On Sunday morning, Feb 24, our last day in Indonesia, we squeezed in our last artisan visit with Blue Hand in Denpasar, Bali. Aung Alit and Adi from Mitra Bali met us at our hotel with a bus and we headed out to find the Blue Hand location. After searching the neighborhood for a while we met Arnie and Tracy Cullipher of Blue Hand in one of the back alleys of Denpasar. Arnie, Tracy and Pak Jais gave us an informative tour of the Blue Hand batik sarong operation. Blue Hand works with the family business operated by Pak Jais to make the sarongs that Blue Hand sells to Ten Thousand Villages stores in the US. Pak Jais employs 14 people and Blue Hand is one of his customers. Arnie and Tracy spend several weeks each year in Denpasar and the rest of the year in North Carolina where their home and office are located. Sarongs are shipped to their North Carolina location and then shipped to their US customers from there. Ten Thousand Villages stores (mostly contract) are their largest customer. Other fair trade stores, like Global Gifts in Indiana, also buy from Blue Hand. Blue Hand has hired a full time employee in Denpasar, Khetut, who looks after orders and day-to-day affairs.
Pak Jais, Tracy and Arnie examining a piece of rayon cloth that will become a Blue Hand sarong. Khetut, Blue Hand's local employee, can be seen behind Arnie.
Copper caps (pronounced 'chop') are used to print melted wax designs onto the batik cloth.
One of the workers in the Pak Jais workshop using a cap to print designs on a long piece of cloth.
Lots of experience and skill ensures that the cap printing is precise and looks good on the finished sarong.
Arnie and Pak Jais looking over a sampling of pieces that represent the process of making a batik sarong - from white rayon cloth to batiked and dyed final sarong.
Lengths of cloth that have just come out of the dye bath and waiting to be batiked.
In addition to batiking the cloth it is also scrunched up to produce a tie-dye effect.
Where do you think the Blue Hand name came from?
A worker at Pak Jais workshop showing off his blue hands. Pak Jais uses German dyes that are azo free and that do not harm the workers or their surrounding environment. All dyes are recaptured and reused until they are spent. After they are used up, the dyes are disposed of in a safe and proper way that meets all Indonesian government guidelines.
Scrunched up sarong cloth drying on the floor before going through the last washing and drying process.
Stretching a cloth on a long table to prepare it for batiking.
Arnie of Blue Hand is getting to know Agung and Adi of Mitra Bali. They had not met before our visit to Blue Hand and Agung and Adi were interested because Mitra Bali does not work with any batik artisans. It was a learning experience for them too.
This was our last artisan visit in Indonesia. We climbed back into our bus, drove to the Denpasar airport, said goodbye to Agung and Adi, hefted our boatload of luggage (greatly expanded by our purchases from artisans), cleared customs and boarded our plane to Singapore. We enjoyed a very good time in Indonesia. We ate delicious and sometimes exotic food. We saw amazing craft processes and got to try making some crafts ourselves. Above all, we met many wonderfully warm and friendly people who openly shared their work and culture with us and eagerly wanted to know more about us. We are all going home with a greater appreciation for the Indonesian people and an even greater commitment to provide income to artisans in Indonesia by selling their crafts and telling their stories in North America.
I can't think of a better way to end our 2013 Ten Thousand Villages Indonesia Learning Tour blog than to repeat a few photos of our new found friends:
Mustiah, Khetut, Basar, Rohmi and Ayu saying us off at the Lombok airport.
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