Suharmanto turns used cans into sculptures<\/p>\n
By Singgir Kartana<\/p>\n
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Nobody likes used cans, especially if they
\nare waste. Besides, this kind of waste do not decay easily.<\/p>\n
If you have a pile of used milk cans, oil cans, beer cans or
\nother cans, you actually can use them as raw material for
\ncreating unique souvenirs. At least, Suharmanto, 40, has proven
\nit.<\/p>\n
Suharmanto, a father of four, lives in Piyungan, Tirtosari in
\nSawangan district, Magelang, Central Java. He has succeeded in
\nturning used cans into sculptures of fowls and other animals. His
\nwork include sculptures of burung cendrawasih (the bird of
\nparadise), kuntul (tailless fowl), itik (duck) and singa (lion).
\nThe statues are made in various sizes, usually between 15 cm and
\n30 cm high. He also has a life-sized sculpture of a lion.<\/p>\n
A graduate of junior high school, he began his sculpture
\nbusiness in 1985. He had found a mouse-bitten hole in his wooden
\ntoolkit in a workshop where he worked. So, he cut out a small
\npiece of a used oil can with a pair of scissors to patch the hole
\nin the wooden toolkit.<\/p>\n
Then, out of fun, he cut the remaining can lengthwise into
\nnarrow strips. To his surprise, these strips looked like chicken
\nfeathers. That was when the idea struck him to make sculptures of
\nfeathered animals from used cans. So Suharmanto experimented by
\nmaking sculptures of various kinds of fowls from pictures.<\/p>\n
Finally, he managed to create a nice sculpture of the burung
\ngaruda (a mythical bird), the country's national bird. He decided
\nto turn his skill into a business and began to recruit several
\nneighbors to help him make his dream come true.<\/p>\n
With a hundred thousand rupiah in hand to buy raw materials,
\nSuharmanto, currently the village chief of Tirtosari, started his
\nhandicraft business.<\/p>\n
In the beginning, he had to handle nearly everything himself,
\nfrom designing to marketing the products. His first pieces were
\nmarketed door-to-door in Magelang. After a year, he began to
\nreceive orders. People then began to learn about his products. By
\n1996, his products began to enter the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
He recruited additional workers as the number of orders grew.
\nFortunately, he had no problems collecting cans or other
\nmaterials such as boards, nails, putty, metal glue, wires or
\npaint to create his sculptures.<\/p>\n
Presently 18 young men from his village are helping him run
\nhis business. Some of them work on a daily basis while others are
\non contract. Each daily worker working from eight in the morning
\nto four in the evening earns Rp 7,000 per day while contract
\nworkers receives Rp 10,000 per sculpture.<\/p>\n
Suharmanto said it took two weeks to complete a life-sized
\nlion sculpture which needed seven half-kilogram milk cans to
\nmake.<\/p>\n
Yanto, a contract craftsman said: \"On average, I can earn Rp
\n75,000 per month. It's not bad, doing something is better than
\nbeing unemployed. Besides, my workplace is close to my home so
\nthere's no need for me to pay for transportation.\"<\/p>\n
To produce animal sculptures from used cans, the animal's body
\nis first shaped with wire. The cans are then cut lengthwise to
\nform 4-centimeter wide plates. The plates are then cut, with
\nscissors, into narrow strips resembling the fowl feathers. Using
\npincers, the scissor-cut thin plates are then twisted three times
\nso that it will resemble the animal's feathers. The twisted
\nplates are then tied to each other, according to the shape of the
\nanimal. When the sculpture is completed, it is painted.<\/p>\n
In a month, a craftsman can produce an average of 300 pieces
\nof fowl sculptures of various sizes.Generally about 80 percent of
\nthe sculptures produced are sold immediately, while the rest are
\nsometimes sold the following month.<\/p>\n
Special pieces like the life-sized lion sculpture can fetch Rp
\n8 million, while the cheapest, heron sculptures, are sold at Rp
\n65,000 each. On average, the monthly sales turnover almost
\nexceeds Rp 20 million and of that amount, the profits range from
\n10 percent to 15 percent.<\/p>\n
The statues made out of used cans are marketed in Bali,
\nJakarta, Surabaya, Yogyakarta and as far as Canada, Germany,
\nMalaysia, Singapore and the Netherlands. However, since
\nforeign clients buy the products based on order, the crisis has
\nslowed down his overseas' sales.<\/p>\n
Suharmanto's business, however, is not properly promoted. Up
\nto now, there is no single brochure providing information about
\nhis products.<\/p>\n
\"Besides poor marketing, the craftsmen are slow in developing
\nnew designs. All these time they have been using the same
\ndesigns,\" said Munajib, 40, a Sawangan resident who collects some
\nof Suharmanto's products.<\/p>\n
As the production of these handicrafts leave small pieces of
\nmetal waste that can be harmful to the environment, Suharmanto
\ncollects and sells them to recycling plants at Rp 50 per
\nkilogram. His concern and efforts has earned him several awards,
\nincluding one from Central Java's provincial administration in
\n1995.<\/p>",
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