Yogyakarta's goldsmiths turn dust into gold

Bambang M., Contributor, Yogyakarta

As more and more people depend on banks to keep their money safe, Yogyakarta's goldsmiths and silversmiths in Kotagede still keep their savings in the form of silver or gold dust.

The craftsmen collect gold or silver dust produced whenever they create pieces of jewelry like rings or bracelets. The end result -- a few grams of gold.

"A saving account in a bank?" said a goldsmith Soekarno, chuckling. "Well, I do have debt with a bank."

Soekarno has been working as a goldsmith for two decades now, finishing around two to three rings a day. To create a ring, he charges at least Rp 40,000, depending on the model. The more complicated the model, the more he will charge.

The habit of collecting silver or gold dust, locally called ngebor, has been carried out for a long time, since Kotagede's gold and silver handicraft industry started to flourish.

And most of the craftsmen, naturally prefer to collect gold dust since it is more valuable than silver.

Soekarno, who works with his colleague Yuni in his simple house in Kotagede, keeps his precious dust in a drawer in his desk.

Each time he creates a piece of jewelry, Soekarno pulls his drawer open to collect the dust. And once he finishes, he removes the dust from his hands with a paint brush.

But after completing their work, the craftsmen put all their equipment into an earthen wok and clean up the whole room before placing everything, even cigarette stubs, into the wok.

"The dust must have blown all over the workshop before settling on all the objects here," Yuni explained. "That includes cigarette stubs that we were holding while working," Soekarno added.

After several months, the craftsmen collect their savings. "I sell the dust when the orders are really slow," Soekarno said.

In the process, the dust and the earth in the wok are taken little by little and purified with detergent. Then quicksilver is added to attract gold dust onto it. Then the quicksilver, already mixed with gold dust, is placed on a cloth and then squeezed. The result, fine grains of gold. These grains of gold are then mixed to make them more solid since it will affect the price.

"It's not bad. If we are meticulous about collecting the dust, we can collect about five grams a day," Soekarno said.

The gold is then sold to a special collector at slightly below market price. If a gram of gold dust is valued at Rp 70,000, Soekarno can earn about Rp 350,000 a day.

And the "cleaning up" practice is not only conducted inside the workshop. At times, it is even done in the craftsman's yard.

"There must be gold there, carried by the breeze from my workshop," said Sholehuddin, head of Jagalan village, Kotagede.

There was even a time when ngebor was practiced in plot of land used as a dumping site, and a slope usually flooded after rain.

Nasir, a Kotagede resident, said that back in the 1970s, many people practiced ngebor in water ditches. "Usually this was conducted in the wet season," he said, explaining that at that time, people hoped to find gold dust carried by water from places where goldsmiths worked.

When a craftsman has no time to do ngebor, he would usually then ask a specialist to do it. "The job is usually based on contract or production-sharing basis," said Nasir.

These specialists come not only from Kotagede but also from West Java's towns of Tegal and Tasikmalaya.

"Those from Tasikmalaya are really crazy. They don't just do ngebor, but some of them even like to buy everything in the workshop," said Yuni. In their hometown, Yuni added, everything bought from Kotagede would be placed in a large tube and then shaken by a machine to remove and collect the precious dust.

But today, ngebor is no longer practiced as frequently as before because of the low number of goldsmiths and silversmiths. Many young, educated people in Kotagede now prefer to take up other professions. So someday, ngebor might become only a story old people tell to their grandchildren.