Today I went to two exhibitions in Jakarta, which is rare because a) the traffic in Jakarta usually don't allow us to attend more than 2 occasions in a day and b) it's been a while since I come to any exhibition. The first one was Pesona Tenun Baduy (The Marvel of Baduy's Handwoven Fabric) at Omah Yado, Radio Dalam, South Jakarta.

many colors and patterns of Baduy's handwoven fabrics and other crafts

I came at around 10 a.m. and was kind of too early for the festive but lucky to have first peek at the beautiful and colorful fabrics there. I learned a bit about Baduy's traditional hand-weave patterns (there are songkét, swastamata, poléng hideung, poléng kacang hérang, poléng capit hurang, and adu mancung among others) and bought myself a piece of 90x180cm pink fabric and a dark purple shawl.

hand-weaving a tosca-red songket fabric

Basically it's not too difficult to hand-weave once you understand the way to do it. The tricky part is to set those wood and bamboo sticks and to slip all thousands of threads through the comb-like component to avoid them to tangle (more about the traditional machine can be read here). And designing a pattern would be another challenge. Baduy's patterns are mostly lines and rectangles--thus considered to be the most plain if compared to the other tribes' patterns.

cooked beansprout, a Betawi culinary

My aunt Ellen came by also and we mingled with the guests that literally filled the house and we all brought home those pretty cloths. I also got myself some bracelets made out of root but forgot to buy more of the merchandise because I got hungry (they had the taugé goréng/cooked beansprout, grilled rice, dumplings and many others--the guests were spoiled) and quite busy chatting with other guests.

Andris Halim was talking to the audiences

We left at 3 p.m. and went to Bentara Budaya Jakarta where the RetroSpektif Komik Indie exhibition was held. We came just in time at the Cakrapolis' talk show, where my lecturer/illustrator Toni Masdiono and colleague/illustrator Iwan Gunawan were on the stage. They had roles in the making of this comic series. I got the honor of meeting the author, Andris Halim, and got signatures from all those 5 artists behind this comic.

My aunt, Pak Toni, Pak Andris, Pak Canser, Pak Iwan, Pak Hari and me

At around 6 p.m., after the book-signing, mingling and chatting, my aunt and I went to Gandaria City for our dinner before going all the long way back home. I'm so glad for having this day, although I started it a bit gloomy. But I met friends (tho all of them are 50+ years old) and new people and new stuff and new experience--for sure. Days like this are my favorite indeed!

two first volumes of Cakrapolis comics