People of Kerebet carve a living out of wood

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.