Proud Peacock that become Divinely Dawn

Dear Friends,

Salah satu motif yang paling saya sukai adalah motif “Fajar Menyingsing”, satu motif dengan penampilan yang amat menyolok, bukan hanya dari komposisi warnanya yang kaya dan berani, namun juga karena motifnya yang ‘bold’ , besar dan dominant.

Baru beberapa saat lalu saya mengetahui, bahwa motif batik fajar menyingsing ini merupakan bukti eratnya hubungan dagang dan budaya antara Madura (Pamekasan) dengan daerah-daerah pesisir di Jawa (ingat khan, Madura adalah pulau, dan Orang Madura juga pedagang-pelaut loh). Hal ini termasuk luar biasa, karena Priangan sendiri (Cianjur, Sukabumi, Bandung, Garut, Tasik dan Ciamis) tidak terletak persis di pesisiran, sehingga bisa dibayangkan hubungan dagang yang terjalin antara sentra-dagang-budaya Jawa Barat masa lalu, dengan jalur perantauan saudagar dari Madura.

 Merak Ngibing dituturkan* sebagai motif batik priangan yang paling indah. Motif ini menggambarkan dua merak yang saling berpunggungan dengan buntut yang saling berlawanan.

Dengan melihat seksama dari penampilan si-fajar menyingsing ini, terlihat sisa-sisa motif burung yang digambarkan secara samar. Yang paling mencolok adalah orientasi yang berbeda. Apabila di “Merak Ngibing” orientasi buntut adalah menjuntai ke bawah, maka “Fajar Menyingsing” memilih untuk me-mekar-kan kipas meraknya bak sinar fajar di pagi hari. Fascinating…

*Buku “The Dancing Peacock. Colours and Motifs of Priangan Batik” Didit Pradito, Herman Jusuf, Saftiyaningsih Ken Atik 

Magnificent gentongan

Pernah gak denger kata gentongan ? untuk yang gemar batik sampe kelas kolektor, pasti pernah. Apalagi saat ini sedang ada eksebisi tentang batik Madura gentongan di Jakarta.

Berikut adalah contoh-contoh gentongan yang saya punya.

Aslinya sih sudah lupa ini namanya apa, tapi kira-kira ini adalah kombinasi ‘ganggeng’ (tumbuhan air) dengan gajah. Termasuk gentongan putihan dan cukup mahal, karena proses putihan justru makan banyak effort untuk menutupi bidang yang luas, dan membentuk ‘duri-duri’ ganggeng tersebut.

Di tumpalnya, sarung gentongan ini menggunakan motif “tasek-malaya” yang katanya menggambarkan laut yang menjorok ke daratan (tasik) dan bagian sungai yang ditumbuhi pepohonan rimbun.

Jangan lupa, di latar depannya ada gambar manok’(burung) cendrawasih.

nah, untuk yang satu ini memang motif favorit saya, karena menurut saya benar-benar menunjukkan kelas batik dengan tingkat kerumitan yang tinggi. Digolongkan gentongan putihan, penutupan fabric nya benar-benar luar biasa, mengingat untuk membentuk gambar bulu-bulu (atau duri-duri ya) yang ditutup adalah background-nya, dan secara super hati-hati, menyisakan ruang terbuka serambut, agar bagian yang tidak ditutup malam ini-lah yang kena pigment-nya. Ruarr biasa....

Dan " The mother of them all " : my all-time favourite 

Gak bisa menjelaskan kenapa, tetapi warna biru di proses gentongan, selalu berhasil menarik hati (bhs maduranya "always fascinate me"). nuansa yang dihasilkan adalah biru dengan 'hue' abu-abu yang suram (tapi mantaap) dan tidak pernah didapatkan dari batik-batik proses pewarnaan biasa.

Dan yang pasti : the maestro who done it. Masyaallaaah, bayangin mbuat-nya aja udah gidig-gidig.
Sekadar informasi : seluruh batik gentongan ini dibatik dua sisi, alias bolak-balik. Jadi kebayang lamanya pembuatannya , karena satu lembar setara dengan membuat 2 lembar kualitas tinggi 1 sisi. 
All-time favourite ini luar biasa dalam proses rendering-nya. Coba lihat detail disini : 

Gambar utama adalah daun dan bunga yang relatif biasa dan tidak terlalu detail. namun ternyata ini adalah efek yang sudah diperhitungkan. Di sisi luar setiap gambar utama, dikelilingi rendering setebal 1 cm, yang terdiri dari garis-garis haluuuuuuus yang berakhir dengan kait kail. Dan 'believe me guys' It is perfectly executed!!!

Artinya, rendering bagian bawah, tengah, atas, di baliknya, mau dijungkir etc, semua sepadan jarak dan kualitasnya. Kalo ahli kung-fu bisa ngukur keahlian lawan dari tarikan kuas di kaligrafi, kalian pasti bisa bayangkan si empu ini harus mengatur emosi, napas dan pikiran , agar seluruh bagian rendering-nya memiliki jarak, ketebalan, bentuk dan kualitas yang sama. 

Dan jangan lupa rendering yang mengisi bidang kosong sebagai background.

Jutaan kail yang sambung-menyambung yang juga digambar dengan sempurna. 

benar-benar masterpiece, in most truly sense. 

Whoever you are Nyi, i salute you.......      

A place of my own

I did it! I actually did it, guys!

The place of my own. For you who have known me personally, you'd probably seen my 'floor' at Giant, but this will be different. Four walls enclosing the space that dedicated just for me and my dream. Well, The Pasongsongan "Batik & Much More" eventually have permanent home; at least; for a year.

I had rented it a couple of months ago but the labor of preparing this space into the shop actually not 'one-night-miracle' although it's also not that difficult (since i have friends to supervise all things happened).

My store will largely house merchandises we can call "True Batik", Madurese Batik that hand-draws or mixed of hand-drawn and stamped process.

Well, up till now many of my old customers had visited this new space and they just as truly 'collector-buyer' as they were, back in our "Giant" time. 
So if you just happened to be in Surabaya, just drop-by to "The Pasongsongan" , it's in "Royal Plaza Wonokromo" situated in Ground floor, turn far right (if you're entering the mall from its main lobby access) and see it yourself (or if you're not sure about direction, just ask security about "Solaria/Quali Restaurant" or "Dannis Moslem Kidwear", it's on the same area". 
And (haha) don't blame me because i'd warned you : there will be plenty of mouth-watering 'distraction' for you truly batik-lover, because of my upgraded collection and better presentation (and i can proudly say,and you ought to see it yourself : it has very reasonable tag-price).

So if you have the urge to go completely-and-genuinely batik, or just want to visit and see my vibrant collection for your excitement, i will be more than glad to accompanied you, because after all, it's all about the passion comes true.    

Tied Heritage

I'd stubled upon this image of beautiful and exotic textiles from the company named VLISCO, major producer of wax-resistant textile process that dominated the upper market of Africa's affluent segment . It's vibrant color instantly caught my attention, especially for their resemblance of equally bold graphic and hue of Batik Madura. Turns out that this company has long history with batik industry in Indonesia especially in Central Java (as you know, South Africa was once dominated by Dutch as was the case with Indonesia). 
It's kind of interesting story on how this unique process of textile creation can make themselves much relevant with current situation without sacrificing too much of its originality (many of their products still use wax-resistant process although the major process is now more mechanical than it was once before). 
Positive alternative to our batik industry, though..

It's Gone

Well, something happened couple weeks ago : someone was broke into my house, stole things non-significant except my batik collection, several of them had already displayed in this blog. 
It was kind of sad experience, since there were personal stories in each of every items, whether it was about their uniqueness in quality, the way i purchased it, or just me admiring their stunningly beautiful craftmanship.
My fellow collectors had showed great sympathy, some even lend their vast network to grab something;well, anything; news about the re-appearance of this high-quality batik.
You know that this 'batik world's kind of inter-connected, people shared the same passion seems to be connected each other through the mutual love of this special art, and when we're talking about distribution of something not-too-cheap like these collector's quality batiks , we're talking about few people that both appreciative and don;t mind to spend premium price upon something rare and special. 
Well, days had gone and we were chasing the wrong path (i did call police this time) but i'd learned something that it's kind of better not to love something too deep that we're already know that eventually everything will vanish sometime. 


wpamekasan@yahoo.com       

Worth to be loved : Collector’s Item

It’s very subjective when we choose things we love, especially when it come in terms of the work of art. But who could blame me when I say that these items worth your attention? These Classic-style Bangkalan Tanjungbumi hand-drawn batik was the item. It’s not rare, at least not in a while. But you can see that it’s enchanted, unique and real. Patterned after sea life, theme dears to the Maduranese people depicting sea creatures, boat, stylized waves and all things marine.

Done in bold manner, these piece of art has unusually fine “tumpal” , part that indicates direction on how we wear this sarong, depends on the fashion of the day. These tumpals has soft ivory-white background and finely-detailed patterns almost like the more elaborate and expensive “gentongan”.

This combination has rarely seen since the badan can be seen as bold-and-quick kind of craftsmanship. Simple observation brings to our imagination to the explanation that these sarongs has at least two people with different batiking skills.Like the legendary “dua negeri ‘or more expensive “tiga negeri”, this practice of brings batik into different regions “just” to get certain treatments ; whether it was coloring process or laboring the crowded background with specific isen-isen; it still continue today.

Perfect Piece

On how you describe the feeling of ‘meet’ the ideal piece of art ? love ? Awe ? admire ? the truth is they ‘communicate’ with silence words of perfection, through every details, every color composition, and even its imperfection seems to enhance the other parts, become the agent of contrast, perfect in its own term.

This piece of art is on loan , belong to Mrs. Mis, the owner of House Batik Original Pamekasan, the supplier of fine hand-drawn Maduranese Batik and a friend of mine.

It’s not antique, at least not in the standard of ‘old’ in age, but certainly it’s not new piece since this one’s once belonged to her mother. The composition’s actually quite common, bouquet with ‘nitik’ finishing, the simple two-tone with no color playing very common in Maduranese Batik.

But it all change with the perfect execution.

Starting with unusual combination of two-color, deep salem-red that’s rare in Batik Madura, perfect lines, perfect dots, simple and only few ‘isen-isen’ patterns involved that feels almost restrained.

If one could use the word ‘flaws’ in this art object, only because its maker (deliberately) avoid using isen-isen technique that has three-dimension effect, instead using super neat dots and lines to make each leaves perfectly execute. Perfection rules!.

PS : if you happens to be in Pamekasan, you could consider to visit Ms. Mis in her “House Batik Original” , 2nd floor Pasar Batik , Jokotole Street Number 17. You’ll find collector’s class piece along with batik for your everyday needs.

Personal Favourite

This is one of my personal favourite patterns of batik i encounter in Madura. Karjagad, i read it once; derived from two words 'kart' in dutch means 'chart' or map, and jagad , of course rooted in sanskrit that means universe, the two combined into one meaning of the map of the universe. Popularized now as "sekarjagad" or Bunga Semesta" it usually contains two major elements : the first elements are variety of patterns that puzzle-squeezed each other to make random composition ,and the second one is usually garlands or flowery branches that double standing as border between blocks of patterns. And sometimes it appears with third pattern that usually depicting bird-of-paradise or local 'phoenix' pattern. This Karjagad/Sekarjagad particularly different from the neat-and-well-ordered tumpal/tambal pattern in central java (not to be confused with tumpal in sarong). If anyone interesting in its philosophy, this patterns originally didn't intended to carry such concept but decorative pattern, but now it is known as batik for 'great personality & high dignity". On why exactly this particular pattern attracts my attention? i couldn't analyze it, but maybe because i saw something economic yet very beautiful in this 'chaotic and random' composition. In one piece of fabric you'll get almost every basic patterns imaginable, sort of 'tutty-frutty' of batik world, yet it's elegance is undisputed since the ones i like the most are those done with tradition brown 'sogan' , the warm earth tone that evokes simple and dignified world of batik that it once belong.