Bimasakti, Indonesia
Batik Cooperative, Giriloyo Village (Yogyakarta)
Nestled in the quiet Giriloyo batik village, Ibu Hartinah’s house is the gathering place of the Bimasakti group. Founded in 1982, the cooperative is currently supporting thirty women who work together to produce refined batiks. They have learned batik-tulis from their mothers or grandmothers but were taught to dye and remove the wax in a government program sponsored by Unesco. The women are now able to process the cloths they wax in their homes and sell their batiks directly to the public in their own showroom in Ibu Hartinah’s house.
They apply the wax using the canting, typically sitting on the floor or low stools. The labor-intensive batik-tulis requires little investment in equipment and remains a traditional cottage industry for women between agricultural cycles. The Bimasakti craftswomen pair up to dye their batiks and take turns to boil the wax off in their large cauldron. Fire logs keep water boiling in the forged-steel cauldron, in which the women dip their batiks handling the stirring sticks deftly. They wash the finished pieces with cold water in a small courtyard, scrubbing and wringing each piece on the floor with both feet. The steam and smoke that fill the room seem like a celebration of an enduring craft miraculously preserved in the 21st century. It takes approximately one or two months to complete a genuine, reversible batik-tulis.
Located in the Bantul Regency minutes away from the Imogiri Mataram’s Royal Cemetery, the Bimasakti cooperative maintains the batik tradition of the Kraton Palace of Yogyakarta. The women develop their own repertoire of motifs, embellishing classic and traditional patterns such as Semen Romo or Sekar Jagad , creatively combining batik philosophical and aesthetics values in subtle ways. The elders who wish to save time or have failing eyesight often need the help of younger women to complete the tiny dot decoration on their batik.
Giriloyo has a century old batik-tulis tradition which began when the nearby village of Pajimatan, a well-established batik center for the Kraton, called for help. The Giriloyo craftswomen learned the ancient motifs and developed their own batik industry, working directly for the Kraton in Yogyakarta. Some of the Giriloyo women have been making batik for 50 years.
Village batik is still practiced in many places throughout the island of Java and remains a craft strongly influenced by the environment of the batik makers. These unknown artists create simplified forms of traditional court designs, adding ornaments inspired by the flora and fauna of their living place. Bimasakti is renowned for producing high-quality batik-tulis and a selection of their artworks was presented at the Jakarta Textile Museum in June 2015 .
In October 2014, Yogyakarta was named as the World Batik City by the WCC , a recognition marking the resilience of the Giriloyo batik makers who suffered greatly after the 2006 earthquake.
Read MoreNestled in the quiet Giriloyo batik village, Ibu Hartinah’s house is the gathering place of the Bimasakti group. Founded in 1982, the cooperative is currently supporting thirty women who work together to produce refined batiks. They have learned batik-tulis from their mothers or grandmothers but were taught to dye and remove the wax in a government program sponsored by Unesco. The women are now able to process the cloths they wax in their homes and sell their batiks directly to the public in their own showroom in Ibu Hartinah’s house.
They apply the wax using the canting, typically sitting on the floor or low stools. The labor-intensive batik-tulis requires little investment in equipment and remains a traditional cottage industry for women between agricultural cycles. The Bimasakti craftswomen pair up to dye their batiks and take turns to boil the wax off in their large cauldron. Fire logs keep water boiling in the forged-steel cauldron, in which the women dip their batiks handling the stirring sticks deftly. They wash the finished pieces with cold water in a small courtyard, scrubbing and wringing each piece on the floor with both feet. The steam and smoke that fill the room seem like a celebration of an enduring craft miraculously preserved in the 21st century. It takes approximately one or two months to complete a genuine, reversible batik-tulis.
Located in the Bantul Regency minutes away from the Imogiri Mataram’s Royal Cemetery, the Bimasakti cooperative maintains the batik tradition of the Kraton Palace of Yogyakarta. The women develop their own repertoire of motifs, embellishing classic and traditional patterns such as Semen Romo or Sekar Jagad , creatively combining batik philosophical and aesthetics values in subtle ways. The elders who wish to save time or have failing eyesight often need the help of younger women to complete the tiny dot decoration on their batik.
Giriloyo has a century old batik-tulis tradition which began when the nearby village of Pajimatan, a well-established batik center for the Kraton, called for help. The Giriloyo craftswomen learned the ancient motifs and developed their own batik industry, working directly for the Kraton in Yogyakarta. Some of the Giriloyo women have been making batik for 50 years.
Village batik is still practiced in many places throughout the island of Java and remains a craft strongly influenced by the environment of the batik makers. These unknown artists create simplified forms of traditional court designs, adding ornaments inspired by the flora and fauna of their living place. Bimasakti is renowned for producing high-quality batik-tulis and a selection of their artworks was presented at the Jakarta Textile Museum in June 2015 .
In October 2014, Yogyakarta was named as the World Batik City by the WCC , a recognition marking the resilience of the Giriloyo batik makers who suffered greatly after the 2006 earthquake.
