Initially we are very unfamiliar with hand-written batik. Batik that we are wearing every day was also batik on the market. On a journey to explore the fashion, finally we got to know what batik is and how it is made.
That day, we saw one of the posts on Instagram. We innocently asked one of our friends who ended up being our teacher. “Mas”, how come the cloth can leave a white color, while the others are brownish. Suddenly he laughed. We really remember that time. He answered, it is precisely the white cloth that is not affected by hot wax “Malam”. The brown color is the wax that wrapped around the fabric, which in fact is not affected by the color after all the processes are finished.
We are so amazed, and curious. And finally our family took the train from Bekasi to gain knowledge about what batik is. There we learned how to make batik, and also how to dye the natural fabrics. While there we were even more amazed by the process. Many Ibu’s work there. while we study, we listen to their stories. Until we finally decided, we should be able to make something like this in our village.
This batik has succeeded in captivating our hearts. Of course we are not the most expert people to make batik, there are still many of our teachers and batik craftsmen friends who are already very skilled in this field. Our science is just a piece of nail. But in Ulur Wiji we have a strong thirst to learn. With our artisans at Ulur Wiji, we continue to learn and deepen knowledge, and try to share. With the hope that this little knowledge can be useful to the society around us.
During Ulur Wiji’s journey, we also learned about ecoprinting, and batik ikat or shibori. But for now we still want to focus on hand-written batik, considering that our resources are still limited. We are sure that with #TemanWiji’s support, in the future we will start exploring ecoprinting and also batik ikat or shibori, as well as other techniques. Thus, our knowledge can be broader, and of course, Ulur Wiji can provide more benefits for our village environment.