On Sunday, for example, a group of 18 housewives from Karanganyar hamlet in Brontokusuman, Yogyakarta, were seen listening to their instructor as they joined a workshop on ecoprinting conducted in their neighborhood.

They eagerly asked questions before they later participated in the ecoprinting process enthusiastically with the assistance of trainers from Lemospires Gallery, which provided the workshop.

“This is the first out of three meetings we have scheduled for this group,” Puthut Ardianto of Lemospires Gallery told The Jakarta Post on the sideline of Sunday's workshop.

He said the first meeting was mainly an introductory session for first-time learners. As such, all the materials and ingredients needed had been prepared beforehand, ready for them to print using various leaves from nature.

By the end of the session, the participants, who were divided into three groups comprising six housewives each, were given raw materials for them to prepare for printing in the next meeting on Saturday.

“I have shared all the instructions in the [WhatsApp] group. You just need to follow the instructions carefully to get the best results,” Puthut told the participants before the printing activity that day.

Puthut said after the third meeting, scheduled for evaluation purposes, the group would still be supervised to make sure participants met the objectives of the workshop.

He said the workshop, which was organized by Muhammadiyah’s philanthropic unit, LazisMu, in cooperation with Sharia Permata Bank, aims to give participants the ability to make ecoprint products independently and to work in groups.

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That accounts for why, he added, apart from the free workshop, participants were also given a set of tools needed for ecoprinting, including stoves, steamers, pots to extract natural dyes, as well as materials to start with.

Puthut also said similar workshops were held in four other regions in Yogyakarta — Bantul and Kulonprogo regencies — and in Klaten and Magelang regencies in neighboring Central Java province for the same purpose.

Ecoprinting is a process of printing on various media containing natural fibers, such as cotton, linen, leather and paper, using leaves and flowers with the help of natural dyes and other additional materials.

The products are considered to be more environmentally friendly as they use fewer chemical ingredients in the process.

Rima Wardiana, a participant of the workshop in Karanganyar hamlet said she was interested in joining the workshop because she wished to produce ecoprint clothes, which she discovered was becoming more popular in Indonesia.

“It turns out, it’s not so difficult making ecoprint cloth. It just needs patience because the process requires several steps,” said Rima, who plans to produce ecoprint products and sell them for additional income for her family.

Syuhada of LazisMu’s Yogyakarta chapter expressed the same hope, saying that he was happy to see the participants’ enthusiasm in joining the workshop.

“I do hope this will be of great advantage during the pandemic,” he said. (swa)

Editor’s note: This article is part of a public campaign by the COVID-19 task force to raise people’s awareness about the pandemic.