I'll tell you about something : Tulungagung & Trenggalek Batik Trip

This time i wouldnt go into something serius.
Last week me and my 18 friends from KIBAS went to Tulungagung and Trenggalek. It was out-of-radar batik centers, especially Trenggalek. Tulungagung was relatively unknown to East Javanese Batik connoiseur, albeit the outside world. The thing is : this region produce some of the most recognizable yet full of fusions from other influence. It is called Majan's Tulungagung.
See for yourself

 

 

 

 

Those are from the atelier of Batik Yunar Tulungagung. You can easily find her account on FB under ther very same name. It has fine craftmanship, enchanted, both traditional and gave bit of modern twist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those beautiful 'thing' was actually from a single 'sarung' , so diverse its part that my friend had thought that i'd show him a couple of samples. Those are picture from a relatively old sarung (around 50 y.o.) and gave us some clear evident that once Batik Tulungagung was as fine as other more important and famous batik center.

( we saw it at Mas Bobby's place).

 

 

The Great Moment of Batik Sidoarjo

a couple of hours ago KIBAS had succeed to held Opening Ceremony of its annual Batik Exhibition(party for exactly, it was just too fun to be called ceremony)
For now, these are the documentations....

 

Unlock the Mystery of Heritage : Gringsing & Kawung Part-1

I had the opportunity to attended this evening event of KIBAS ( Komunitas Batik Jawa Timur  - East Java Batik Community ) at the ever-beautiful House Of Sampoerna ( the old factory and residence of Sampoerna, the largest cigarette manufacturer in Indonesia ). KIBAS had the exhbition focused on the introduction of the myth, history and philosophy of Kawung & Gringsing, one of the oldest classical pattern of fabric found in Indonesia. The evening was warm and fluid since there's none of the formal ceremony existed ( if you'd familiar with Indonesia custom , there should be speech and hooring the guest-something etc ). We had an enjoyable evening with couple of special booth of private exhibition and demonstration (on how to create a batik, since this is always fascinate people, not just foreigners but local as well) , a descent evening snack corner focused on traditional "jajan pasar" (market snack of Madurese origin i believe, although i happened to be unlucky since this stall was very popular among guests) , the interesting gamelan/mocopatan corner as entertainment ( you can imagine chamber orchestra with 4-5 pieces and a singer ) and the exhibition itself, located at the main exhibition area.

The event was very successfull , attending more than 120 people based on HOS's guest-book (the real count will be much larger since personnels didn't do registration and come-by guests that originally have a plan to go to the museum or dine , would be attracted to the exhibition crowd.

There were much informations and things to share, and this is the part-1 of the posting dedicated to the event and gringsing-kawung philosophy.

We'll come back with more posting after this.