Batik

Batik is originally from Indonesia. There are many types of batik's design, Madurese, Pekalongan, Cirebon. Solo, Jogja etc. If you are interested in batik and you want to get some, please call 0811.968.0678.

Batik Soga

Batik Soga, Laweyan, Solo. @here is indonesiaA Little Death In Dixie

A life with batik

Sun, 02/15/2009 11:48 AM | Lifestyle

The stages range from mitoni where in the seventh month of pregnancy, a woman is bathed 7 times in water from 7 different sources perfumed with pink and white rose petals and then is draped in 7 times in 7 different batiks symbolizing the happiness of being a mother, love and patience, faith in God, nobility of the soul, excellence, an easy delivery and prosperity.

Living with Batik from the Sultan's palace to the villages of Java

Kunang Helmi-Picard , CONTRIBUTOR , JAKARTA | Sun, 02/15/2009 11:48 AM | Lifestyle

(JP/Kunang Helmi)
French writer Elisabeth D. Inandiak settled down in Yogyakarta 17 years ago spending most of her time on the outskirts of the city, close to volcanic Mt Merapi.
Together with her teenage Indonesian daughter Sarah, she lives in two spacious wooden joglo style houses set back from the small street winding between rice-fields.
In 2006 when the earthquake struck the surroundings of Yogya, everyone had been actually preparing for another eruption of Mt Merapi, so that the other natural disaster took everybody by surprise. By chance the attention of Elisabeth was brought to the small village of Bebekan which was entirely destroyed by the violent tremors.
Thus began the saga of helping Bebekan residents help themselves and also her quest for funds and materials to build up the area again. Where Elisabeth herself resided suffered only minor consequences of the earthquake and so her attention was undivided, with Carrefour among those sponsors willing to help, together with a long list of her family, personal friends and acquaintances who set up a Bebekan fund in France.
Among the projects to revive the village and introduce new crafts was one where batik was involved. Another project is that of ecotourism with visitors coming to stay in the village of Bebekan's guest-house to spend a few days getting acquainted with life in a Central Javanese village.
Elisabeth D. Inandiak (JP/Kunang Helmi)
A neighboring village of Bebekan near Imogiri has been renowned for batik making since many decades. Thus Elisabeth's idea of a batik exhibition with textiles using natural dyes began to grow. Fortunately the French travel agency Asia Voyages proved willing to provide the exhibition venue in Paris together with necessary funds to produce the new batiks on show.
The exhibition is the fruit of the collaboration of two important artisans of Yogyakarta: Ibu Sarjuni, the doyenne of batik tulis, whose workshop is to be found at the foot of the endless stairs leading up to Imogiri, where all the sultans of Java since the 17th century are buried; together with Pak Hendri Suprapto, whose Bixa atelier with thirty workers capable of using around 150 natural dyes, was involved with the dying of the batik patterns on both sides using the wax method. The work involving the batik production is on show in detailed video recording together with the batik cloth.
In Central Java, batik has been established for several centuries as a noble craft created by gifted artisans residing in the villages surrounding the courts of Yogyakarta and Surakarta. Among the chalk hills and the wide plains covered by rice-fields or sugar cane stretching out until the Indian Ocean, is where the knowledge, both popular and magic, which nourished the arts of the palaces of Java are to be found.
As to the region of Yogyakarta, here more than 1400 traditional motifs are to be found, either etched on the walls of hindu-buddhist temples of Prambanan or Borobudur and then re-formulated in the 16th century on the walls of some mosques on the north coast of Java. Each motif portrayed has a deeply symbolic significance and is associated with the various stages of birth, life and death of the Javanese people. Needless to say batik also accompanies life at the court such as dance, gamelan and shadow puppetry. The three traditional colors of Yogya batiks are indigo blue, soga brown and black (a mixture of indigo and soga).
About 150 years ago anilin chemical dyes from Germany distributed by Dutch traders flooded the batik market and the knowledge about natural dyes was gradually forgotten except for a few specialists. Chemical dyes were cheaper, more pratical and less time consuming than the natural dye processes.
The outstanding idea behind this show is the fact that natural dyes have been used to fabricate the batiks, reviving this ancient art while still using traditional Yogyakarta motifs. The batiks on display also portray the stages in the existence of a Javanese woman, from the time of gestation until her death and beyond.
Since four years Yogyakarta province has endeavored to note all the 1400 traditional motifs of batik in the region and to register them as its cultural heritage. The request that batik be registered as a national heritage by UNESCO, like the wayang kulit was in 2003 and the keris was in 2006, is pending.
Although Hendri Suprapto, founder of the small family firm called Bixa after the seeds of the bixa orellana which produce an orange tone, was not able to come to the opening, the iniator Elisabeth and representatives from the Indonesian Embassy in Paris were able to witness the opening of the show by president director of Asia Voyages Jean-Paul Chantraine.
The general public showed much enthusiasm and stormed to buy the batiks on display that very evening. However the buyers have to show patience because the show is travelling on to Lyon and only after it is over will they be able to enjoy their batik.

Making and preserving batik stamps

Slamet Susanto , The Jakarta Post , YOGYAKARTA | Fri, 04/17/2009 5:44 PM | Culture

Hadi Wiyono’s children want him to give up making batik stamps, as the labor-intensive craft has so little financial benefit, but he is determined to continue.
What’s more, he is determined to see the craft continue too.

“Before I die I want someone to inherit my skills in making batik stamps,” he says. “That is my goal right now.”

To achieve this goal, Hadi is contacting batik co-operatives, offering free lessons in making the stamps.

He is also hoping for governmnt help through a change in policy, specifically through a subsidy for the raw materials to ensure that the batik stamp manufacturers can survive.

“Aid is not just about money because that does not educate. Aid should be in the form of a policy to support the batik industry,” he says.
“Not like BLT [cash assistance]: bantuan langsung ludes, meaning the aid soon ends. That doesn’t help society to become creative, only to become beggars.”

To make batik stamps, one requires simple enough equipment — scissors, rulers, pliers, soldering equipment and screwdrivers — but special skills.

Among these requisite skills, says Hadi, are patience and precision.

First, a sheet of copper is cut to the design of the motif. The cutting must be precise; there must not be a mistake of even just one millimeter.

To ensure the cut-out matches the design, the eye and heart must be as one, and intense concentration is required, the artisan says: When the eye sees, the hand measures and the heart is at ease, the size of the cut copper is always right.

Once the copper is cut, it is shaped and adjusted according to the design. It is then heated, simply, over a charcoal fire, to ensure the copper is flexible and can be easily processed.

The soft copper is then soldered to make one complete stamp. The many small details of the stamp make the soldering process very complicated, requiring patience and care.

The batik stamp is then boiled using ash and polished using iron powder to make the stamp shine. This traditional process is done by hand.

Batik's popularity soars

Indah Setiawati , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Fri, 07/11/2008 10:12 AM | City

SOLD OUT: Shoppers look at batik blouses at a stall at Tanah Abang market in Central Jakarta. Batik sellers have enjoyed booming business with the recent popularity of the fabric. (JP/Indah Setiawati)
Step into any shopping center in any corner of the city and you'll see plenty of children, teenagers and young and old women wearing stylish batik.
"I have never liked batik as much as I do now," Ana Astuti, a shopper at Plaza Semanggi, South Jakarta, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday, when she was hunting for batik dresses with her twin sister, Ani Astuti.
Ana and Ani said they had hardly spared a glance for the centuries-old batik motifs until various designs and patterns of the country's traditional clothes hit Jakarta's shopping centers.
"I used to associate batik with civil servants and elderly women because of its old and boring designs. But in recent months, I have spent heaps of money on trendy and interesting batik clothes," Ana said.
She said wearing batik was not merely a dress code for formal events anymore. Rather, it has become a new fashion trend.
Ana and Ani are like thousands of Indonesians whose pride in wearing batik is growing, thanks to the ongoing efforts of fashion designers such as Edward Hutabarat and Iwan Tirta in promoting the country's most famous art.
The batik designers and their signature works are a major influence for home industry producers in batik towns such as Cirebon in West Java, Yogyakarta, Surakarta and Pekalongan in Central Java, and Madura in East Java.
And batik is proving to be for everyone.
Many batik manufacturers make printed batik -- the lowest grade of batik, which is produced by machines -- providing affordable yet fashionable batik outfits for people on low incomes.
Encouragement from stylish high-profile figures such as Sandiaga S. Uno, the Association of Young Indonesia Entrepreneurs chairman who always wears batik, has also helped boost the popularity of exclusive pieces of batik tulis (traditional hand-drawn batik made using a canting or copper vessel with a spout-like nib).
"Batik tulis has its own market. People who become accustomed to wearing this masterpiece of batik will never turn to the printed or stamped types," model-cum-designer Ratih Sanggarwati said Sunday.
Ratih -- best known by her nickname Ratih Sang -- said she was happy to see people's increasing enthusiasm for batik and hoped the interest would not disappear quickly.
The price of batik depends not only on how it is produced, but also on the fabrics -- whether silk, cotton or unbleached cotton.
Machine-printed batik tends to be cheaper than batik cap (hand-blocked batik made by using a copper stamp). Batik kombinasi, a combination of batik cap and batik tulis, is more expensive.
Batik tulis, which requires a combination of artistic expertise and patience to produce the intricate designs, is the most expensive.
Price list:
*) Batik cap and batik tulis blouses and dresses in Ratih Sang Collection: Rp 125,000 (US$13.5) to Rp 700,000
*) Batik blouses in Batik Keris boutiques: starting from Rp 200,000
*) Batik blouses in Danar Hadi boutiques: starting from Rp 300,000
*) Batik cap and batik tulis (including silk) blouses and dresses in Kisoon Harto boutique in Pondok Indah Mall: Rp 400,000 to Rp 1.7 million
*) Machine-printed batik blouses and dresses on the first floor of Plaza Semanggi : Rp 35,000 to Rp 100,000
*) Machine-printed batik blouses and dresses on the first floor of Tanah Abang Market : Rp 40,000 to Rp 125,000