August

Realized by a collective of women in Java

Silk Sarong or Kamen Sutra

 

In Bali, traditional clothing for praying at temples includes a Kamen (or Sarong) and a Selendang (or Sash).

The Kamen covers the area from waist to knees. It symbolizes the effort to keep lower natures, refering to animal, sexual desires and emotions in control. The Selendang (or sash) is tightly wrapped around the waist to prevent the “base” , lower emotions from disturbing human mind on the wearers spiritual path towards God.

 

Each silk Kamen is hand drawn by the Batik process.

Women, with a small tool writer full of liquid wax, will draw a motif on the white silk or already tinted in bright color. They  then put the silk in a color bath. Where there is wax , the color will not tint . They let it dry and then with a kind of iron and a blotting paper, they take off the wax so the motif will appear.

They will use this technique as many times as there are different colors, by covering successively the silk, from the brightest to the darkest color, reserving some parts which shouldn’t be tinted with the wax.

 

For us westerners, we would wear it as a dress, as a long or short skirt, as a shawl on our shoulders. But we will be pleased to tie it around our neck to turn it into a cozy scarf to face the cold of winter

They vary in size but it measures 1.70 x 1.20m minimum … There are in all colors and each pattern will be unique, even if the theme of flowers and arabesques is predominant.

A big thanks to these women for their patience and creation!