two more comics to add to my collection

Many things happened yesterday, as we woke up early and already left house at 8:30 a.m. I got two packages from the previous' day deliveries: a yellow Everlast hand wrap for muay thai and two volumes of Baladeva comics arrived. I've been waiting for the comics to arrive, especially the "chibi" version that is just so cute. These are really nice addition to my graphic novel/Indonesian historical collection.


Mom and I went to Dia.Lo.Gue Artspace for Plewo Doi, a Sikka textile exhibition. "Plewo Doi" in Sikka language means "self-introduce". Sikka is a regency in Nusa Tenggara Timur province on Flores island, with Maumere as its capital city. I was born in Wolowaru (where my dad was stationed to practice and service as a young doctor), west of Sikka, and 3 hours drive from Ende city. That's why I have this special attention for NTT, for I had lived there during my 9 months inside my mom's womb and for the next few months after.

Watubo: natural-colored Sikka textiles

many creative products made from Indonesian tenun & dyes

We arrived at Dia.Lo.Gue at around 10 a.m. but the Natural Dyeing Workshop had begun so we missed it. But we had 2 hours to look around and choosing all those tenun. I bought a Sikka textile, a Sumba textile, a Sikka camera strap, a plaid bracelet for myself, and a Sumba shawl for Mom. Sumba is an island at south of Flores island, and famous with its animal patterns for the tenun and the checker-and-stripe weaving at the end of the cloth.

spinning the threads spinning the threads

Now let me introduce more about NTT and its famous tenun. So firstly they harvest the cotton bur (opened boll) from cotton tree, and separate the seeds with a tool (that I forgot to take the photo) and rolled the cotton to 12cm small rolls (look at that rolls inside the woven basket in the picture above). Then using the spinning machine, they made the cotton into long continuous thread. One small roll of cotton can make up to 40 metres of thread. Fantastic, isn't it?

colorful natural dyes

Next, they dye the threads into many colors using natural sources. For blue hue, they use indigo leaves; for red morinda roots; for yellow tumeric or candlenut; for green katuk leaves, green bean leaves or mango leaves; for brown/orange sappan tree, jackfruit tree, mangrove tree or mahogany tree; and many other local plants such as ai telo, ai waher and ai reo.

ikat machine to create the patterns

After that they make the pattern using this ikat machine (see the picture above). Sikka tenun is famous with bird pattern, if not other ornamental patterns, and have many patterns in one sheet of fabric. They like to combine patterns with lines and play with more colors. The end of the fabric is usually just braided. Sumba tenun is famous with its many animal patterns: from chicken, bird, horse to komodo--all of the animals they have on the island. And Sumba tenun has checker-and-stripe plait on its ends before the braids.

traditional weaving by hand

Now the threads are ready to be woven. The difference with Baduy's tenun is that the NTT ones create the ikat pattern separately while the Baduys counted only by the threads separation to create patterns. That's why Baduy tenun looks more simple and boring to be compared with more complicated and crowded NTT ones.

traditional clothes for Sikka (and other NTT) men

Now that the fabric is done, it's time for some designing. The men of Sikka don't wear shirts. They are bare-chested and use dark blue plaid fabric for covering their lower body. They wear long necklaces with ivory pendant and a thin woven sling bag. They wear sarong, crossed over their bodies, and simple head and neck accessories.

traditional clothes for Sikka (and other NTT) women

The women wear more colorful and crowded patterns: the more crowded for lower body and more plain with single-lined pattern for the top. The younger girls wear short sleeves and less accessories; their hair made into small buns on the back of the head, while older women wear long sleeves--bubbled at its ends, and more accessories on their necks and arms; their hair circled on the top of their head. As other women everywhere else, Sikka women also use thicker (which means bigger) bags than the men's.

yellow Everlast semi-elastic handwrap

After shopping, Mom & I went to Le Seminyak for lunch (we were starving and melting from the heat) then went home, where I continued for muay thai training at the complex's sport club (which I still feel strange myself that I am capable of doing such high impact martial art) with my cousin Goldi. It was indeed a long and tiring day but I am happy with all the stuff I brought home (I guess I must be called as a shopaholic now--oh, no!).

this is tenun Sikka with Dimun Lekon pattern, in form of a blouse for young women (with short sleeves); "Darius Tengge Cok Biru" from Watubo

this is another pattern of tenun Sikka; made as camera strap, from Noesa

this is tenun Sikka with bird pattern; a large 150 x 64 cm cloth that can be used for making a girl's clothes (but I'm gonna wear it just as body wrap / shawl; "Virgensia Burung Biru" from Watubo

this is the green tenun Sikka my Mom had since 1984 with other tenun Ende; that "Bienvenue Chez Moi" print was my creation via Pélopé Shop

You can see from three pictures above that Sikka's hand-weaving character has more playful combinations of graphic or bird patterns with stripes/lines and they use more colors for dyeing.

this one is tenun Sumba with horse and bird pattern; the ends of the cloth are plaited in checker and stripes; I bought this cool indigo shawl for Mom.

this is another tenun Sumba with chicken (unseen) and komodo pattern; this is a wide and long cloth I'll use as tapestry or sofa throw one day and I love the way the colors blend, as if it was water-colored

Sumba's hand-weaving has more animals patterns and have more tidy and strong ends with those checkers and stripes plaits. They are not as colorful as Sikka's tenun but more crowded with animals.

and this one is tenun Ende; Mom got it from 1984 but never used this for anything because she doesn't like the very crowded pattern and its colors.