Cepogo, center of metal handicrafts

Bambang M and Gigin W. Utomo, Contributors, Boyolali, Central Java

Noisy sounds from a hammer emanating from houses from morning until dusk is the trademark of Cepogo village, a brass and copper handicraft center located some 1,200 meters above sea level on the western slope of Mount Merapi.

In a way, Cepogo looks like a giant workshop involving hundreds of craftsmen in the village and displays handmade works ranging from kitchen appliances to various kinds of decorative products like vases, ashtrays, lamp caps and containers of different functions and sizes in showrooms along the village's main street.

According to the village's head, Abdul Choir, some 30 percent of Cepogo's 7,000 people were involved in the business, which they have been running for generations

"Some residents work for successful craftsmen and businesspeople while others prefer to work at home, selling their wares to successful handicraft businessmen," said Abdul Choir, a craftsman himself.

Handicraft businessmen from different cities, Abdul added, had been making regular visits to the village to buy the village's products. Through the process, many Cepogo handicraft products were sent to many cities outside Java at least before the Bali bombing, which immediately had an impact on the village's export.

Cepogo's products are also well-known among arts lovers because of its artistic quality. A number of good artists were born in the village, like Supri Haryanto, who was hired by the Surakarta Palace in Surakarta, Central Java, in 1985 to work on the metal work interior relief of the Palace.

"The 14-meter high and six-meter diameter dome at the Buddhist Monastery in Semarang (Central Java) is also my work. I was told it was the biggest Buddhist dome in Asia," said Supri, recipient of the 1993 Upakarti Award.

Because of the village's success as a handicraft center, Cepogo does look much wealthier than other villages in the region. This can be seen from the modern-style houses spotted along the main street passing through the village or the village's smooth asphalted road.

But the success came over a long period.

It is said the metal business was started in the 16th century when Pangeran (Prince) Jolang, also known as Pangeran Rogosasi, of the renowned Mataram Kingdom moved to Tumang in Cepogo. There, he built a new complex and produced various kinds of metal kitchen appliances like frying pans, containers and spoons.

"That's how Tumang became popular as the center of copper-made kitchen appliances," a villager Triyono said.

According to Triyono, up to the end of 1970s, most copper handicraftsmen in Cepogo still produced kitchen appliances.

But at the beginning of the 1980s, with the government's introduction of other new products like souvenirs, interior and exterior decorative items as well as helping local craftsmen with investment and marketing information, new products were created.

Supri Haryanto, owner of Muda Tama handicrafts shop, was one of the pioneers in creating products other than kitchen appliances.

He went to Yogyakarta to learn how to make various metal-made handicrafts, and chose noted Yogyakartan artist and handicrafts shop owner Sapto Hudoyo as his mentor. With his new knowledge, he then started his innovative work and became successful.

His success eventually inspired other artists to follow, since they found the new products were more promising economically than the old ones. If a kitchen appliance is worth between Rp 20,000 and Rp 50,000, the price of a new product could reach up to hundreds of thousands of rupiah. A container for umbrellas, for instance, costs up to Rp 300,000.

Unfortunately, the Cepogo handicraft industry is very much dependent on the supply of the raw material from other countries, like Italy, Japan and South Korea. They have to import it because, according to the craftsmen, the domestic copper was unable to be processed further into handicrafts due to its low quality.

As a consequence, when the economic crisis hit the country back in 1997 and the value of the rupiah against other currencies was extremely low, Cepogo's craftsmen could not afford to buy copper. Many of them were forced to stop producing copper-made handicrafts and made a switch by producing aluminum-made ones. Now with a stronger rupiah, they are back to the old business again.