Banyumasan batik hopes to regain past glory

Banyumasan batik hopes to regain past glory

Agus Maryono, The Jakarta Post, Banyumas, Central Java

About 20 years ago, Banyumas batik was famous, with many batik
industrial centers found throughout the area. But these days,
people are only familiar with batik coming from Pekalongan and
Surakarta in Central Java and Yogyakarta, leaving out Banyumas in
the progress.

At its peak, Banyumas had some 990 batik industrial units,
mostly in Banyumas, Sokaraja, east of Purwokerto, Somagede and
Kebasen districts.

At present, only Mruyung village in Banyumas which holds on to
the tradition, keeping the batik industry alive.

Slamet Hadi Prayitno, the only batik businessman in Mruyung,
said he was not sure of the reasons which made less and less
people interested in the business, suggesting the complicated
batik-making process as one of possible reasons.

"These days, it's very difficult to find young girls who are
willing to sit, hold the canting and paint the batik on cloth.
Only housewives and aging women are willing," said Slamet, who
hires mostly aging women in his business. Canting is a small
dipper used to apply wax.

Apart from the difficult batik-making process and lack of
manpower, he also found that within the market, it was difficult
to compete with much more innovative batik designs from other
places, mostly Surakarta, Yogyakarta and Pekalongan.

Moreover, it's hard to find raw material for the industry in
Banyumas, forcing him to go as far as Pekalongan to buy raw
materials, thus increasing production costs.

"These problems are not good for the business since the batik
industry has long been in need of fresh investment. We are hoping
the local government can help us, but they have never offered,"
Slamet lamented.

The chief of the Banyumas Industry, Trade and Cooperatives
Office Budi Cahyono admitted a lack of batik industry progress in
his region, insisting that his office had tried hard to find a
way to put the industry back on track. One of the efforts was
through product diversification, he said.

The local goverment, Budi said, also had to work on developing
natural silk in the Kaliori region. In the long term, it is
expected that Banyumas batik can be produced on silk.

"But, there's a problem, mainly our lack of equipment to weave
silk," Budi said.

A craftsman like Slamet, however, found such an idea
unrealistic and unnecessary, insisting they only needed fresh
capital investment and easy access of raw materials in Banyumas.

Slamet, whose business has been running for generations, said
his business was still ok, despite the problems, with some 40
employees working for him. Each month he has the capacity to
produce some 2,000 pieces of printed batiks and an additional 400
pieces of hand-painted ones when the market is good.

"At present, the market for hand-painted batiks is slow so we
produce only about 40 pieces a month," said Slamet.

Hand-painted batik is sold at between Rp 60,000 and Rp 100,000
each while printed ones are sold for Rp 20,000 to Rp 50,000 each.
Prices depend on the manufacturing process; the more complicated,
the more expensive it is.

Historically, there is no clear information on the exact time
when Banyumasan batik first made, but many believe it has been
there since the 1800s. Some say the batik-making process started
with the existing customary law in the area while others believe
it was Pangeran Diponegoro who brought the tradition to the
region while he was involved in guerilla warfare against the
Dutch government of Java at the time.

In terms of motif, Banyumas batik does have some unique
characteristics. Jonasan and sosrok motifs were believed to be
the originated in Banyumasan and used to be very famous among
Banyumas batik lovers. Other Banyumas motifs were said to be
influenced by motifs from Pekalongan, Surakarta or Yogyakarta
batik, in efforts to meet market demands.

Jonasan batik is classified into a non-geometric motif with
white or brownish white as a base color and brown and black for
the color. The motifs are usually derived from plants, flowers or
butterflies. The distinct characteristic of this batik motif lies
in the hem colors of either red or black that surround the
cloth's entire design.

Sosrok batik, on the other hand, is mostly characterized with
either straight lines (for sosrok garis) or a half-circle and
waving line (for sosrok ukel) motifs. The uniqueness of this
particular motif lies in the processing wherein the wax is
removed by scratching it from the cloth. Sosrok garis motif is
usually dominated by brownish yellow, brown, or black colors,
while sosrok ukel usually has white as it base color and is
therefore also called latar putih (white background) motif.

Other popular Banyumas batik designs include trem, or printed
batik, and modern or new style motif.

Trem, which has the base color of yellow with brown and black
for the colors of its motif, is grouped into geometrical
patterns. Modern or new style designs are usually hand-painted
with non-geometrical patterns like flowers, plants, leaves and
animal's wings and this particular motif usually uses more bright
colors like green, blue, violet and red.