Elementary school dropout becomes batik master<\/p>\n
By Rita A. Widiadana<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Josephine Komara, popularly known as Obin, never
\ndreamed of running a flourishing business in batik and the
\ntraditional textile world.<\/p>\n
Born and raised for the most part of her youth in the
\nChinatown area on Jl. Kopi, Central Jakarta, Obin, the youngest
\nof three children, used to help out at her parents' business
\nwhich left little time for a formal education.<\/p>\n
Behind her establishment of Bin House in the elite Menteng
\narea, which has become one of the most sought after places in
\ntown for batik and indigenous textile lovers, is an interesting
\nstory.<\/p>\n
Every day, she receives guests and clients from around the
\nworld. It was her great passion for traditional Indonesian
\ntextiles that brought this woman to her present stature.<\/p>\n
\"I have always adored and admired the beautiful and delicate
\nbatik, tenun (woven cloth) and other traditional fabrics,\" said
\nthe outspoken woman.<\/p>\n
At first she fell in love with old classical batik collections
\nbelonging to her ex-husband, a skilled art and antique trader.<\/p>\n
Obin treated the rare collections with great care and
\nadmiration for their designs, craftsmanship and more importantly
\nfor the people who produced such splendid art works.<\/p>\n
The beauty of batik lies in its elaborate process of
\nproduction. It is a tribute to the patience, ingenuity and
\ncraftsmanship of the artisans.<\/p>\n
Indonesia possesses very rich and intricate textile designs,
\nshe said. There are thousands of batik patterns and varieties of
\nartistic woven materials which vary from region to region.<\/p>\n
People always want to keep up with technological progress, but
\nonly a very few people care about preserving a centuries-old
\nlegacy like batik art, she said.<\/p>\n
\"We should learn from the Japanese who master technological
\nknow-how while at the same time painstakingly protecting their
\ncultural heritages,\" asserted Obin, who hasn't stopped smoking
\nsince we began talking.<\/p>\n
In l985, Obin was a young mother of two needing to start a new
\nlife after divorcing her first husband. She didn't have any money
\nbut with courage and her mind brimming with thousands of ideas
\nshe faced her uncertain future head on.<\/p>\n
\"I went through a rocky marriage. For the sake of my two
\nchildren and myself, I asked him for a divorce,\" Obin said,
\nrecalling her troubled marital years.<\/p>\n
It was a really difficult 13 years, but she said she had to
\nkeep up the fight. As a single mother, Obin found the business
\nworld full of stiff competition and intrigue.<\/p>\n
\"I felt sad to know that many of my friends avoided me. They
\nwere afraid that I would sneer at their husbands,\" she laughed.<\/p>\n
In business, she had to face discrimination and harassment.<\/p>\n
\"I was shocked to find that many respected people, male ones
\nin particular, always would regard women as sexual objects,\" she
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Sometime in l985, she went to a bank where one of her close
\nfriends was a director. To realize her ideas of producing fine
\nbatik, she needed to take out loans.<\/p>\n
\"He was so impressed with my proposal that he promised to
\nprovide the loan. But before I left his office, he asked me
\nwhether I could have dinner with him just because I was a woman
\nand a divorcee,\" Obin recalled.<\/p>\n
Some influential businessmen and officials were impudent
\nenough to send her their hotel room keys. \"These were very
\ndisgusting experiences to go through in my life that I and
\nprobably a lot of other women have to endure with people of such
\na mentality. They think that women have no brains or power,\" she
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Obin was not discouraged and found a way to prove herself.
\nInstead of complaining, she pushed herself to work extremely hard
\nin achieving her dream.<\/p>\n
\"It was a blessing in disguise not to have money and friends
\naround me at that time. It made me tougher and more creative,\"
\nshe remembered.<\/p>\n
Obin viewed those years as the \"seclusion period\", a time for
\nself-contemplation, learning and working. \"Finally, I realized
\nthat we could rely only on God and ourselves to change our fate.
\nI was so sure that He would show me a way if I believed in His
\nimmense power,\" said Obin, a devout Buddhist.<\/p>\n
During this period, Obin traveled around the country to learn
\nmore about traditional textiles, especially Batik. She met and
\nshared knowledge with accomplished batik and traditional textile
\nartists like Harjonegoro from Surakarta, Mundardjito, Buchari and
\nIbu Geloh.<\/p>\n
Through numerous ancient books and manuscripts, she uncovered
\na wide range of little known information for producing high
\nquality batik from coloring and dyeing techniques, motifs,
\npatterns and more importantly the historical, cultural
\nbackgrounds and philosophical ideas of each batik pattern.<\/p>\n
\"To me, a piece of batik or other traditional fabric has
\nmagnetic power which mesmerizes people who understand the meaning
\nof each pattern and design,\" Obin explained.<\/p>\n
Luckily enough, Obin had a team of experts to consult that
\nwere resourceful, creative and innovative. Among the team's
\nmembers were Ronny Siswandi, an archaeologist and a lecturer at
\nthe University of Indonesia.<\/p>\n
\"Ronny has widened my horizons and honed my intellectual
\npotency,\" commented Obin about her present husband and business
\npartner.<\/p>\n
The couple and the team passionately experimented with various
\ntechniques for producing superb batik and woven clothes made of
\nnontraditional material like silk, cotton, nylon and others. They
\ncollaborated with batik and textile makers particularly in
\nCentral Java.<\/p>\n
Their hard work soon bore fruit. People started to notice
\nObin's talent and her distinguished creations. They established
\nBin House and expanded their businesses in Jakarta and Bali while
\nexporting to several fashion centers including Singapore, Japan
\nand the United States.<\/p>\n
\"Since the beginning, I always wanted to penetrate the
\ninternational market, especially Japan. The Japanese highly
\nappreciate delicate works of art like batik,\" maintained Obin,
\nwho runs two exclusive boutiques in Tokyo and Nagoya.<\/p>\n
She believes the success was achieved by solid teamwork. \"It
\nis the accomplishment of 2,000 batik makers who hand in hand
\nhelped build this handcrafted industry,\" she added.<\/p>\n
Despite the economic crisis, their business remains solvent.
\nObin plans to open new branches in several other cities.<\/p>\n
\"This kind of business is very sustainable because it involves
\nmostly domestic material resources, skillful people, and most
\nimportantly an established and secure market line,\" explained
\nObin, who is also a bookworm.<\/p>\n
She went on to say that in doing business, interpersonal
\nskills are definitely needed. \"I always treat my 2,000 partners
\nas my own family. People, whoever they are, must be treated with
\ndignity. I am so grateful to work with them for so many years,\"
\nshe noted.<\/p>\n
Most of the 2,000 batik artisans are rural girls, housewives
\nand school dropouts who hardly have any formal education but who
\npossess extraordinary skills as batik and traditional textile
\nartisans.<\/p>\n
\"Indonesians tend to look down on people who don't have
\ndegrees or formal education. They think that all of these people
\nare dumb,\" said Obin, who did not finish elementary school.<\/p>\n
But people forget that many of these uneducated groups have
\nhigh interpersonal skills and a sense of entrepreneurship in
\ntheir fields.<\/p>\n
She believes in life-long education. The learning process
\noccurs not only in classrooms. People can acquire all necessary
\nknowledge from various sources, books, community and personal
\nexperiences, Obin asserted.<\/p>\n
One of her goals is to provide informal learning centers for
\nrural children. \"I plan to set up a library for children in
\nSeminyak, Kuta, Bali, and hope to build others in several
\nvillages,\" added Obin.<\/p>\n
Obin concluded that ideally, all Indonesians should receive
\nquality education. For those who do not have the chance to pursue
\na formal education but are competent and talented in other ways
\nalso deserve an equal place in the country's business and
\nemployment world.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/elementary-school-dropout-becomes-batik-master-1447893297",
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