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....

 

Batik Day, October 2nd , 2013

Just sharing some pictures and news about "Friendship Force Surabaya" program receiving FF Ladies from Brazil, and i was invited to introduce our cultural heritage, the batik .
It consisted of 2-course "meals" , included smal introductory presentation about batik and batik session,done by the ladies themselves.

The presentation's just 'scratch in the surface' since batk has wide array of the topics itself. the major point was to pt initial interest to the batik.the fabric, the process on how it was made and the meaning behind it.
The presentations actualy turns out fun, since it was like a two-way conference. I was spoke to the audience and Mrs. Simone, the leader of Brazil FF translated it into portuguese.Too bad the presentation couldnt make it to the end due to the limited of time available.
But the fun was just beginning, the ladies was taugh to prepare their own sheets of cotton,by tearing it up manually , in a single stroke. It was fun to see the ladies tried it themselves.   

  

 

Feeling Creative - Part 2

Im not limiting myself into just one or two creations, infact i was finished my other creation inspired my my friend's journey to India and our (community) strands of communications during her staying there.
It was Annapakhsi, the mythical bird of duck-and-peacock hybrid that represent purity, legend says that this divine being so pure it can separate milk from the water it contained.
And the 'standard' of Annapakhsi depicting this mythical-birds in pair guarding the tree of knowledge (or sacred tree some sort , or perhaps tree of immortality).
Mine was done in more imaginative way : this annapakhsi was guarding sacred tree that grew on the island, from the 'snaring-lust' look of both birds and fishes.
Well, i threw my imagination by adding 'susimoyo' , heads at both end of the fabric.
It represents palaces, the Mughal-Style palaces 'with garlands of flowers, guarded' by other birds.
Hope it will turns up magnificent. 
 

Feeling Creative

Don't you think it's kind of bit weird to the sentence "i have borst of creativity just by finding the right pen" ? Well it did, to me at least. And if you substitute the word creative to productive, well, i'm feeling it right now.
Since Bang Rusydi of Nargis Batik challenged me with a pice of processed cotton to draw months ago, i'm feeling constant difficulties to pour my ideas into real lines. And it's manly because of not finding the suitable pen. Simply because of that. I dont know whether this processed cotton has something at the surface, or something elses, the balpoint i use (yes, ballpoint, sir) keeps jamming and jamming. and it frustates me since this burst-of-creativity doesnt come so often. I want to pour everything in that time,completely without any small 'mechanical' distraction of finding your pen refused to coperate with your mind. 
And i found one. 
And everything flow to places....
And here are they....ready to go (to the production studios in Pamekasan, that is).  

 

Farewell Friend...

It was originally posted in my Facebook wall, and i think it worth mentioned once more, in this blog, with you all....

 

 

In memoriam, Pak Murtadho
Kaget banget mendengar berita dukacita kemaren dari bang rusydi tentang berpulangnya sahabat & kolaborator kami pak murtadho.
Perjumpaan kami seperti kebetulan yang memang ditakdirkan terjadi ,... dan setiap kali berkumpul kongkow bareng mas imam & bang rusydi, kami berempat pasti seru mendiskusikan motif, pewarnaan, model baju dan buku-buku referensi , serta banyak project yang ingin kami raih bersama-sama.
Pak murtadho adalah panutan saya dalam totalitas, dimana latar belakang yang sederhana dan usia tidak seharusnya menjadi pembatas eksperimen berkarya secara maksimal. Juga "can-do" attitude nya yang sangat menonjol.
Selamat jalan Pak Murtadho, mudah-mudahan Allah SWT menyediakan tempat yang indah untuk sahabat baik dan seniman seperti Anda.

Masculine Line

Yesterday was the second session of “membatik bersama The Pasongsongan” the small gathering we held on our Kampoeng Ramadhan Bazaar held at Jatim Expo Surabaya. It was quite diferent experience than the previous one, and you can see it on the illustrations : me most were male. And only one was pretty (lol). Not trying to emphasie on “this one’s not for male to do” kind-of-thing , but the courage to try different thing, and this different thing happened to be in the form of batiking.

Of course it was fun, as it was with girls a week before. And most of the participants said that was the first time they tried to put their finger of art of making batik.And accidents do happened. A lot.
(one of participant wore short pants and you might guess that he was screaming a lot when a hot wax was spilled out from his canting sprout).
All in all, we were trying to introduce the love of our cultural heritage, and have fun with it.

So, go batik!! And stay creative!!      

Creative Setting

Well, it turns out fun.

The Pasongsongan had the opportunity to be part of Dji Sam Soe " Kampoeng Ramadhan" annual bazaar held in Jatim Expo Building in A Yani Surabaya thims month.
Aside from the usual display booth,which i'm quite happy with the dislay arrangement (we incorporated our low traditional-style team cabinet) the Dji Sam Soe Team had this idea to held small gathering of people, batiking togeher as part of its interaction program. And of course i was delightfully agreed . It was one thing to read and hear all things batik but it was compleely different story to have your hand trying those cantings and hot wax, creating images to piece of cotton and trying to avoid spilling disaster (lol).
Groups of young people waiting their turn to try their batik skill and it was really fun to realized that making batik is not that simple. It needs sort of technique. Why ?
Well. first : canting itself a foreign writing device we ough to use it everyday.

 
 

And the hot-wax as its ink , well, it HOT wax , man. It cannot run if it's not liquid enough , or put it this way : it has to stay hot. And Acodents do happened. Frequently (ouch..). 
And strange but true : it need some kind of self-discipline. 
Batking isn't drawing on aper with modern-day pen some sort. The canting as your pen can be as easy drawing device by the one mastering it. But many of this youngsters are first-timer. So here comes slow and repeating learning process.Trying to keep the right angle, both for the sprout of canting and your left hand holding the fabric.
But as we had said above , it turns out fun.
For you wants to participate in the next event : we'll do batik experience, again in July 28th.
See you there.  
   

The Model

I have the opportunity to have a creative sister and brother in-law (her husband) to help me providing The Pasongsongan with promotion material, which was the proper photography.
Since we're always strict to the budget (well, please read : we dont have many to splurged-on the real-life-professional photographer and model) i asked their support, rather near-free engagement.
And the result was stunning.
You can see it for yourself.
My sister wore different kebayas and hip-wrapper "sewek" as integral part of this promotion.
Here my sister wore Encim-Style Kebaya , apparent from the colorfull of its embroidered edge, the long lapel and of course from the attitude shown (lol)
She wore this kebaya with traditional-yet-feeling-contemporary motif of "fajar menyingsing" (i had written something about Fajar Menyingsing a couple of voting ago)
 

The Entrepreneur

This month marked the fourth year of our existence in Royal Plaza , still the major place we resided. Although we'd grown to other places such as our 2nd store in Royal Plaza, litle joint-venture projects in Hotel Majapahit & The Grand Palace Dept. Store, Royal Plaza Outlet still the one i consider the most memorable move i had as beginner entrepreneur.

I Remember on how we rent one (nearly) 9 sqm tiny store that i thought would be a cool idea, only to realize that i had choose "the wrong side" of Royal Plaza wing (The Pintu Timur, this section has no major anchor to create substantial traffic). But indeed God had plan for every variety of plans we made.
And we turns out fine. Not (yet) big, but fine. Alhamdulillah.
It also the month we choose to publish our first printed ad in freely-circulated "Hallo-Surabaya" tabloid aimed for middle-class households. It is placed in strategic malls, hotels, and major residentials all over Surabaya. Hope this investment can move us into some (business) recognitions.

For you visiting Surabaya and looking for a quality souvenir of East Java, please check our wide array of Madura Batik selections at "The Pasongsongan Royal Plaza"  G-floor (Ground) no. C2-45 , Jl. A Yani 16-18 Wonokromo Surabaya.