After being hit hard by the recession in the first 3 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, batik crafters in numerous parts of Indonesia have actually begun to discover their feet making and offering batik cloth masks.
Haryati Suroso, owner of Batikque Batik in Sleman, Yogyakarta, told Kompas everyday paper on Friday that her service had actually been shaken when the pandemic required most tourist locations and hotels in the province to temporarily close down.
Throughout the early stages of the pandemic, she stated, her service relied on the Upakarti Sleman Gallery to sell its products.
” We utilized to be able to make displays and provide batik-making classes at hotels and tourism destinations, however all of those establishments have actually been required to restrict their operations during the pandemic,” said Haryati.
While in normal times Haryati’s service might generate at least Rp 20 million (US$ 1,345) monthly, in those three months, she made no revenue.
Haryati started to see a light at the end of the tunnel in May when she got orders for fabric masks from numerous government organizations as part of a program handled by the region’s COVID-19 task force.
” At that time, we still had a lot of left-over fabric or fabric with mixed up colors, so we turned it into fabric face masks,” stated Haryati, who started making batik in 2012.
Since getting the orders in May, she began to discover a market by selling her items online. Today, Haryati can earn a minimum of Rp 5 million a month.
” We’re beginning to recuperate in regards to offering batik clothes, but our profits is still half what it was,” she added.
In Other Places, Lily Mariasari, a designer and creator of Elemwe store, said that her service’ profits dropped 70 percent at the start of the pandemic.
Despite the problems of the time, she chose to continue supporting batik crafters in Jakarta to help them stay afloat.
Twelve batik makers that Lily supports live in an affordable apartment or condo in Tambora, West Jakarta. She has been supporting them considering that October2019 The crafters produce batik clothes with concepts inspired by Jakarta’s Betawi culture.
” We’re lucky that these crafters can still create clothing, especially during the pandemic. They even managed to take part in the Karya Kreatif Indonesia [Indonesia’s Creative Creation] event held by Bank Indonesia,” stated Lily.
She added that the crafters were mothers and spouses, who used to just produce 12 products each week. “Now they can produce 20 batik items weekly.”
With the assistance of these women and other batik makers in Jakarta, Lily stated her boutique could produce 5,000 batik cloth masks per day.
” Around 70 percent of my orders are for fabric face masks, while the staying are for batik clothes, outfits and devices,” she included.
Meanwhile, Agustina Giarawati, a batik fabric producer from Surakarta, Central Java, said her organization lost about 80 percent of its incomes in the early days of the pandemic.
In the very first month of the pandemic, she was only able to offer 1,000 batik clothes– a quantity that in typical times, she might sell in a week.
However, a number of months later, her organization began to rebound after receiving face mask orders for contributions, a market that rapidly grew.
To produce the face masks, she uses stamped batik fabric.
” My everyday earnings is around Rp 500,000 The orders mainly originate from Bali and Surakarta,” said Agustina. (nkn)
Editor’s note: This post is part of a public project by the COVID-19 task force (Satgas COVID-19) to raise individuals’s awareness about the pandemic.
