Bags made from bark impress with ethnic style

By R. Agus Bakti

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Today's bags appear in various shapes and sizes, are made of diverse materials and attract people in different ways. A bag can give self-confidence to whoever carries it. A bag can also be made of bark.

Emi Yustini, 34, of Yogyakarta makes bark bags and has developed a variety of styles.

Emi said she began using the natural material only out of curiosity, after a friend from Kalimantan sent her a very thin piece of bark.

"In Yogya we call this Kalimantan bark. I don't know what tree it is taken from," she said.

She added, however, that someone told her in Kalimantan the tree the bark was taken from was known as Bangkir wood (Shorea leptocladus). Emi said that to make her bags she did not use plywood, but a piece of flattened bark.

This Kalimantan bark is indeed very thin, about 0.5 mm thick. It is very flexible and can be folded like a piece of paper.

Before using bark as a raw material for bags, Emi used it only to make tissue boxes and picture frames. One day, however, an idea struck her to use bark for a bag.

"I was at first doubtful as to whether bark could be used to make a bag. After I made one, I was extremely surprised because the bag gave the impression of being ethnic and looked very unique. Satin can be used for the lining of the bag," she said.

Once she got a good grasp of the technique for making bags out of bark, Emi began to develop the models and the shapes. She also began to collect articles on bags from magazines and newspapers.

She said that in making a bag from bark, designing is a determining factor. This is because each piece of bark is unique in form and also because each fiber has its own distinctive qualities. The bags have the natural brownish color of wood.

Before deciding on the model of a bag, Emi first looks carefully at a piece of bark. "A careful look at the bark is necessary to ensure that it can be easily turned into a bag, and that a quality result can be obtained. Particular attention will be given to ensuring that the structure of the bark will not be damaged, she said.

When making a bag out of bark, Emi is helped by six workers in her workshop, which is also her home, in Sedan, Sariharjo, Sleman, Yogyakarta.

It is obvious that a crucial factor in making bags from bark is creativity. Emi has proven this by producing various styles of bags.

A piece of bark can used to make various models of bags: square, round, oval and a variety of other shapes. These bags can all be used to carry personal possessions.

This is important because, after all, a bag can be made more functional by being specially designed to carry different objects: a laptop computer, a cellular phone and so forth.

Emi said that most of her designs are intended for women because women carry bags more often than men.

"The bags I have designed are not of a large size. Most are used to complement dressing. They can be used to carry powder, lipstick and other objects.

Emi suggested that if someone had enough creativity, he/she would be able to use a piece of bark not only for making bags but for other items, such as hats.

Emi has never seen with her own eyes how the bark is prepared in Kalimantan. A friend of hers told her, however, that preparation is not expensive.

The bark must first be prepared by the craftsmen in Kalimantan in a very simple way: it is planed and then pounded.

A piece of bark measuring about 2 square meters is sold at Rp 25,000. Every month about 100 sheets are sent to Emi.

Emi uses one sheet of bark for three bags, which she can then sell for Rp 27,500 each. "The price also covers the labor costs," she said.

These bags are marketed in Yogyakarta and Bali, where there is an art shop prepared to buy the product.

Emi warns that if you carry a bag made of bark, you must make sure that it is not exposed to water.

The fact that Emi can turn bark into bags has changed people's belief that wood can be used only for buildings, household utensils and furniture.

It also proves that products can be created from a sheet of bark which gives the material potential for value-adding. The presence of bags made of bark will only enrich the variety of Indonesia's unique indigenous handicraft items.

"Tourists buy these bags as souvenirs. Unfortunately, there is often excessive utilization of wood, especially by greedy capitalists who are only in pursuit of power," she stressed, expressing deep concern.