Print batik finally gains popularity among youths

By Tiwi and Erry

YOGYAKARTA (JP): For decades, batik cap (print batik) has been considered "second class" and less worthy than batik tulis (hand- made batik).

Batik tulis has become the attire of aristocrat and the wealthy, not only because the material is of better quality, but it is seen as a symbol of their social status, owing to its high price.

Batik tulis is not affordable for most people, a fact which upset batikmaker Sofia Soetardjo. She was afraid someday traditional batik motifs would perish because the younger generation were no longer aware of them.

This apprehension gave her a clever idea: making print batik using the "manual method" instead of a machine. Making print batik is faster and easier than making batik tulis, and she is able to sell the products at lower prices.

"I want to see the young wear batik clothes. It doesn't matter if they choose modern or traditional motifs," she explained.

To make "manual" print batik, she uses canting cap, a copper plate used in batik-making.

Since 1968, Sofia have collected more than 1,000 canting cap with a wide variety of motifs. Her collection is probably the largest in Java. She got them from her relatives, parents-in-law and sometimes she purchased them from bankrupt batik producers. She has a large warehouse to store her collection and hopes to open a batik museum in Yogyakarta someday.

Making a good print batik requires experience, patience and perseverance.

"A good print batik has certain characteristics, such as sharpness of color and precision of motif composition," Sofia says. "It is difficult to find a good batik printer. Only one of five applicants is qualified and admitted," she recalls of her efforts to recruit workers.

Print batik motifs include tubruk, onde-onde, parang, mubeng and mlampah sareng. Apart from attire, Sofia also makes household linen from print batik, including table clothes, bedsheets and curtains.

She says she is relieved to see many youths wearing batik with traditional motifs.

The most popular motifs are sekarjagad, kawung sisik, ceplok sisik, ceplok urang, kawung klathak, grompol and nitik wonokromo. Some organizations such as Bank Rakyat Indonesia require their employees to wear batik for their uniforms -- something which helps popularize print batik.

For coloring, Sofia uses both natural substances and synthetic substances. But she said people like the natural vat dyes better, such as srigading (Nyctanthes arbor-tristis), indigofera, morinda fruit and root (Morinda citrifolia), cashew leaf (Annacardium occidentale) and teak (Tectona grandis).

To get a rustic feel, Sofia uses substances like lime powder, alum and tunjung. When she held an exhibition here last August, she brought an enormous collection of print batik, all of which was sold.

"I was wrong to think that people do not love print batik with natural coloring," she says.