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