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they were used as ceremonial textiles in rites of passage and as decorations at the courts.

      AN OLD TECHNIQUE WITH NEW POTENTIAL

      During the 1930s, the tradition of endek production and use began to detach itself from the closed world of the courts and underwent a renewal. In many villages in Tabanan, and even on Nusa Penida, weavers began to make simple endek materials from handspun local cottons or from factory-produced and patterned yarns on traditional cagcag looms. At this time a dyehouse in Denpasar began marketing factory-patterned endek yarns in large quantities. New techniques and new designs appeared employing loud colors on cotton, silk and soon afterwards on rayon, and new segments of the population became potential customers and wearers of the fabrics as a result. What proved to be the decisive factor, besides the abundance of new geometric and floral motifs, was that the production was no longer completely limited to individual cloths in specific sizes with a surrounding border, but consisted to some extent of yard goods with a continuous pattern for sale by the meter.

      Figure 2.4: Overskirt (kampuh) with depictions of Wisnu (on horseback), Garuda, Naga and Twalen. Endek and songkèt on silk. Karangasem or Klungkung, first half of 20th century, 154 x 114 cm. MEB IIc 7514.

      Figure 2.5: Dyeing of endek bundles. Karangasem, sidemen.

      After independence, this development proceeded at an explosive rate. During the 1950s, the first large workshops were set up in Gianyar and these have now grown into important manufactories. In the 1970s, workshops large and small mushroomed all over Bali—in Sidemen, in the Singaraja area, in Sampalan near Klungkung, and in the neighborhood of Negara (Jembrana, west Bali). By 1989-90 there were 160 commercial endek producers in Bali employing a total of 10,042 people, and the production of checked, striped, plain and endek materials from cotton as well as man-made fibers and silk had by this time burgeoned to an average of 188,000 meters per month.

      The profusion of new patterns reflects the astonishing creativity and technical skills of the Balinese. The modern endek style has changed, and is now dominated by small repetitive geometric designs suitable for traditional and modern dress as well as for furnishings and decorative fabrics. Some workshops also look to the past and copy patterns from old Balinese and east Indonesian originals, while in Lombok one factory has even commissioned a famous American designer to create new patterns.

      At the same time, the endek dyeing and weaving techniques have undergone thorough changes—indeed, far more thorough than those of any other Balinese textile tradition. This process of modernization has been marked by such decisive innovations as the application of new and more efficient winding and warping methods, the use of more convenient tying materials, the introduction of fast-acting synthetic dyestuffs, and a changeover from the traditional cagcag or backstrap loom to the new ATBM loom. A brief look at the individual production stages and a comparison of older methods with newer ones will clearly show how radical these changes have been.

      Figure 2.6: Partial dyeing of endek yarn. Karangasem, Sidemen.

      The first step in the endek process is the winding of threads and their separation into bundles corresponding to the pattern, so that tyings may be applied. The threads are drawn from bobbins suspended on a rack, and wound on a revolving frame that is the width of the cloth to be woven. The weft threads for four meters of cloth were formerly drawn from four bobbins; today the yarns are drawn from racks with 24 to 32 bobbins, yielding cloth lengths of up to 15 meters.

      The tying technique has remained basically unchanged, although now rubber strips or flat plastic string are used instead of vegetable banana bast, as they are easier to apply and make a considerably better resist. Different colors of plastic make it easier to visualize the overall design. Familiar patterns can be reproduced from memory, while complicated and novel motifs are achieved using auxiliary lines drawn from sooted threads and/or a finished cloth or a drawing.

      Improved bobbin wheels (Fig. 2.8) and large warping winders have resulted in great economies of labor. Traditional warping equipment such as is commonly used in songkèt home weaving was once employed (see Chapter 3, Figs. 3.9, 3.10), but the length of the warp produced by such means was limited. Today warps of up to a hundred meters in length are prepared on large winders that are driven by electricity in the more modern establishments.

      The use of synthetic dyes in place of traditional vegetable dyes commenced very early and resulted in major changes in both technique and form. In 1908, Dutch administrators in Bulèlèng bemoaned the loss of quality in endek materials dyed with gaudy aniline dyes. Today naphthol or indanthrene and helanthrene dyes of Indonesian, Japanese or Bast European manufacture are used to the exclusion of all others (Fig. 2.5). The range of shades has been extended, and the dyeing process has been simplified and shortened. Whereas at one time some tyings were removed and new ones were applied for each new dye bath, today only a single bath is used to dye the basic color. The resists are then removed and the bundles arranged, stretched and hung up; other colors are then applied directly to the threads with a pair of toothed bamboo sticks, and rubbed in (Fig. 2.6). This simplified method of application (nyatri) became established in the 1930s and is possible only with synthetic dyestuffs. The winding-off devices for separating, winding up and spooling the colored weft yarns on bobbins have also been modernized.

      Figure 2.7: Overskirt (kampuh). Endek on silk. Bulèlèng, first half of the 20th century. 160 x 106 cm. MEB IIc 19971.

      The last and most crucial technical development came with the introduction of faster looms. In 1928, the first experiments were made with treadle looms set up in a few small workshops in Denpasar and Klungkung. During the Second World War, the Japanese introduced a modernized treadle loom on which coarse cotton cloth and sugar bags of coconut fiber yarn had to be woven. This so-called ATBM loom (alat tenun bukan mesin, or "unmechanized loom") was adapted to the needs of endek weaving during the following decades, and its use has been widely promoted by government programs and loans. Today it is used in all major workshops and manufactories (Figs. 2.9, 2.10).

      The ATBM is a treadle loom with four pedals, a suspended batten, and two shafts with metal heddles for tabby weaving. Its most important feature, however, is a rapid-throwing mechanism which moves the shuttle to and fro automatically on the backward motion of the batten. On the ATBM, as much as two meters of material can be woven per day. The traditional cagcag loom is still used for weaving endek in less modernized areas, or by women who still weave a combination of endek and songkèt, as the complicated songkèt patterns cannot be produced on the ATBM.

      Figure 2.8: Winding of weft yarns with a modern bobbin wheel using a bicycle wheel. Karangasem, Sidemen.

      Figure 2.9: Weaving room in an endek manufactory. Karangasem, Sidemen.

      Figure 2.10: Weaving endek on an ATBM loom.

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