Gusti Made Karya on the art of duplicating
Gusti Made Karya on the art of duplicating
DENPASAR (JP): The house in the village of Bonakaja in Gianyar regency looks like small-scale factory. An open space in the garden for sun-drying the thread, a small, one square-meter cement pond in a corner for dying thread, and a big space, walled on two sides with a metal roof, where nine young women do the weaving.
Gusti Made Karya, the owner, has been in the traditional garment business for seven years.
"Before, I worked for a big weaving manufacturer in Gianyar," he explained. "After two years, I quit and have been developing my own garment business since."
He spent all his savings to start his home industry in garment manufacturing, specializing in weaving traditional ikat fabric. "It takes about Rp 5 million to start a business this size."
"I've never borrowed money from the bank," he revealed, "because I don't have collateral."
Three women sat close to him preparing the thread as he spoke. The well-prepared thread is then dyed to the ordered pattern and weaved later.
Even though only nine women were working, he claimed that he could arrange for more than 40 people, mostly women, to work at their own houses.
"They could earn Rp 3,500 a meter," Made said.
According to Made, his workers are mainly housewives who work part-time depending on when their husbands allowed them out of the house.
Copying
"Once in a while people from Ubud or Kuta bring some clothes to me," he said. "They want the pattern of the particular items copied."
He explained that copying is hard because he must imitate the color precisely. "That is not an easy job."
But it has a good side.
"The sale is guaranteed," he asserted, explaining that orders to copy items is better than the relying on the uncertainty in the local market.
One of his copies was being finished off by his wife Gusti Ayu Siti Ary. The three-meter copy of traditional Balinese ikat was ordered by a European woman in Ubud, her second order.. The woman had brought the first sample several weeks earlier, was satisfied by the result and ordered some different designs ten days after the first one. "She said that the cloth would be exported to the Netherlands," Karya said.
Duplication is an art for him. He finds it a challenge to copy a sample as perfectly as possible. With an artist's pride, he showed me a shirt very different from Balinese ikat. "This was made in India," he grinned while flashing the label "Made in India - silk".
"The buyer from Kuta came to me and assured that if I could copy the pattern precisely he would pay me Rp 10,500 a meter." The usual price is Rp 8,500 per meter. The higher price is an incentive for him to experiment with colors and patterns.
"This is shirt is not easy because the pattern is unusual and the coloring technique seems different from what I usually have applied."
So far he hasn't succeeded, but only grins at the prospect of losing the order and therefore the finances he put up to conduct the experiments.
"No job is without risk," he reasons.
For him, to copy or not to copy is not a problem. To sell or not to sell, that's the reality.
-- Benito Lopulalan