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View all search resultsBookworm: Okke Hatta Rajasa: Promoting, protecting traditional fabrics
JP/Niken PrathiviOkke Hatta Rajasa, the founder and chairwoman of Cita Tenun Indonesia, an organization focusing on preserving Indonesiaâs textile traditions, believes that books are the most valuable tools at promoting and protecting local fabrics
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JP/Niken Prathivi
Okke Hatta Rajasa, the founder and chairwoman of Cita Tenun Indonesia, an organization focusing on preserving Indonesia's textile traditions, believes that books are the most valuable tools at promoting and protecting local fabrics.
'Letting the world know that certain fabrics are ours is my way of protecting our cultural heritage, which includes tenun woven fabric,' Okke said.
Known for her unflinching efforts to document and promote woven fabrics and empower the craftspeople who make them, Okke relies on tenun-related books to help her discuss the topic on international stage.
'I often take tenun books, the ones supported by Cita Tenun Indonesia, when I go overseas to attend various cultural events,' Okke told The Jakarta Post.
On one occasion, in New York a couple of years ago, Okke said she had the chance to hand over a tenun book as a gift to television personality Martha Stewart.
'[The book] helps us promote the fabric ' and we don't even have to talk too much about it. Let them read,'
Okke said.
Her three favorite books on tenun are Tenun: Handwoven Textiles of Indonesia, Woven Indonesian Textiles for the Home and Floating Threads: Indonesian Songket and Similar Weaving Traditions.
Tenun: Handwoven Textiles of Indonesia
This is a basic book about tenun. It explains the fabric in general.
It provides a summary of Indonesia's interesting textile history. There has been no proper documentation of the country's various traditional textiles, such as Bali's double ikat, Sumatra's gold-thread songket, East Nusa Tenggara's warp ikat and other weaving that forms the national heritage.
The tremendous variety and uniqueness of these textile traditions may be blamed for the ongoing lack.
Woven Indonesian Textiles for the Home
The book gives you information on tenun from a specific perspective: interior design. It shows you that woven fabrics aren't just for clothing.
We know that, for example, the Japanese love traditional fabrics, and they like to use them as home decoration.
What's more interesting, there's extra economic value when using woven fabrics for home decoration ' you need more than four meters of fabric for home décor, which means more transactions for the craftsmen.
Floating Threads: Indonesian Songket and Similar Weaving Traditions
by Judi Achjadi
The author of this recently published tome has more than 50 years' personal experience with Indonesian textiles, including tenun.
The book focuses on songket, which is actually a particular technique used to decorate tenun fabric. The book offers a better understanding of the technique, which is essential.
