory! I remember in the past you always liked 3cm Family Swim the best. It is generally one of my most popular pieces, and this one is too. Right now 3cm Family swim still has more favs, but one must take into account that it has been up longer; and it is one of the featured pieces in my profile page. I had swapped the February image in my calendar for this Red String piece after I created it; and since then there have been people telling me that February was their favourite. But they are both very different I guess.

  • Kimba Vetten

    Kimba Vetten 22 days ago

    Congratulations on your top 10 placement

  • Jason D. Laderoute

    Jason D. Lader... 7 days ago

    Love the Creative Twist you have added the Needle and thread is wonderful Creative thinking thinking well done Mui Ling

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