People of Kerebet carve a living out of wood

By Ahmad Solikhan

YOGYAKARTA (JP): A young woman was sitting at the side of a furnace, her lips once in a while puffing into a canting, a small dipper to apply wax in batik printing, held between her slender fingers. She was designing batik motifs on wood. Meanwhile, other craftsmen were busy cutting, carving or polishing wood to be shaped into masks, puppets, animal figurines and many other forms.

This skill has been passed down from generation to generation for years. Bantul is an arid area, not suitable for rice planting. Located on a lime hill, Kerebet looks barren, with only teakwood trees growing here and there, especially in the dry season.

A strong wish to survive, however, had led to the creation of esthetically valuable works. More than half of the 200 families comprising 770 people are woodcraftmen. Others, believing they cannot make ends meet in their hamlet, have migrated to other areas.

In a visit to Kerebet, The Jakarta Post found 11 woodcraft workshops offering woodcraft products at very competitive prices, depending on the quality of the products. Of all the workshops, the biggest was Sanggar Punokawan, in terms of workers employed, quantity of handicrafts produced and monthly turnover.

Anton Wahono, 39, owner of the workshop, said that batik masks and batik puppets, all wooden, are his prime assets to gain access to international markets.

Wooden masks which comes with a thousand faces were used in Gedok masked shows with wayang (shadow puppet) themes, which usually depicted stories from Panji Asmarabangun. There are wooden puppets representing characters in Javanese wayang that have their origin in the epic Mahabarata and Ramayana stories.

Thanks to his creativeness, Wahono, a father of two, now employs some 50 craftsmen and produces some 5,000 masks and puppets with turnover standing at Rp 30 million a month. His products are sold in Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Surakarta, Surabaya and Bali where the demand is the highest. He also exports these products to Japan, Italy, France, Britain and the United States at prices 15 percent to 20 percent higher than that set for the domestic market to cover packing and dispatch costs.

A winner of some 30 awards for his achievement in this woodcraft, Wahono said today the production had dropped compared to the levels in 1997 - 1998 which were about 10,000 items a month with some 110 workers in his employ and a turnover of some Rp 60 million a month. He said the economic crisis and the uncertain domestic security conditions are responsible for this decline. "To ensure that the workshops survive, I had, though very reluctantly, to lay off half of the craftsmen," he said.

He learned to make leather puppets from a Pak Tumpuk of Gendeng hamlet while still in elementary school. When he found that the locals were paying little attention to wayang klitik shows that uses flat wooden puppets to describe stories originating from Majapahit chronicles, it occurred to him that it would be a good idea to make wooden puppets.

In 1984, Wahono and his four craftsmen began to make wooden masks and puppets.

And to ensure that woodcraft products continue to interest the market, Wahono is trying to diversify his products. Now he makes wooden statues of Loro Blonyo (a young couple donning Javanese costumes) and other kinds of batik wooden souvenirs. These wooden mask and other souvenirs are on average between 15 centimeter and one meter high and are sold between Rp 3,000 and Rp 1 million. The price of an item depends on the level of difficulty in its making.

These wooden items are made of Klepu, Sengon and Pule wood, purchased from the locals at between Rp 150,000 and Rp 300,000 per cubic meter. These logs are mechanically cut into desired lengths and are then dried for a week. They are then carved as desired with a chisel and then smoothened. Then batik work is done on it. To ensure that they are durable and glossy, they are covered with melamine (a transparent liquid chemical). Craftsmen are paid in accordance with their skills. Daily workers will earn between Rp 5,000 and Rp 12,000 a day while contractual workers earn Rp 3,000 to Rp 5,000 per piece.

The latest recognition of his successful wooden handicraft undertaking came when Bantul regional administration gave Wahono the honor to represent his region in an exhibition of wooden handicraft products held between 10 and 14 August 2000 at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah park in Jakarta.

Ashadi, regional secretary responsible for promoting Bantul, has placed an order for 40 Loro Blonyo statues which will be presented to the envoys of 40 countries as souvenirs in an exhibition of regional handicrafts and arts for tourists.

However, Wahono's dream to turn his Kerebet hamlet into a handicraft and tourist village will take time to materialize.

Suarman, head of the public relations division of Bantul administration said Kerebet will be made as one of the stops in the tourist route in the region and that for this purpose it will be included in the regional budget for 2004 - 2009. The route will include Kasongan (clay handicraft), Kerebet (wooden handicraft), Imogiri (leather puppet carving) and Manding (leather handicraft such as shoes and bags).

"So, don't worry because this tourist route was covered in test trips in 1999," Suarman said.