Sat, 27 May 2000

Hadi, a batik guru from Yogyakarta

By Bambang Tiong

YOGYAKARTA (JP): It seems that Hadi Pranoto is too busy for a man 72 years old. The resident of Ngadinegaran area remains loyal to his profession as a batik guru, a profession he started in 1970 by accident.

The one-day and five-day courses on traditional batik, that cost Rp 100,000 each, are highly popular among expatriates. His students come practically from around the globe.

Hadi inherited his batik talent from his ancestors, who handed down the skill from generation to generation. He did not learn the art from formal training.

The painting materials he uses are all homemade. He obtains them mostly from the garden and the woods and prepares them himself.

He uses soga jambal wood to produce red color, high soga for brown, tegaran soga for yellow and guava or mango or tea leaves for gray.

It is this traditional touch that fascinates foreign batik enthusiasts. He claims that 99 percent of his students are foreigners -- 80 percent are Japanese.

A Japanese tourist, Taeko Marimoto, 32, said that she chose Hadi Pranoto's batik painting course because he was interested in the traditional techniques.

"Everyone can master what Hadi Pranoto teaches. But not everyone prepares the traditional color agents like he does," she said.

The same reason is also given by another Japanese tourist Yoshiko Istikawa, 46, who said that in Japan, batik makers use factory-made materials.

The five-day course is divided into three parts -- introduction to the materials and their composition, introduction to batik motif, and the painting technique.

Lessons on the first three days focus on introduction to the materials and their composition.

Hadi said this part was the key to good batik. Composition plays a vital role in the batik making. For example, the composition of water and wood or leaves used to produce certain colors, and the degree of heat used to boil the mixture. The flame should be kept constant so that the heat does not fluctuate.

In the first three days, the trainees also learn to select the proper cloth and how to prepare it. A solution to prepare the cloth is made from a liter of peanut oil mixed with one half once of caustic soda.

The lesson on batik motif lasts only a few hours. The rest of the day is dedicated to discussion on painting technique, such as how to hold the canting (a small, thin-walled, spouted, copper vessel which resembles the bowl of a pipe), how to use it and the correct sitting posture.

"The five-day course includes theory and practice. To refine their skills, the participants should practice on a regular basis by themselves," Hadi said.

Currently, 12 foreigners -- 10 Japanese and two Australians -- are enrolled in Hadi's course.

Hadi began teaching batik courses in 1970 when an American asked him to make a batik decor measuring 10 m by 15 m. This attracted many people in the U.S. and they wanted to learn from Hadi how to make traditional batik.

Hadi said he is very happy with his profession as a batik guru because it allows him to introduce the art to the world community and at the same time preserve the tradition.

"What is interesting is that we don't need to wage a campaign promoting batik because people come and learn here and then introduce and develop it in their countries," he said.

In fact, Hadi is not the only batik guru in the city. There are many other individuals and institutions, like the Indonesian Institute of Arts, that give similar courses.