T

he Denpasar municipal administration has been actively supporting and promoting producers of local weft textile, locally known as endek, to market their products domestically and abroad.

Endek is the Balinese name for cotton or silk woven fabric, or weft, which was once worn during ceremonial occasions only by members of the nobility. Endek was usually worn as waistcloths or breast coverings.

In the past, the textile was handmade using traditional blackstrap-looms by women in places like Nusa Penida in Klungkung regency and Singaraja in Buleleng regency.

At present, endek is produced all across Bali. Endek is also used for various purposes, including daily wear, furniture upholstery, curtains, bed sheets and other decorative items.

Denpasar Trade and Industry Agency head Wayan Gatra said Denpasar was now developing a type of endek with a distinguished pattern and design.

Endek contains designs of figurative representations, such as animals, puppets, flowers and figures taken from Balinese mythology. The textile uses natural colors like soga brown, indigo, dark green, maroon and black.

The best quality endek is handmade and uses natural dyes from various plants. Each area has its own trademark endek design and patterns.

Denpasar, Gatra added, had a unique form of endek, which his office had registered with the Justice and Human Rights Ministry to protect its intellectual property rights.

"Nobody can copy the design of Denpasar endek without permission from the agency and the maker," Gatra said.

He admitted local endek producers faced difficulties expanding their businesses because of a lack of human resources, capital, and promotion and marketing skills.

"Most producers are *old players' with limited business development plans," he said.

"They can hardly meet mass orders from overseas market because they can only produce limited quantities of items."

Endek textiles are now produced handmade in traditional ways. Moreover, endek makers are still dominated by old women who inherit their weaving skills from their mothers.