Twins Innovate Bekasi Batik

Twin sisters Aulia Ristya Purnama and Aulia Ristya Purnami, both 30, have turned a "grudge" into a promise of nationwide sharing. The sisters taught themselves how to make batik in 2011, and then developed the Adelia Batik handmade batik workshop and production house in Bekasi, West Java. They are empowering the local community by sharing their knowledge in batik making.

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Auliya Ristya Purnama (Lia) dan Aulia Ristya Purnami (Ade)

The women are known as pioneers of introducing batik making to Bekasi. “Adelia Batik” is derived from the nicknames of the identical twins: the elder twin is called Lia, while the younger is called Ade.

The two used to work in an office after university, but then decided to focus on a batik home business. Their enthusiasm was motivated by a plan to capitalize on an innovation of their father, Agus Martoyo, a teacher at a vocational school in Jakarta. Agus invented a machine that prints the Kelowong batik motif, which was originally drawn by hand.

In early October, Lia and Ade opened an exhibition of Bekasi batik motifs at Adelia Batik, located on Jl. Perwira Jaya in Bekasi. The brightly colored handmade batik presented a variety of images distinctive of Bekasi, such as the abang (brother) and mpok (sister) of Bekasi pageants, masked dancers, monuments, crocodiles and ikan gabus (snakehead fish).

We want people to be able to enjoy batik at affordable prices.

The sisters also supervised two Bekasi women who were applying wax by hand on a cloth printed with the Kelowong motif. One cloth with a crane motif and another cloth with a durian motif were also ready to be transformed into beautiful batik. Other workers were designing different motifs on a computer for printing with the Kelowong machine.

Adelia Batik has no difficulty printing batik motifs onto fabric using the Kelowong batik machine. Instead of spending days to hand-draw batik motifs on 3-meter lengths of cloth, the process can now be completed in just a few hours. This means that Adelia Batik can adjust its production to meet demand.

"If a customer wants a batik with a specific motif, we are ready. Batik motifs are no longer rigid. We want people to be able to enjoy batik at affordable prices. Contemporary hand-drawn batik can be developed," said Ade.

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Aulia Ristya Purnami dan Aulia Ristya Purnama.

"We want to prove that Papa’s innovation can help develop batik and regional economic empowerment. Technology is used only for creating the base motif. The rest of the batik making process remains the same," said Lia.

Adelia Batik’s production schedule runs from Monday to Friday, and the workshop employs local housewives. The Bekasi batik it produces is known beyond the municipality, as the Bekasi administration took Adelia Batik’s handmade batik to the Netherlands in 2018. This opened a road for the sisters to collaborate with designer Dwi Lestari Kartika, who presented apparel made from Bekasi batik at the Indonesia Fashion Week 2019.

The secret

Lia and Ade\'s grew increasingly determined to produce their own handmade batik. They poured their savings into Adelia Batik. They visited batik-producing regions, such as Yogyakarta, Cirebon and Tegal, to gain knowledge.

After a year of trial and error, we finally gained the confidence to start production.

"But none of the batik factories we visited wanted to tell us how to dye [the fabric] or how to remove the wax. We tried to do it [on our own] at home, but we did not succeed because we didn\'t know the secrets of dyeing," said Lia.

The “secret” was finally revealed to them when the twins joined their father in presenting the Kelowong batik machine at an exhibition in Tegal, Central Java. There, Lia and Ade met a hand-drawn batik craftsman, who taught them the proper techniques for making batik, including how to remove the wax and how to dye the fabric.

"After a year of trial and error, we finally gained the confidence to start production. We started in the garage, and many women wanted to come and learn. We taught them batik making so [they could make] additional income," said Ade.

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Aulia Ristya Purnami dan Aulia Ristya Purnama.

Lia and Ade then thought about creating a uniquely Bekasi gift. In 2013, they created a batik using motifs drawn from Bekasi culture. The two asked local Bekasi women for their input, and the women suggested jackfruit and lute motifs. Adelia Batik has since designed at least 100 original Bekasi motifs.

The Bekasi municipal administration then launched the workshop’s Bekasi batik, partly because Adelia Batik could manage production from the upstream to the downstream. There are other Bekasi batik makers, but they are located outside Bekasi.

We want to see batik villages grow. We dream of developing batik villages in Bekasi and other areas.

Lia and Ade wanted to share their knowledge on hand-drawn batik to other regions, so they held training workshops in several areas.

They are also generous about sharing the secrets of batik dyeing that took them so long to obtain. "We are open. The training also offers a professional package so participants are able to dye," said Ade.

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Lia and Ade want to share their batik making knowledge towards regenerating batik makers. "We don\'t have background in batik making, we just like it. It’s self-learned. We can make good batik. We want to see batik villages grow. We dream of developing batik villages in Bekasi and other areas," said Ade.

Aulia Ristya Purnama & Aulia Ristya Purnami

Parents: Agus Martoyo and Ririn Airiyanti

Born: Jakarta, 18 February 1989

Education: Bachelor in Accountancy, STIE Trisakti, Jakarta

Expo participation:

- West Java SMESCO Festival Kujang Pusaka at SMESCO Jakarta, 2019

- Indonesia Fashion Week 2019 (collaboration with designer Dwi Lestari Kartika)

- Adiwastra Nusantara Expo 2018

- Indonesian Food and Beverage Expo 2017, Davao, Philippines

- 2018 Asian Games Exhibition, Terminal 3 Ultimate Boarding Lounge, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport

- Inacraft Expo 2014-2015

Award:

- Tourism Ministry Award, Bekasi Night Carnival 2019