Remember about SONGKET..?! Hand
made cloth that a weaver needs 1-3 months to create just one of it.
Since a few of traveltojambi.com readers emailed me how to choose and
buy songket Jambi then I would like to write this article to help them. But please note that until now I can not help you to be your songket broker, and I am not a songket trader, but if you come here to Jambi and asking me to accompany you it would be different, as long as I have time to do it, it would be my pleasure to help you here in Jambi.
Since 2010 the government of Jambi Province which initiated by
wife of the governoor, Mrs. Yusniana HBA, have been opening a formal
songket creation studio located in Broni, Telanaipura, Jambi City, named
"Rumah Tenun" (House of Weaving Craft). At this building you may find
songket being made or you can buy "ready to sell" and "fresh from oven"
songket. The building management said that they sell songket of Jambi
with best price, and indeed a customer would have best quality and
specific pattern which is hard to find and so expensive in the market.
Beside as center of songket creation training, "Rumah Tenun" was also
dedicated as a provincial promotion center of songket Jambi.
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| Rumah Tenun (House of Weaving Craft), Kota Jambi |
Manager
of "Rumah Tenun", Mr. Arief Setyo, said that a promotion of songket
Jambi is needed since most of people in Indonesia know songket only
without understanding about its specific characteristic derived by
certain ethnic. "This 'Rumah Tenun' help people to distinguish between
songket Jambi origin and other kind of songket in Indonesia, including
other Malayan songket from Malaysia, Brunei, and Thailand." According to
a songket creation trainer there, a price of songket determined by its
thread quality, difficulty level of songket pattern, rare pattern, and
plant machinary role. A hand made will guarantee you a higher quality of
songket compared to a quality that made by modern machine. And a very
rarely pattern is just like having a bone of dinosaur, people who
understand it would like to snatch it from you. For you who want to buy
songket Jambi may come to Telanaipura, Kota Jambi and visit this Rumah
Tenun, if you think you don't know about songket at all, don't worry,
"Rumah Tenun" will help you with pleasure, they wil tell you anything
you want to know about songket.
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| Weaving a songket |
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| Real songket weaver working without loom |
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| A loom |
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| Using loom to weave songket |
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| Weaving mold |
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| A rare pattern, "Kajang Lako" |
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"Fresh from oven"
|
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| Sold out, only for display purpose |
Mrs.
Siti, one of songket trainer at "Rumah Tenun" told that the studio
produce 11-12 songket in 3 months. "We have only 12 weaver and in one
time we can only produce 1 songket by one weaver. One time means 2-4
months depends on pattern a weaver picked to weave." Further, Mrs. Siti
explained that people who are learning how to create songket cannot be
involved in production since they are not able to set the quality yet.
"For those who are visiting "Rumah Tenun" may buy our production
directly or they can order with specific quality or pattern to match
their purchase power. "But, please notice that we always lack of
production here because no matter how many we produce songket here they
are always sold out in short time. For now, only a few songket for sale and the rest songket you can see here just merely for
display only and not for sale." explained her.
And,
by the way, price you will see there vary from a 1.8 million to 12
millions (US$ 150 to 1100) which these would be much higher when you buy
them in Jakarta. :) Good luck then...!
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