Apriki met us at our hotel on Friday morning with 2 vans, we all piled in and drove south and west of Jogja toward Bantul and the village called Banyu Temumpang. Arifin, a batik artist, moved here in 1990 and joined Apikri. Since then, he has taught many people his batik art and has established himself as an accomplished artist.
We all got to draw our own design (our group is very creative and artsy) with a canting (batik hot wax pen) and then painting it with a variety of colors. Arifin and his crew will finish our masterpieces and deliver them to us before we leave Jogja.
We also visited Arifin's onsite gallery and bought up as many batiks as we could.
Amir Panzuri, Director of Apikri, has been our guide on all of our visits.
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Arifin (green) with Pak Imam. They know each other from the days when Imam was director of Pekerti, the parent organization of Apikri.
Arifin (green) with Pak Imam. They know each other from the days when Imam was director of Pekerti, the parent organization of Apikri.
Emily, Chris, Christina and Alicia getting advice from Arifin as they draw their batik designs.
The tools of the batik trade: 2 cantings (pronounced: chanting) and a wax scraper. Heat up some wax until it liquifies, scoop some up in the little canting pot and let it drip out of the little spout to draw a wax design on a piece of fabric.
Betty drawing her floral design with a canting.
Christina is serious about doing a great job on her batik.
Arifin watches as Amy and Emily add color to their batiks.
Chris, Judith and Christina have the paint-dirty hands to proove that they are now bona-fide, Arifin-trained batik artists.
Alicia made friends with Junita, Arifin's daughter.
Inung from Apikri has helped to organize our schedule and make sure all of our needs are taken care of.
Therese with Yanti who does marketing for Apikri.
At the end of our visit we found Arifin's gallery and purchased a quite a big bunch of his batiks.
Amy, Arifin, Yanti & Athi of Apikri.
Our tour group with Arifin and Apikri staff.
Our next visit was to Junedi Wijanarko and his business called 'J Craft' in Bulus Kulon, about 1 hour's drive from Arifin's workshop. Junedi and his wife, Suranti, make 'batik' painted mirrors with mdf frames and plywood backing.
Our group walking down the village lane towards Junedi's house and workshop.
Junedi with one of his mirrors. In the background you can see that he and his wife have also decorated the doors, window frames and other features of their house with their style of 'batik' painting.
Junedi is putting the finishing touches on a mirror frame.
Junedi free-hand paints all the tiny red squares.
Dave wasn't feeling very good today so Amir gave him a accupunture pressure-point treatment. Dave said that it worked amazingly well. Athi is looking on.
On the way to lunch we stopped at the workshop and showroom of Pak Cip. Villages began buying leather products from Pak Cip in the early 90's soon after he joined Apikri. He was also pedaling a becak (bicycle rickshaw) at the time and wasn't sure that his leather work would be good enough to allow him to stop driving becak. Since then his leather business has improved considerably. He retired from becak driving a long time ago and his original becak is now on display at the Apikri office in Jogja. Pak Cip's son has a university education, his workshop is much improved and he has orders from a local automobile accessory company to produce leather accessories for cars. It was great to see that original Apirki members like Pak Cip have improved their income and lifestyle considerably.
Pak Cip at his workshop in Jogja.
A becak parked near Pak Cip's workshop.
We enjoyed a great lunch with Apikri at a multi-storied bamboo framed restaurant called Rumah Pohon. After lunch some of us posed for pictures: Sri Rejeki, Athi Munzilah, Christina, Yanti, Chris, Amir.
We ended the day by shopping in Apikri's retail store in Jogja. Store staff will need to do serious re-stocking tomorrow.
Tomorrow we will go on a 'Lava Tour' and will visit a village that was devastated by the Mt. Merapi eruption a few years ago. We will visit a painted wood artisan named Bejo.
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