Karangasem, On the Wallace Line

Sidemen Woman, Weaving the Village Name with Songket and Tenun

The name Sidemen village, is famous for it’s endek and songket handicraft. Sidemen village is located about 22 km from Besakih Temple to the southeast, or about 72 km from Denpasar to the east. The ladies at the village mostly work the characteristic handicraft of this village.

The popularity of songket (hand-woven cloth) from Sidemen is the mother’s creation in knitting the string to become the songket cloth. Endek or songket cloth is used in Hindu ceremonial occasions in Bali, such as weddings, praying, etc.
Before becoming occupied with weaving, the women of Sidemen gave precedence to their obligations as a housewives serving food to their families. Today from around 8.00 o’clock each day , they begin to take their weaving tools to start the day . For the mother who deals with plenty of orders, they will wake up early to cook and finish their household chores. One endek artisan in Sidemen village is I Gusti Ayu Oka Rukmini. Her interest in endek and songket woven materials developed after finishing a hand-woven course for a month in Denpasar. Now, she practices her skill by using alat tenun bukan mesin (ATBM) – a non-machine weaving tool.
According to Rukmini, endek and songket hand woven fabrics in Sidemen village existed a long time ago. “This handicraft was made before I was born, and is being still inherited and developed,” she said. The characteristic of Sidemen hand-woven fabrics is its motif, commonly using a rose.
Since 1992, I Gusti Ayu Oka Rukmini began pioneering a hand-woven company named Loka Madya. At the beginning, she had one collection of songket cloth only as an example. Then, she improved the pattern into thousands of motif’s and sizes. Today , she employs 10 workers to help her in making the endek or songket cloth.
According to Rukmini, her work is mostly sold to agents in Klungkung area. “The buyer will directly come to my store and pick the motif and size as they like,” said Ayu, when interviewed by Bali Travel News at her store. The buyers from Klungkung sell this cloth to all areas in Bali, mainly Gianyar and Tabanan.
The material used for making endek or songket is silk, netris/cotton, and crayon. The material is obtained mainly from the Karangasem area. Songket cloth measures 2 x 1,1 meters and sells for an average of Rp. 400.000 – Rp. 700.000, sometimes lower around Rp 200.000, depends to its motif design. If it consists of a full motif, it will cost more. Meanwhile, endek or gringsing cloth measuring 2,25 x 1,1 meters is sold between Rp. 80.000 – Rp.100.000. This kind of endek cloth takes one day to produce, but songket cloth takes a much longer period of around 3 months. (BTN/Wawan)