Unique Indonesian Handicraft Products
Based on geospatial survey between 2007 to 2010, Indonesia has 13,466 islands and each island has subdivision level (Province, Regency, District and Village). Every island has different cultures and behaviour. And those differentiation express through the dance, fashion, and handicraft products. Those are very unique and creative. They usually show them in the home industry in each area or join the yearly exhibition. Many tourists usually plan to visit the cities in Indonesia just to enjoy the culture and come to the home industry to see the handicraft products.
I used to come to the largest handicraft product exhibition every year. It was not for shopping. I just wanted to see their performances in some of their booths, had some conversations with the different accents and looked varieties of handicraft products. Almost all provinces were joined this exhibition. So, it was such an experience for me to feel different cultures without have to go straight to those cities.
I really love the handicraft products that they sell in this exhibition. Those were so unique and creative. Each of them had the in – depth chemistry with their own culture. I could find any kind of clothing, bags and accessories, unique paint, traditional displays, and lots of thing that you may find them in the conventional stores.
Batik as the famous traditional fabric printed by using the Indonesian hand-printing textile. Usually, the printing are different between areas, such as Javanese, Bali, Sumatra, and other areas. Most of booths offered Batik as their main products and they experienced it by applying in many forms, such as clothing, bags, sandals, stationary, scarf, blanket and as a fabric.
I found this so creative. They might be have the similar application with different cities, but the painting were so different. They also had different chemistry in every painting. It was unique and so cultural.
There was one booth that I spent more than 30 minutes just to looked the cute illustration that they applied in the bags, pillow case, pouch, wallet, glass, coaster and plates. The designs were so creative and so Indonesian. They mixed more than 3 colors in one design but the colour collaboration were expressed nicely.
Many people visited this booth because they attracted with the design at the first sight. The design were different between one medium with another. So, the product would be personalized and exclusive. This booth was one of my favorite booth in this exhibition.
Another booth that I like was the booth that sell most of their products from clay. The shape of the product very cute and I love them. The product weight was not heavy as well.
I asked the crafts woman about the product production and also the customers that mostly visit her booth. She designed and produced by herself in Surabaya, East Java. She was a low profile person, explained the product detail patiently and helped us by providing a style consultation service. This booth sold the ‘not heavy’ products. This was one of the reason why lots of people visited her booth regularly. Including ME!
There was one booth from Nusa Tenggara Timur that I suddenly stopped for about 15 minutes because there was one man performed in front of their booth. He played very beautiful traditional songs. Many people were also enjoyed his plays.
The pictures below were the booths that I visited in the exhibition and I found each of them offer different feeling.
There are many exhibitions for Indonesian handicraft that you may find them in Jakarta or in local area. So, you can visit regularly to update the unique design and form from every province in Indonesia.
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