The Finer Thing

Happy new year guys!!


New year brings up the new resolution, to have better everything in our life. 
Well, something certainly getting better and better all the time. One community i supported, Komunitas Pembatik Podhek Pamekasan under tutelage of Bang Rusydi Bawazir is exploring the Pamekasan's possibility to nearing/equal the batik quality produced by the legendary Oey SOe Tjoen of Kedungwuni . 
Of course this is no simple matter , as for so long the skill that had once there , had gradually dissappeared due to the low demand of fine-quality Pamekasan Batik production. Batik Pamekasan, well, Madura in general, always suffer with "cheap & garish" stigma, something hold true fact until today. But once in the past there were tradition to produce high-quality batik for local & outside Madurese-community. 
And this legacy that Bang Rusydi wants to put into reality. again. 
Look at this my latest acquisition. 
Produced by Udin , 28 year (and friends , automatically, since batiking isn't solo creation) with reference of famous buketan motif from Peranakan-Dutch origin.  
The technique was superb,all in hand-drawn process, and faithfull to the old tradition of deep-dipping-only coloring process (note : this process is time-consuming and costly, since every colors appears in the batik means that they have to be created from dipping process, not some much cheaper-over-brush process popular today)

Few Steps Closer : Pamekasan's Journey into Perfection

Now this is my posting @ my FB Pages

Oleh-oleh perjalanan ke Desa Podhek Pamekasan seminggu lalu, bersama Mbak Niyah, Bang Rusydi dan Mbak Myshat Andaya , menemui rekan-rekan pengrajin.
Untuk saya yang sudah berkali-kali berkunjung, tidak ada ekspektasi khusus selain bertemu teman-teman dan melihat karya mereka yang terakhir. Tetapi ada satu "kejutan" yang disimpan Bang Rusydi dan Teamnya untuk kami : masterpiece dalam proses kelahirannya.
Sering kami berbincang bahwa pencapaian yang ingin diraih adalah melahirkan "real" batik halus di bumi Pamekasan. Sehalus apa ? : bagi rekan-rekan pecinta wastra (batik) sudah tidak usah ditanya lagi. Hanya satu tolok ukur kehalusan saat ini : The real masterpiece of OST.
Cecekan halus OST klasik ini yang akhirnya ; saya rasa ; berhasil didekati oleh Bang Rusydi dan Team-nya. Belum bisa dikatakan sudah berhasil karena batik ini (semua yang ada di album ini berasal dari satu lembar batik) dimaksudkan untuk menjadi multi-colors, bukan biron. Tapi (meminjam teman whatsapp saya yang kemaren saya forwardkan gambar-gambar ini) biron-nya-pun sudah menggetarkan sukma.
Tidak ada 'roh pamekasan' di sini? Engga masalah, karena kita sedang me-redifinisi-kan identitas Pamekasan (seperti kata Bang Rusydi dulu : saya bertujuan membuat batik halus, bukan yang 'lain-lain').
Buat rekan-rekan pecinta batik, titip doa ya biar si bakal 'supermodel' ini bisa lahir dengan selamat, karena ;tahu sendiri khan; masih panjang, jalan si Biron ini menjadi batik masterpiece tonggak sejarah peningkatan kualitas Bapk Pamekasan.

 

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....

 

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.  
   

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.