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Lombok Pottery, Unique Handicraft from Lombok |
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 The island of Lombok in Indonesia is welll known for its handicrafts and traditional craftwork, in particular pottery, basket-making, and weaving. The three villages of Banyumulek, Masbagik Timur, and Penujak represent the islands major pottery producing areas. Here, where pottery making is their main source of income, the village women have been producing pottery since the decline of the East Javanese Hindu Kingdom of Majapahit in the early part of the 16th century. Even today, the women potters of these three villages pass down their unique skills from mother to daughter in a tradition called "turun temurun".
Since 1988, the Lombok Crafts Project has been assisting the women potters of Banyumulek, Masbagik Timur, and Penujak, to improve their standard of living through technical and marketing assistance. This bilateral development project between the Governments of the Republic of Indonesia and New Zealand is supported by the Indonesian Department of Industry. In each of the three villages, the Project has funded the building of work shelters and showrooms. Technical, quality and design skills have been improved through input by New Zealand advisers, together with administrative, marketing, financial and logistic training.
The objective of the Lombok Crafts Project is to develop a potter-controlled cooperative commercial venture that will create adequate income opportunitis for potters in the three villages, and also provide funding to improve social conditions in the villages for both project and non-project potters. Through this bilateral assistance programme, quality, durability and marketability of the products has improved significantly. The project has helped to substantially increase the income of the potters, and all surplus profits from sales are used by the potters to improve living and working conditions in the villages.
The high level of skill of the Sasak potters is remarkable. With very simple tools, and materials gathered from the local countryside, the women potters of all three villages work in their homes to create earthenware pots of great beauty and utility, with skills passed down from generation to generation. They begin learning the process from a very early age.
Earthenware ceramics represent one of the most ancient craft traditions of Indonesia. Traditionally, pottery in Lombok was used in the village household to store rice, water salt and spices.
Penujak, Banyumulek and Masbagik are the three main villages in Lombok where the pottery comes from. These villages had their own distinct styles and methods which were further developed and improved under the aid plan to an extent that now their pottery products are exported around the world.
In Penujak village, women makes the shape of the pots and men decorating them when they were half dry and proceed on baking and finalize them with additional methode. The decoration it self is quite specific to the pots origin in Penujak their specialty is to the design all their earthenware with gecko motifs their special mark. Banyumulek village uses rattan and old coins to decorate their products and Masbagik, being near the sea, uses the star fish motif.
In Banyumulek Village, potters produce a large and diverse array of earthenware, which is traditionally used for such things as preparation and serving of food as well as ceremonies integral to village life. Banyumulek pots are often embellished with rattan and old coins. In the village of Penujak, potters use simple kilns to fire their pottery. They carve exotic designs into the surface and mark their pottery with lizard or gecko decorations. Lombok pottery made in this area is often thicker than others, giving it a stronger, heavier look. This is due to the preparation process: the clay is pounded before it is mixed with sand and water, not soaked in the water as in other villages.
Making the pots requires painstaking skill and time. The clay comes from hills nearby, delivered to the potter's home by horse-drawn cart. The clay has to be carefully inspected for stones or other impurities before it can be used. The initial part of the process can take up to four days. The potters cut the clay into small cubes and lay it out in the sun to dry. Once the cubes of clay have dried, they are pounded into a clay flour, and stored to be used as a dough. In areas where they do not use a potter's wheel, the potter moves around the object, adding layer upon layer to the original piece of dough. Once the clay-dough has been pressed into the desired shape, it is ready to be decorated. Different villages often add a signature flourish. In Penujak, it is a lizard. In Masbagik, which is a village near the sea, potters will add a star fish.
After this step, the pots once again dry in the shade, after which they will be varnished. Coconut oil and a special type of clay from a different village are used as varnish. Different clays produce different colors. The process of making Lombok pottery is an ancient craft practiced by generations of families and villagers. But there is no exact mold to follow, and each handmade piece is unique, as is the person who lovingly gives it shape, substance and color.
Making the pots is not simple at all; in fact it is a length and complicated process to make one simple pot and this complexity increases with specific orders from buyers. The clay comes from hills nearby these three main villages, where it is brought to the potter's home by horse-drawn cart. The clay can't be used immediately and has to be inspected to ensure there aren't any stones or other impurities in it.
It is then cut into small cubes and dried in the sun. The first step takes three to four days. when the clay cubes are dried, they are pounded into a clay flour, and stored before being used as a dough. What is fascinating to see is that there is no potter's wheel. Instead, layers are continually added to the original piece of dough while the maker herself moves around the object pressing it into the desired shape. although the final shape is apparent the post is not nearly ready. It is now given to someone else for decorating.
The pots are then left in the shade to dry while waiting for the next step in the process which is the varnishing. The pots are varnished with a mixture of coconuts oil and another special type of clay which comes from a different village. Different colours are produced from different clays. The pots are again left to dry before they are scraped with a black stone so that the surface becomes shiny and ready for the next drying process. This takes places in the hot sun and takes almost a full day; it even involves a brushing in the steaming hot midday sun which further improves the luster.
The project has assisted the potters to process their clays in ways which produce a stronger product. The finished pots are coated with a slip made from the same clay, sieved to produce a fine surface which is later burnished with a stone. The earthenware clay that the women use is dug locally and has different qualities in each village. The potters never have to travel more than three kilometres from their houses to find sufficient clay for their needs.
Greyish brown, the indigenous clay becomes a beautiful rich red brown colour when fired. The potters work the clay by hand, sometimes using a round stone and wooden paddle. This is one of the oldest ways of making pottery, and Lombok is one of the few places in the world where it has survived. The large water storage jars are formed by the potter building up and scraping the walls of the pot as she walks around it.
Firing takes place as soon as the pots are dry. After half a day in the sun to finish drying, the pots are stacked in a pile with a variety of fuel including firewood and coconut husks. Once the fire is going well, the stack is covered with rice straw and rice husks which burn out to leave a thick ash cover, holding in the heat for the final stages of firing. The project has taught potters to use more fuel and a longer firing time so that pots are well fired and strong.
The clay used to produced Sasak pottery pots has been approved for food safety by the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Certificate number available on request.
Earthenware products from the Lombok Pottery Centre include food storage items as well as cooking vessels. While handmade earthenware is intrinsically fragile, if handled with care it will last for many years. |
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