It has been three weeks already since I arrived in Central Java and the cultural immersion has been intense. I jumped right into the daily routine of batik making the very next day after I arrived. I learn more and more each day about each step of the process, especially the chemistry of coloring. Hartono [...]
A royal welcome to Java
August 13, 2008 – 8:06 pm
I arrived in Solo after 26 hours and three flights on the evening of my birthday August 12th, met by Hartono in full court regalia, including a parang rusak barong motif batik, a design originally worn only by the king. When he asked before I left the US how I wanted to get home from the [...]
Back to Java, the land of batik
August 10, 2008 – 11:09 am
Tonight I will depart for Central Java in Indonesia. I have a small workshop there with batik designer and producer, Hartono. We collaborate to create variations on traditional batik designs on silk and cotton, much of it hand-woven from Laos and Cambodia. I spend about six months each year there creating designs inspired by traditional [...]
Introducing The Language of Cloth
August 9, 2008 – 8:41 pm
I started The Language of Cloth five years ago as a means to support my travel habit. I have always been interested in textiles and usually brought a few pieces back from every country I visited, beginning in Central America 40 years ago. I liked the fact that textiles are easily carried and pack a [...]
