Cultural Inheritance Influence to Indonesia's Abstract Wood Carvings

Indonesia is one of the countries in this world blessed with a diverse culture. This culture has been passed down and preserved from generation to generation. Embedded as well into their culture are their religious duties and aspirations. These two aspects are what serve as guides for their artists in molding their art traditions. Each craft is like a form of scientific study, each requiring a systematic method for a successful output. One of their flourishing art traditions is their woodcarvings. Each piece is carefully carved and transposed into intricate designs that aim to depict more than what each piece physically portrays.

The Wooden Canvas

The Indonesian culture, although influenced by numerous other cultures, is dominantly close in relation to nature and most especially religion. The fact that they use wood as their carving canvas brings us closer to understanding their love and high respect for nature. Wood of different types, from soft to hard, dark to white, are used in all types of wood carvings. Designs such as flowers, plants, trees, animals, and dragons are usual when dealing with Indonesian wood-carved art works. Each work of art is unique therefore is very much cherished by the Indonesian culture and is popular to woodcarving collectors all over the world.

Batik In Easy Steps

There are a great many types of arts and craft projects to attempt. Here you can learn to make wonderful batik items in a few easy steps.

Equipment for the dyeing process
Bucket, hot water, salt, soda ash, dye powder

Procedure for immersion dying
Fill bucket with water (hot enough to dissolve salt and soda ash) add 1 level teaspoon soda ash and 2 level teaspoons salt per liter of water. Dissolve dye powder separately in a glass jelly jar. When fully dissolved add to bucket. When the water is lukewarm, immerse the batik into the bucket and keep it moving gently for approximately 10 minutes. Leave the batik in the bucket for a further 30 minutes moving it occasionally. Rinse batik lightly and leave to dry overnight (minimum time) in order to fix the dye.

Equipment for the application of wax
Tjanting, brushes, wax burner, wax, white cotton fabric

Procedure for application of wax
Heat a mix of 2/3 paraffin and 1/3 beeswax in an approved wax burner to the correct temperature (specified on your burner) fill the tjanting and gently wipe the bowl (to prevent drips) apply the wax to your cloth in the design of your choice. Brushes may also be used at this stage.

Batik Prints

Batik has its origins in medieval Egypt but have currently seen Asian countries as its key manufacturing centers. Within Indonesia, only members of the royal family utilized Batik art work in the old days since they presumed the styles had distinctive significance for their wearers. Despite the fact that the craft originated form Egypt, it has traveled on to other regions of the globe such as Asia and Africa. This has provided each specific batik piece with a unique and distinctive pattern or design as each region draws heavily on local religion and culture.

Batik prints are not just used in various types of clothing such as shirts, scarves and dresses but it is also used for furniture, pictures along with wall hangings. Batik is usually a incredibly labor demanding procedure that produces gorgeous and distinctive patterns on permeable materials such as cotton as well as silk. At the start, cloth, normally white or cream in color is cleaned in boiling water to remove all traces of many other materials such as starch before the procedure commences.

Look at Batik and The Humble Scarf

When concerned with the fusion that is the Batik Scarf, one must realize that both the scarf and batik prints are items that were invented hundreds of years ago. They both have their place in history books and they are both very relevant to today's fashion scene. Let us take a look at both these items in detail.

The Scarf


The origins of the humble scarf is believed to have taken place in ancient Rome. While primarily used as a cloth to wipe sweat off ones face, some Romans began using it as a fashion accessory. They were called Sudarium, which literally translates into a sweat cloth in the Latin language.

Asmat Woodcarving

The typical Asmat woodcarving is one of Indonesian cultural wealth that already has a name for foreign tourists. The characteristics of the Asmat carving are a unique pattern and naturalist. From the patterns, you can see the complexity of how to make it. Thus, they become a valuable carving work.

In terms of the model, Asmat carving is very diverse, ranging from human statues, boats, panels, shields, drums, kaswari egg up the pole. Asmat usually adopt the experience and the everyday environment as their carving patterns, such as trees, boats, animals, people who are boating, people who are hunting, and many more.

Carving is a living tradition and a ritual that is closely associated with the spirituality of life and respect for ancestors. When the Asmat carve, they do not just make pattern on wood, but they also flow a spirituality of life.