Entries about batik

Monday 25th February.

Yogya is lovely, the main street is embellished with ornate lamps, monuments.
 Eat interesting steamed coconuts and brown sugar in a short bamboo stem, pushed piston like out of its tube, served on a bamboo leaf. Buffalo heart Sumatran style curry for dinner.
 Decide to do a batik course. Go and see Affandi’s oil paintings, a famous artist now an old man, his large splurges of colour are typical, on large canvases the giant swirls have to be viewed from a distance, he does self portraits, Borobudur, fishing scenes. On my hired bike I eventually find batik Sofi. Recommended by Dalton for their imaginative clothes. Pleasant house, cold tea and biscuits, mostly female clothes, some interesting antique batik. I buy a dark room primissima open sarong with a gargoyle and garuda motif.
 Visit two courses, one well known and very well organised by an older man, 5 ½ days for £20. Other course a group of younger Indonesian hippycats, talented but very relaxed, guitars, rock music etc. Negotiating 7 days for 15000 rupiahs after slow bargaining, start tomorrow.

Tuesday 26th February.

Our teachers on the batik course

Trudge down to the water palace area and Andrea’s dive. Get straight on with some canting work. Decide to do a hand rising from the cracked earth, the thumb is a flaming candle, and there is barbed wire around the wrist. This attracts great admiration from my mentors for its heavy symbolism and surreal style. Meet Dave and Lehla his Japanese girlfriend. By mid afternoon the effort of concentrating over my cloth whilst sitting on a low stool by a small smoking wok of hot wax has made me unusually tired, have siesta. Play cards all afternoon. Meet Rick from New York.

Thursday 28th February.
Work out complicated perspective of blue dots on a Ming vase with success, put a couple of bright flowers in and a shadow forgiven a cracked glaze in a couple wax process. By accident dye from a fallen petal bleeds into the vase = a reflection. Toto has some large and fantastic surrealistic batik paintings. He has a sponsor in Sweden where he is going to exhibit. He thinks they will be priced at $250. Andreas does abstract works. The whole gang make striking tie dyed and cracked wax T shirts and little waistcoats at casual intervals through the day, in between singing Bob Dylan songs and playing the guitar.

batik ming vase

Friday 1st March
I am much troubled by a tired looking Dutch woman in the evenings. How she found out I was a doctor I’ll never know. She came right up and introduced herself and her problems right out of the blue. Her husband was taken ill a few days ago with a prostrating and painful febrile illness. I agree with the Dutch trained doctor looking after him that it sounded like dengue fever. However he has failed to improve and has had an EMG done, and his blood injected into mice. They are treating him with faradism and cortisone. Most distress generated by the Dutch lady was one evening when big panic looking for acupuncturist. By this stage the hospital had a differential diagnosis of acute alcoholic neuritis or morphine addiction. The patient was causing trouble when they refused his demands for more frequent injection. I have resisted all pressure from the Dutch lady to do a ward round at the hospital, which I suspect will add to the chaos she is generating. When he gets too distressed she slips him a benzodiazepine.

The vase meanwhile is looking quite reasonable.
 Eat Gudang type Javanese food in Marlboro Road with Dave, Lehla and Rick. We buy a durian afterwards. Don’t like it.

Garuda

Saturday 2nd March 1985.

I experience and urgent call to stool every morning, and for the past two weeks have been loose and explosive although only once a day. Decide have irritable colon with increased transit time. I will sit it out!
 My new expensive sarong is staining the bed sheets blue. Losmen Bupurwa (1000 rupiahs per night) up a tiny alley has 5 tiny rooms and a little communal area where we all play cards in the evenings. It’s just around the corner from Supermans the well known traveller's restaurant. And old lady keeps house for the owner, and spends her day flip-flopping around, usually clucking over a baby in a miniature sarong resting on one hip. In the little back yard is her charcoal brazier, there is always a cup of tea on the go “tea Mr?”. There is a communal mandi and all the walls are of plaited bamboo, so it’s all very friendly. I have to be brazen and smile after by volcanic morning visit. Several people pass through the Losmen while myself Dave and Lehla are in residence.
 It usually rains in the afternoon. My razorblades are still doing a satisfactory job after three months. Have black rice pudding every morning for breakfast. Start my batik skull.

Sunday 3rd March 1985.

It was to be an early start with Dave and Lehla for Parangantis (or is it Pharyngitis) for the beach and possibly mushrooms. But the artistic exertions of the week made for a late start. Do a lot of washing in the tiny backyard next to the well. The old woman tut tuts around putting me right several times. My two shirts are bus floor grey with a few indelible stains. My shorts are pretty mucky too. Washing now makes little difference to them. Have a brain wave and will use Andreas' dye baths to brighten them up. So I pop into Andreas' dive and do a bit extra. I have dyed cloth black before when doing the skull. Wax out all background. Bleach and dye to bring out skull. Also wax out hand to dye earth darker.
 Take a trip down to the peoples park in the evening with Dave and Lehla. Decide 1000 rupiahs is a rip off for the warung performance. But must admit it seems reasonable in retrospect. Write many letters.

Monday 4th March.
Extra early start for plod out to Post Office and post letters. None for me. I hope there is something at Kuta! I’ve got used to find something at each poste restante.
 Finish skull and stool Tee shirts . Make one by dyeing black, paraffin wax end and bleach to make cracking. Dye cracks red. Dye my thin white cotton shirt deep red. My other shirt does not dye well being of mixed fibre.
 Decide must leave tomorrow in order to visit Bromo and get to Bali in time to confirm air ticket reservation. Celebrate last night with a beer, what luxury. Agree to leave message for Dave and Lehla in Hong Kong.