Jarit Batik
Multi-Purpose Scarf (2007)
In the 1980s, Uswatun Hasanah saw Java’s proud batik tradition vanishing around her. Young women had stopped wearing the hand-drawn batik cloth that once made the Tuban area famous, and were losing the ability to spin, to weave, and to make natural dyes. Uswatun founded the Sanggar Sekar Ayu weavers’ cooperative in 1993 to help her local textile traditions to survive. The group, whose name means ’’beautiful flower,’’ produces some of the most truly handmade textiles in Java today. Members hand-spin all of their thread from homegrown cotton, and dye their cloth with homegrown indigo.
Multi-Purpose Scarf (2007)
- Woven by Rusiyah
- Batik by Tarmini
- Dyed by Sanggar Sekar Ayu
- Kerek village, Java
- Warp-faced plain weave, batik
- Handspun cotton, natural dyes
- 56 x 315 cm. (22 x 124 in)
- Code # T.JA.TB.160
Ibu Kartini heads home from the garden, Tuban, Java
This piece, with its flat-cut ends, is called jarit batik. Sekar Ayu member Tarmini drew these traditional designs onto the finished cloth with molten wax. When the cloth was dyed, the threads sealed under the wax stayed white, and the pattern emerged.