April 5th, 2005
Here are just some of what we saw in the way of paintings! Whether it be on canvas or eggs, the details were absolutely amazing. 'Vibrant' and 'detail oriented' would be two words that I would use to describe the people and their culture.


A painting of a portion of the Barong and Keris Dance story, which represents and eternal fight between good and evil spirits. The Barong (a mythological animal) represents a good spirit and a Rangda (a mythological monster) represents an evil one. This painting is just of the Barong and his friend the monkey and villagers.


Man carrying a rooster. We saw many men wearing hats like this man, in real life and roosters were an important symbol of weath. Later, you'll actually see a man carrying a rooster.


A colorful depiction of the volcano.


Here is the artist, doing another view of the villages and the land.


This man was actually painting off to the side when we went to visit the Bali Bird Park (more on that later) but his eggs were beautiful and so full of detail.


Close up of making the eggs.


The finished products.


More eggs.


I think this is a depiction of a portion of the Legong Dance which is a classical dance by 3 girls.


Black-n-white.


A less hectic painting.

Batiks

We went to a place where we thought we would see batiks being made and then sold, but that was not quite the case. This again, was a situation where we ended up at a place that was pretty touristy in nature (there were no other people there though so we had it all to ourselves). We saw batiks being made, but it was more of a staging area outside of what felt like "The Burlington Coat Factory". Once inside, you were bombarded by thousands of colorful matierials, however, many looked like prints not the actual batiks. However, in the back room area (which had a sign, "No Cameras Please") there were real batiks on display.


Batiks are made by putting wax on material in a patter you choose, to hold the color that is under the wax. After you put wax on the colors you want to save, you then dye the material another color.


They used different effects, like stippling.


After the material is dyed and more wax is applied to the next part of your design, you then dye it another color. You continue this until you have all the desired colors embedded in wax. The material begins to get very stiff.


Up close of a section of globby wax material.


This is a pot of the very hot liquid wax. They dipped a type of stylus into the wax, which has a cup on it to hold the wax. The wax then comes out of the tip of the stylus like a calligraphy pen. Batik is very similiar to the way you make Ukranian Eggs or Pysanky Eggs.


Ok, so Bill snuck one pix back in the "No Camera Zone" before getting followed. So, this one is an actual Batik. And quite pricey.


The decorative carvings are not isolated to just the carving place. This was one of the doors at the Batik compound.


There was also a woman weaving outfront alongside the women who were doing the Batiks.


And again, another very ornate statue outside the door to go inside to see the materials.

We left the batik place a bit disappointed b/c of it's touristy nature, but firmer in our belief that we wanted to stay off the beaten track.

Weaving, Baskets and Rattan

This just happened to be a basket and rattan shop we stopped at, very random, and it was pouring down rain, but as we drove thru this town of all baskets and rattan weavings, we decided we had to stop and at least take a look.


There were lots of different styles of baskets, the big airy ones on the left, are for keeping roosters inside. What we learned was that while cockfighting is illegal, it's still a very big pasttime. Roosters displayed out front of peoples houses, were symbols of how wealthy they were so sometimes you would only see one or two, but sometimes you would see 5 or 6.


Rattan matting, probably used for ceilings.


Bamboo wall divider.


More baskets.




yep, another set of offerings.

© December 6, 2008