Sunday, October 9, 2011 - Beach Thanksgiving

Today we have just hung out on the beach.  Swam in the Indian Ocean - it was bathtub warm!  Then went for a manicure.  Tonight we are going out for Authentic Indian food to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving.  Hope everyone enjoys their turkey.  (Had a rooster I was willing to have done in for your supper - kept crowing all day while I was trying to nap at the beach!)

Cheers!!

Saturday, October 8, 2011 - Jewelry factory on way to Sanur

Today we left our comfy home at the Pertiwi Resort in Ubud and traveled to the Puri Santrian in Sanur.  The town of Sanur seems to be less busy than Ubud.  It is on the Indian Ocean on the south east side of Bali.

www.santrian.com/puri/

Our trip from Ubud to Sanur only took about one hour.  On the way we stopped at a silver factory.  It was interesting to see how silver jewelry is made.  First of all a mold has to be made.  In this mold a was cast is made, by extruding wax into the mold.  This wax replica is trimmed so that there are no pieces of extra wax attached.  These wax pieces are put together onto a  larger tree-like form.  This form is placed into a large machine where silver pellets are dumped, heated to liquid and then replace the wax with silver.  Out comes the rough silver pieces that are then polished and soldered together into the completed piece of jewelry.

Preparing the wax molds.

Mr. Patra explaining some of the soldering that is done.

Polishing and package the jewelry.

The factory we visited was very progressive.  The owner said that every person in the factory is of the same worth.  Each person is important to the company, one job is not better or worse than another, they are all equally important.  He knows  every person who works there, they are all a big family. 

The working conditions in the factory looked good.  The areas were well lit and clean.  Workers had masks and shields where necessary.   The workers looked happy.  Apparently not all silver jewelry factories are that nice to work in.

Leaving the jewelry factory.  (Circular staircase with no handrail!)

After we toured the factory we drove a few blocks further to the store where the jewelry is sold.  They had lots of very nice pieces.  We all bought some jewelry.

We had lunch at the Wicked Parrot.  Most of us had fish and chips as this restaurant was an Irish Pub.  I think many people were ready for some western food.

After lunch we walked across the road to Nogo, a contemporary ikat fabric producer.  They use the same process to weave the fabrics as traditional ikat weavers

Friday, October 7, 2011 - Cooking School

Yummy Balinese cooking today!  We made sweet and sour salad, nasi goring, chicken satay and peanust sauce.  Yummy!!

The tour gang at cooking school.

First we started of with a drink of Hibiscus tea.  Take three red hibiscus flowers (remove the stamen as they can sometimes be toxic), pour boiling water on top. Steep for less than 3 minutes, the colour will be very dark red, almost black.  Take out the petals, add some lime juice and the colour will change to a beautiful red colour.

Variety of fresh herbs and spices used in Balinese cooking.

Then we looked at different spices and ingredients commonly used in Balinese cooking.  They usually have four different flavours together - salty, sweet, spicy, and sour.  One ingredient that they use a lot of is shrimp paste, which is fermented shrimp.  It smells very strong and has a very distinct flavour.  (I must admit I could avoid it!)  Another very distinctive flavour is tamarind, which we would use perhaps a tablespoon of, they use huge amounts of it fresh.

Our delicious meal!

Thursday, October 6, 2011 - Indigo Dyeing

This morning we traveled to Threads of Life office location and did indigo dyeing.  The location has a workshop area to give classes as well as a garden to harvest the natural materials for dyeing fibres.  This location is where William and Jean Ingram have their home, which is beautiful.

Here is a photo of their shower and toilet room.  Notice that one side has no wall.  The wooden post has the shower head and taps in it.

Here are some sample of indigo leaves and some chunks of indigo dye. The indigo leaves are put in a pail, boiling water is poured over them and then they are left to sit for 24 hours.  The water from the steeped leaves, green in colour is then mixed with lime powder and mixed, until the bubbles are dark blue or grey.  Then the indigo is alive and ready to dye cloth.  The cloth is dipped into the indigo liquid for 20 minutes, then it is lifted out of the dye vat.  When it is first lifted out of the indigo the cloth is very green in colour, but as it oxidizes in the air it slowly begins to turn blue.  Very exciting - like magic!!  The darker you want your fabric, the more often you dip it in the dye and dry it.

Here you can see the natural colour of the cotton on the right,  Then the dark blue is cotton repeatedly dyed in indigo, the third bundle of cotton was dyed in indigo for a short while and is light blue.  The black bundle of cotton fibre is dyed with both indigo and  natural red dye.

Here are example of the natural red dye.  Right to left - natural white, yellow, and red.

Once we had some instruction in the art of dyeing cotton, we began our batik indigo dyeing hands-on workshop.  We began by taking a natural piece of cotton 50cm square and tjanting some designs on it.  Here is the heater that melts the wax being lit.

We put lines of hot wax on our blank cotton canvas using a tjanting tool.  I divided my piece of cotton into four sections, 'drawing' a different design in each section.  Then we dunked the cotton in the vat of indigo dye.

My cotton sampler sporting four different designs - poinsetta, zig-zag, tree and flower chops.

Lowering my cotton into a vat of indigo dye.

Here is one of the sample cottons coming out of the first dip in the indigo dye.

Notice that the sample to the left looks blue, while mine, just out of the vat still looks green.  It is amazing to watch it turn from green to blue in the air.  It takes about 10-15 seconds to change.

Here is my sample after a second dip in the indigo dye vat.

A string of cotton indigo dying samples.

Wednesday, Oct 5, 2011 - Silk Painting

Today was an absolutely amazing day!!  We went to Renee's to learn the fine art of painting on silk.  It was fabulous.  To start with Renee explained the entire process to us.  First, she creates the design that she wants to use on the silk.  This may take her up to 6 months to create.  Here she is showing us one of her designs of Geneisha.

Once she has her design, then she traces it onto silk using pencil.  Then the pencil line is tjanted with hot wax (think psanka Easter egg painting tool).

Here is Agus, Renee's Balinesian husband tjanting lotuses on a 50cm square of silk, that I eventually paint on.

Silk painting is similar to watercolour work.  Once the paint is laid, there is no going back!  Each cell (area encased by wax lines) should be done all at once.  Blending needs to be done by working two colours back and forth until they are mixed together on the silk.  Once every cell is painted, the work needs to dry.  Once it is dry it is time to get the wax out and fix the colours so that they do not run.  This is achieved by dipping the silk work in a chemical called water crystal (a gelatinous like goo), left to dry for 10 - 30 minutes and then washed in a boiling water bath.  This completes the fixing.  Then the silk is washed and rinsed until all the 'goo' is out.  The silk is then hung to dry, and can be used as is as a wall hanging or cut and shaped into clothing.

Here is a completed wall hanging of Renee's.

Here is a completed jacket.

Here is a kimono in the process.  The background will be painted next.  Notice that Renee paints on a frame close to the floor.  Most Balinese people do not have chairs or couches, just cushions on the floor. (All of us westerners were almost crippled by the end of the workshop from working on the floor.)

Here is an up close picture of the lotus flower that will be on the sleeve of the kimono.

Another work in progress called Dolphin DNA.

Check out Renee's website by the following link.

www.GoddessSilks.com

Here are some photos of our groups silk painting samples.

Suzanne's butterfly

Mary's underwater scene.

My lotuses

Sandra's lotuses.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011 - Ikat weaving

This morning we had a later start to our day so I was able to stroll around the Pertiwi Resort and Spa in Ubud, Bali.  I am staying near the front of the resort, so was surprised to find a beautiful ravine and creek running through it.  The grounds are really up and down!!

One of the resort rooms overlooking a steep ravine.   (I know it doesn't look that steep, but believe me it is!!)  The creek burbles over the rocks below.  What a beautiful place to sit a read a good book!

Perhaps the ravine shows better here.  You can see above where the black screens are strung up high.  This is to shade the next layer up of rooms from the direct heat.  You can see how steep the incline must be if the next row of rooms is that high up so quickly!

Every morning one woman goes around through the resort giving offerings and leaving them on the various alters around the resort.  (People say that Balinese people must really think their God is blind if they put up so many colourful offerings, but the Muslims must think their God is deaf, as they call to worship so loudly!)  She allowed me to take her picture and then I thanked her with a tube of lipstick for which she was delighted.

William Ingram joined us again today and we broke into three groups and drove in taxis through more rice fields towards the north of the island.

We arrived in Klung Kung and checked out the fabric market.  So far I have been disappointed in the fabric, as it isn't sold on bolts.  Really it all seems to be sarongs and blankets.  It is beautiful, but not meant for quilting.

For lunch we had the Balinese version of a picnic.  Rice with a variety of toppings, vegies, meat, tofu, etc. all wrapped up in banana leaves as the container.  It was delicious.

Picnic lunch.

After lunch we walked through the Ikat weaving factory.  First we saw the girls using floor looms to create 7 foot lengths of cloths.  (The girls in the photos do look VERY young, but they really are in their late teens and 20s.  The joy of being so tiny is that you always look young!)

Up close look of the loom at work.  On the left is the completed material.  Towards the right, before and after the wooden post, are the warp threads that the material will continue to be built on.  I really liked these particular warp threads as they had a variegated look to them that enhanced the overall look of the fabric.

In another area of this small weaving workshop is where the threads that are used on the looms are prepared.

In the above picture a man is tying the weft threads (that the loom workers pass back and forth on the spindle) to prepare them for dying.  This thread is what creates the pattern as mentioned in yesterdays blog.  He ties the various sections with coloured plastic twine (looks like colour raffia, but is plastic to resist dye.)  These pieces of colourful twine also help the person tying to see the pattern being created.  Next the thread is taken to be dyed.

Here the threads are being dyed.  As you can see they are not being immersed in vats of dye, rather they are being dyed by 'painting' the dye on with two notched sticks that are used to pick up some dye from a pot and then rub the threads front and back to ensure that paint is evenly distributed over the entire thread bundle.

We stopped at another small local weaving cooperative that specializes in sacred textiles.  The women who organizes the weavers is the daughter of the local hindu priest.  She has access to sacred teachings and has studied the symbols in sacred textiles and is teaching young weavers at a local high school.  Here some of the weavers got together so we could see them work.  They do not normally work in a garage on cement floor like this, they would usually work at home.  The looms, although big are surprisingly portable.

These looms are called back looms.  As you can see the weaver has a bar behind her back in which to regulate the tension of the threads on the loom.  In the above picture, the weaver has already done the left half of the sacred cloth.  It is folded on the frame to her left for us to see what she is making.  Weavers would typically weave about 12 inches in a day.  She is now creating the second half of the cloth.   The two pieces will be joined in the middle to make a very wide and long rectangular cloth that will be used in Hindu ceremonies.  The design is incredibly complicated and will sell to a temple or Balinese extended family for a lot more money than the public market cloth that we saw the floor weavers making earlier in the morning.

The weaving teacher, through William who interpreted for us, told us about the sacred textiles that she is teaching to her students.  She has written and book and the book launch is at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival that takes place this weekend.

These sacred cloths are all woven on the dyed pink silk thread that can be seen with colourful cotton threads making the designs.  Each design and colour used is symbolic.

A close up of our wonderful hostess and one of her sacred cloth examples.

At the end of our lecture/discussion, we were invited to join in some refreshments.  Bali coffee is ground into a fine powder and put in a cup with boiling water on it.  It is very good, but rather strong and has a lot of grit in the bottom.

Monday, October 3, 2011 Evening - Balinese culture

In the evening the group got together in Barb and Caroline's suite to listen to Kadek speak on the Balinese culture, religion and structure.  Kadek is a very beautiful young woman.  She is not just outwardly pretty, but she also has a sense of inner peace that is truly gorgeous!

Here sits Kadek in her traditional Hindu temple clothing.  The top is lacy with a cream coloured bodice underneath, the skirt a woven sarong.  At her waist she has a silk scarf belt.

The traditional language of Bali is Balinese, however the official language in Indonesian.  As tourism is so prominent, locals also need English.  So most Balinese are tri-lingual.

The traditional Bali Hinduism originated on these island thousands of years ago.  Then when Islam began to push through the area Hinduism was forced further and further southward along the islands, until the last of the large Hindu population remained in Bali.  80% of the population of Bali is Hindu, with the next largest percent being Christian (Catholic and Protestant), next Muslim, then a variety of other religions.

3 million people live in Bali.  People generally work 6 days a week with one day off, an extra 12 days throughout the year are available for people to take off work to attend ceremonies.  In the Hindu religion there are many life ceremonies:  fertilization of womb, birth of baby, 1/4 year birthday of baby (105 days old - one ceremonial Balinese year is 420 days), coming of age (puberty), marriage, and cremation.  All of these ceremonies take place at the temple.  For each ceremony people parade through the street (causing great traffic jams).  The Balinese people need to be able to take many days off work to attend these ceremonies.

All of us really appreciated the talk with Kadek!!