MAGIC CLOTH of BALI Story and Photos by Torie Olson
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MAGIC CLOTH OF BALI Story and Photos by Torie Olson 18 WILDFIBERSMAGAZINE.COM FALL 2015 19 are disappearing, so part of the foundation’s effort is aimed at teaching weavers across the archipelago to propagate plants, manage dye gardens and harvest sustainably. Project director Pong explains that Bebali is also an open air laboratory where he and his colleagues work with dyestuffs and a va- riety of drying, rinsing and mordanting tech- niques to recover, document and redistribute Indonesia’s traditional dye knowledge. “We are not scientists, just passionate experi- menters,” he says. In the studio, I meet a master dyer called Frog. He has several indigo vats in the works. Purple bubbles are visible on the surface. The Indigo tinctoria leaves have been soaking and fermenting for forty-eight hours. Frog removes the plant material and adds quicklime to sep- arate the chlorophyll from the indican, and I have a chance to see what his dye can do. A piece of undyed cotton is taped to a drawing board. I pick up a canting and fill it halfway with hot wax. Examples of tradition- al batik motifs are provided, but without an artist’s skill, I opt for abstract and let the uni- verse guide my hand. Frog lowers my cloth Morinda Workshop. Ibu Sri works on a loom in the background. into his indigo vat, aerating it with vigorous handling. “This ties the indican to the cloth,” he says. The cloth is hung in the sun to dry, Glorious herons and kingfishers decorate the colorful path then retaped to my drawing board. The uni- to an ancient Balinese weaving history. verse guides my hand again. Again, the cloth is dipped and dried. Then it is placed in boil- ing water with soda ash to fix it and tapioca powder to remove the wax. Finally, it is rinsed ith its Arctic temperatures, ten foot snowdrifts, land. The fields are greener than green. There are kingfishers with rubaree (a plant in the mint family) to and soul crushing darkness at 4 p.m., my world with turquoise wings, and deep red dragonflies. In Bali, the make it smell better. is out of whack. For such an extreme winter, colors are caffeinated. In the studio, I also learn about morinda, Bali is my cure. To find out more about this island’s revitalizing hues, I the archipelago’s most highly valued red col- I go directly to Ubud, the cultural center of contact Threads of Life, an organization working to sustain orant. Every weaving community has its own Wthe island, where I discover rituals that can make your world and revive Indonesia’s spectacular weaving arts. An introduc- identifying shade of red. (It has been taboo to right. I wear sarongs and sashes; eat the perfect balance of tion is made to the erudite Chee Choy, who agrees to be my share dye recipes.) Choy shows me a skein of sweet, sour, salt and bitter; attend sacred ceremonies in roof- guide. He takes me ten minutes north to Petulu, a tiny town cotton that has been dyed here with morin- less temples; and learn to make offerings. known for its wood carving, the white herons that roost in its da. The thread is a lovely auburn color, but I Offerings are everywhere in Bali—on the ground, up in trees, and a dye farm, research center and studio sponsored suspect it will return to the dye bath several the god houses, floating down waterways. They are tied to by The Bebali Foundation, an affiliate of Threads of Life. times before Frog is satisfied. While dyeing the handlebars of scooters and placed at the foot of looms. The Bebali Foundation’s year-old dye garden contains with morinda produces the deepest, most Ketut hands me a strip of palm leaf and teaches me how over fifty varieties, collected from all over Indonesia. With- sought-after reds, it is a complicated, multi- to weave an offerings tray. We fill it with flower petals, rice in the next year, that number will double. Head horticultur- step process that can take years to complete. and incense, then present it to the spirits, both good and ist Komang points out three kinds of indigo (Indigofera tinc- Chee Choy explains that only the bark of bad. “We must please both or they will cause mischief in our toria, Indigofera suffruticosa and Strobilanthes cusia) in the the morinda root is used. “In the U.S., we call world.” she explains. garden’s blue section. In the red section, he shows us henna, it noni and use it to make a health drink,” he I light a joss stick, say a prayer and wave it upwards with madder and the morinda tree. There are tannin-based plants says. In Indonesia, morinda is pounded to a the smoke. I am warm for the first time in months, but not for browns, and jackfruit, mango, turmeric and mangrove pulp, added to water, and mordanted with dry Top to bottom: Cotton skeins, plain on the left, oiled on the right. A piece of morinda root. too warm; each afternoon, the monsoon shows up to cool the plants for yellow. With deforestation, some of these dyestuffs leaves of the symplocos tree that have been Indigo vats percolating outdoors. 20 WILDFIBERSMAGAZINE.COM FALL 2015 21 Depending on the intricacy of the pattern, the tying of a double ikat includes the rest of the Balinese) are not allowed here after dark. Cars are banned as well, so we are dropped at the gate (weavings believed to cure or prevent illness) can take up to a year. to walk up stone avenues dividing long rows of stone-walled compounds. Most are thatched with black sugar palm fiber, and caged songbirds hang from the eaves. gathered from the forest floor. The mixture is then hand- The Magic Cloth of Bali Aga Seeing the sign for Morinda Art, we step over offerings squeezed to release the dye. But that is just the beginning. A few days later, Choy takes me to another village to see and enter a courtyard. Just inside the door, there is a shrine A time-consuming method of fiber preparation is required morinda and indigo in action. We travel east through rainfor- where two durians (a prized fruit that reeks but tastes sub- to dye cotton with morinda. For better absorption, the fi- est and ricelands where farmers nap in tin-roofed shacks or lime) have been offered to ensure a good visit. Ibu (Mother) ber must first be hand spun. Then it must be soaked in oil, replenish offerings at one of the little field shrines dedicated Sri stands in front of it. Her torso is wrapped in a marvel- sometimes up to twenty times, and between each oiling it to Dewi Sri, goddess of grain. At the entrance to Tenganan ous old cloth, and another is draped over her right shoulder. must be dried in the shade. “This gives the dye more ‘arms’ Village there are roosters in basket cages awaiting victory in These double ikat weavings are called geringsing (“no sick- to grab hold of the fiber,” Choy says. The communities don’t a cock fight or sacrifice in a temple ceremony. For either oc- ness”). Invested with the power to cure or prevent illness, share their oiling procedures either. Some use chicken fat, casion, they have been dyed Bazooka pink, neon orange, and they are also called magic cloths. but most use candlenut oil that has been augmented with a screaming zonker yellow. Choy assures me that this is not a Double ikats are woven in only three places in the world: mishmash of secret ingredients. bad omen, that we will indeed find cloth that has been natu- Patola, India; Okinawa, Japan; and Tenganan, Bali. In this It is tea time and I am revived by two, red-belled flowers: rally dyed. village, there are only four weavers left who can make ger- hibiscus. After the pistils have been removed, the blossoms Tenganan is home to the Bali Aga people, the island’s ear- ingsing, and Ibu Sri is one of them. She sits down at her tying are crumpled and covered with boiling water, then a squeeze liest settlers. So vigilant are they to keep their bloodline pure frame and gets to work on a weft. Following a template, she of lime is added. This, too, makes a nice red. that marriage to outsiders is forbidden, and foreigners (which picks up bundles of threads and binds them with red or blue raffia. This will tell her which sections should resist dye and stay natural, which should be dyed red with morinda, and which should be overdyed with indigo to turn them black. When she is done with the weft, she will tie off the warp. Depending on the intricacy of the pattern and the size of the double ikat, the tying can take up to a year. The dyeing is only done in the dry season and can take as long as three years. To achieve the desired hues, threads are dyed and re-dyed, unbound and rebound again and again. “The best weavers work with the threads their grandmothers prepared,” Ibu Sri says. Once the loom is warped, things pick up speed. Producing a cloth as fine as gauze may only take a few months. After it is taken off the loom, it is consecrated and empowered in a ceremony. And then, like fine wine, it is put away for several more years to age. As far as Ibu Sri is concerned, a cloth is not ready to wear or use for at least ten years.