(JP/Agus Maryono)

Sulastri fashioned a piece of clay into a flat rectangular shape and then smeared it with kerosene before feeding it into a roof-tile press machine.

The 30-year-old woman from Kebulusan village, Pejagoan district in Kebumen Regency, Central Java, is one of around 2,000 villagers who work in the roof-tile home industry in the regency.

The roof tiles produced by Kebulusan village, known as Soka tiles, come from over 1,000 home industries that share around 100 tile-baking factories left over from the Dutch colonial era.

Agus Ponco, a 49-year-old factory owner, told The Jakarta Post the roof-tile industry had existed in the area since the Dutch era.

"This industry has virtually been inherited from the Dutch," Agus said.

He added the roof tiles produced by the village had become known as Soka tiles during the colonial period because they were distributed to various parts of the country from the Soka railway station in Kebumen.

"The tiles remain famous as Soka tiles today and the name has even been trademarked," he said.

However, while the tiles were previously sold outside of Java, they are now only marketed locally.

"Actually the market demand for Soka roof tiles is unlimited. But we are overwhelmed by orders from around Central Java alone," said Agus.

More than a million tiles are produced monthly, with varying prices, according to the style and size, ranging from Rp 750 to Rp 3,500 per tile.

Agus said Soka roof tiles were one of the three big tile brands in the country.

"Jatiwangi roof tiles in West Java come first, followed by Karangpucung tiles from East Java and then Soka tiles in Central Java."

Agus said the roof-tile making process was quite involved.

"It takes about a month to dig for the clay and mold and bake roof tiles before they are ready for sale. It's quite complicated," he said.

The first step is digging for the clay raw material, which is then stamped to make it soft for easier molding. The clay is unearthed from villagers' own fields or rented land.

"After the stamping, the clay is mixed with sea sand to make it stronger," he said.

The reinforced clay is then fashioned into flat, rectangular shapes a bit smaller than the size of actual finished roof tiles.

"The clay pieces are then exposed to air for three days and nights to remove the water content," said Agus. "The clay cakes are then molded into tiles using press machines."

Molded raw tiles are again subjected to air exposure for five to 10 days out of direct sunlight.

"After this they are dried in the sun for three hours before baking in a furnace," Agus said.

"Then the tiles are taken out of the furnaces for cooling and sorting ready for sale," Agus said.

He said the furnace capacity in Kebumen stood at 20,000 Soka roof tiles per baking process on average.

"The lowest capacity is 15,000 tiles and the highest capacity can reach 27,000 tiles."

For every 20,000 tiles baked, Rp 11 million is needed to cover the costs involved and pay the salaries of the 10 workers who conduct the baking process.

Around 10 percent of the baked tiles end up broken or damaged.

"If this rate increases above 20 percent, we end up with no profit," said Agus.

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