October 25, 2022

Pulang ke Lasem

Me and Ibu Ramini showing one of her latest batik designs with pembatiks on it

Students showing their paper batik design made during my workshop at their school

The view on the way to the beach


At the train station of Semarang while writing this. The chaos of traveling here. The bus back was much more relax than the one who brought me to Lasem. I can never get used to the swarm of men who get in your face the moment you get out a train, bus or plane. “Miss, sendiri?”, Are you alone/by yourself?… 
Anyway, traveling back to Jakarta after an amazing week in Lasem and the region Rembang. To keep the tradition going, I traveled to Lasem on 17 October, like I did in 2009, in 2016 and in 2019. This time I arrived pretty late, since the plan with travel (by car who also drops of packages) turned out to be a too long travel, but I already booked my train ticket to arrive pretty late. I enjoyed the view I had from the train & bus until it got dark.
At the busstop, I got picked up by Mas Pop. I only met Mas Pop for the first time last time, when he invited me to give a talk at Rumah Merah.
With my bags, I jumped on the back of his scooter and headed to Mbak Yullia home. Mbak Yullia kindly offered me to stay in her home from which she runs the yayasan Kesengsem Lasem
I got treated to a home cooked meal which was such a welcome thing after my unhappy stomach the days before ~ tofu baked in palmsugar, some vegetable with white rice. I was right away so happy to return here although the house was a bit crowded with also 3 other researchers and a baby arriving that same evening. 

Enjoying Ibu Ramini's new designs

New generation ready to follow in Ibu Ramini's footsteps, hopefully

Looking together at natural dyed batiks in the magazine BATIK!


The next morning first place I wanted to go was desa Jeruk. When I was on the back of Mas Pop scooter and I saw the landscape change when getting closer to desa Jeruk, it felt like butterflies.
We first went to Ibu Ramini who runs KUB Srikandi. Although Ibu Ramini is not of big expressions, I knew she was glad to see me too. Last time I noticed Ibu Ramini already knew some English and this time it was even more. We are growing in language closer together, as Koen nicely put it. 
I brought the magazine BATIK! with me and the booklet of the theaterplay ‘Lichter dan ik’ after the book by Dido Michielsen, for which Guave designed the outfits using fine Batik Tulis by Ibu Ramini I still had on stock. It took a minute to explain it, but when she realised she looked so proud. Her being known in the Netherlands is of course a bit surreal. But I am happy I get to share this with her through photos & publications.
Ibu Ramini shared her latests designs, including a batik with pembatiks on it, absolutely wonderful. Again there were lovely colour combinations that for me are so unique in her Batik. I invited ibu Ramini for my exhibition ~ she had so many practical questions, love it ~ At the end of the visit the maybe was already a yes.
Her pembatiks had a few days off, so I returned another day to meet them.

Ibu Maryati giving guidance to her pembatik

Ibu Maryati going through the unfinished pieces to show me new designs

After our visit to Ibu Ramini we headed to Ibu Maryati. Ibu Maryati of Batikworkshop Gading Kencana was in the middle of preparing for the Batik event in Yogya and was sad she had to leave later that day. While being so busy , still fruit and tea was brought out and Ibu Maryati insisted I go take a look in the back. They build a new space for the batikworkshop which is a bit dark, but very cool. A big plus working with hot wax old day. Mas Pop was taking a break outside, so I tried my best to answer all the questions. Ibu Maryati was really pleased with my Indonesian and so were the pembatiks. 
Ibu Maryati showed me also a few new designs, still in wax, with very fine detail. She explained they take about 3 months to complete ~ all are made pre-orders ~ Ibu Maryati had to continue preparing, so we headed off to our next stop, only to be stuck in the rain right away. Moving two times in between the heavy rain, we got stuck for a few hours.  
It was good to catch up with Mas Pop, just sit, watch the rain and relax.

Warung Nyah Lasem at night

Overview of the Batik display at Museum Nyah Lasem

When the rain stopped we headed to Warung Nyah Lasem. This beautiful traditional Chinese house is now a restaurant and exhibition space. In the exhibition, next to a general history of Lasem, a very interesting batik archive is shown containing letters, labels and other old material from batikworkshops. I got so curious to dive in it further, that it was quickly arranged I should meet the owner of the original documents, and the building, the upcoming days. I fully returned to Lasem when I got served my food which included ‘lotak’, on which the famous ‘latohan’ motif in Batik Lasem is based. 

Mbak Eka after her interview

The next day, Wednesday, we went to Mbak Eka. In 2019 I visited Mbak Eka of Lumintu for the first time ~ I had little time and Mas Pop brought me in the early morning before my other program started. Mbak Eka story is very inspiring, she is third generation batikmaker of which her grandparents made batiks, but her parents did not. After returning home to take care of her mother, she re-opened the batikworkshop. Since the re-start, she has been trying to find out what classic design she can recreate so her batikworkshop can grow. For the recreation she gets inspiration mostly from books.
When started writing my plan for Erasmushuis, I hoped Mbak Eka would want to be part of it. When she hear about my exhibition, she was so happy I wanted to include her work. Mbak Eka had many ideas and was already thinking of how she could make the best one to represent Lumintu. Also got to interview her right away. 
For our photo together Mbak Eka got me a batik & slendang to wear. We recreated the little video Mas Pop recorded of me in 2019 of me modeling the batiks while making the pembatiks laugh. 
When looking at the batiks, finished and unfinished, Miss Tasya arrived. Tasya reached out to me on Instagram a few days before and was super excited I was here! The place she works at! Tasya is a tailor who also draw (trace) the designs for the batiks on the white cotton. She showed me some of her recent made outfits using batik. To my surprise Tasya had take my measurements since Mbak Eka wants to make an outfit for me for my exhibition!! Wow!

Two batiks with the same designs by Mbak Eka in different colour combinations. 
It shows how the feel of a batik, the expression can change with the use of colour

Pembatiks of Lumintu; 
Ibu Suwati, Ibu Wakini, Ibu Sutimah, Ibu Lasmirah & Ibu Ngatijah
 
In the afternoon we headed to Djuwita Batik, a not yet opened boutique with ready to wear Batik outfits & boots. They were in the final finishing steps before their opening the upcoming week. The designers had many questions regarding what people in Europe like. While I cannot speak for Europe, I do know what people like in the Netherlands, but it is also more a choice based on what they are familiar with. When people learn more about Batiks, the different styles and colours or makers, they grow in taste too. So maybe at first a Tiga Negeri dress will seem to busy, but maybe after buying their first batik, the second will be already with more colours or patterns.

Being shown around at Djuwita Batik

After our visit, went to shop a suitcase, since my whole plan of fitting everything in my backpack already failed. After that we headed towards the beach to watch the sunset. The beach and route to it is so beautiful. The region is blessed with white sand beaches, but of course filled with trash unfortunately. 
Everyone drives their scooter on the beach, so I got off and walked a bit, looking at the birds, seashells and a tiny dead shark, what?! Before it got to dark we headed back. 

On Thursday was a wow wow what wow day. Started at Ibu Ramini in the morning to interview her and to discuss new colour options for the slendangs. So exciting! I also tried to find out what was happening with the brown. When I got one coloured batiks in the past they were really nice ‘cokelat’ brown. A second batch turned out more dark ‘es teh’, sienna, still a very nice colour. When re-ordering this colour, we got a really light, uneven coloured batch in. A remade batch was still too light and uneven. According to Mas Pop, we talked business for 2 hours, but I was really happy we got to discuss the options and explaining we prefer waiting longer or paying more and have a “perfect” brown than going for a lesser quality. I placed my orders and we will see how it goes.
After Ibu Ramini headed to Kidang Mas. We stopped by the giant tree Trembesi. I always see it in photos, so great to see it myself, it is very pretty and huge. A batikshop is on one side and a grave on the other side, Mas Pop didn’t want to tell my anything about either, so have to revisit with another guide maybe next time. 
The very old tree

After the tree we continued to Kindang Mas. I somehow never been there before and when I ran into the owner Mas Rudi at Ibu Maryati’s house, he said “please come by any time”. 
We were welcomed by his wife Ibu Vina. She showed me the batikworkshop while Mas Pop took a nap. The batikworkshop has been in the family for 6 generations, on the same location, a beautiful traditional Chinese style house. After the tour through the workshop, we went to the shop across the street.
In the shop I got to see the classic motifs, like Tiga Negeri (here with ‘es teh’ brown) and Kendoro kendiri (with dark brown), next to the new fun designs by Ibu Vina with cars and cactuses, which was a big success the next day at school. 
Ibu Vina asked if I worked at the label Guave too, since the last foreign visitors were Romée and Myrthe. I explained I work with them, but I am more active as a researcher. She responded with, oh I have a question for me: “What is handelen?”. “Handelen, I know what it means, but where did you see this word”, I asked. Turns out Kidang Mas still uses the old stamps from a previous generation for their batiks. One with just Chinese characters, one in Chinese and one in Dutch. The ‘handelen’ was actually “handel en batikkerij”, so “shop and batikworkshop”. I asked if I could get the stamps on paper, we laughed a lot, since they didn’t work so well on paper and every time Ibu Vina lifted the stamp we were like “Oh no”.

Me and Ibu Vina of Kidang Mas

Old stamps of Kidang Mas

After Kidang Mas we headed to Warung Nyah Lasem for lunch. Mas Agik showed me two metalboxes filled with canting. We had another appointment, so we had to go there first. 
We went to Afnan Soesantio the owner of the interesting archive on Batik in Lasem is I saw at the Museum Nyah Lasem.
Pak Soesantio showed me the orginal documents, which I could photograph while we spoke Dutch. Pak Soesantio not just learned Dutch when he was little, he went many times to the Netherlands for his postage stamp collection. His family had a batik business. The documents were kept by his father and later by him, even though Pak Soesantio had no interest working with batik. I am very happy to find this small fascinating archive in Lasem! And I was invited to return to see more documents.

Document from the Pak Soesantio collection

Old canting collection of Mas Agik

The little display I made with it

When we returned to the warung/museum turned out Mas Agik wanted me to curate a small exhibition with his old canting collection. A small table and glass case were already standing ready ~ so yes ~ While selecting, I was thinking it would be nice to include my canting earrings. I have brought an extra pair with me, just in case, so I could leave one pair behind. It was really happy with the result and so was Mas Agik! The temporary small exhibition will be on view till 20 November

Got to give my paper sarong workshop

For about 280 children

Who all worked very hard

And made great designs together

Friday I got to give my paper sarong workshop at Ibu Yullia’s school were she teaches English. When we talked on the phone in Jakarta, she asked me if I was open to do an activity. While I try to not do too much program to keep the focus on the preparations for the exhibition, giving a workshop at a local school is too much fun to say no too.
Little did I know that the workshop was for all the classes of SMP Negeri 2 Rembang, which was about 280 children. I could not imagine how you would practically do it, but here it is more the norm apparently.
All the classes of the school joined in for the ‘project class’. This project class can be any kind of lesson as long if it teaches the kids about local culture. So Batik is perfect. And the idea of making works in group appealed to the school since the kids didn’t have any group activities since the pandemic.  
When all the children entered, I felt a bit overwhelmed, but when I started give my short intro on myself & Batik with questions and answers from them ~ in both Bahasa Indonesia and English. “What is done after the drawing with the canting?”, “Kering”, “Drying, not yet, first dyeing”.
After the presentation, they started making a pattern individually on a small paper. I walked around, showing them my recently bought classic & modern batiks from Lasem & the region Rembang.
Phones were used to look up motifs, which resulted in many drawing ‘mega mendung’ which is a motif from Cirebon.
When all had a small drawing finished, it was time for the bigger paper, or actual have a break first, but most kids wanted to keep on drawing. 
On the bigger paper 6 or 7 children worked together, their small drawing could be used as inspiration to make batik design. They were invited to discuss how they would combine it. I walked by, showing some that were starring at their blank paper how they could repeat or use the motifs they already draw. 
When everyone got the assignment,  it was so fun to see what they made together, thinking how each motif could be featured. These kids are hard workers. Everything was done so precise, first with pencil, to trace over with felt-tip pen or coloured in with crayons. 
Most works didn’t get finished, and many requested if they could stay longer, but the lesson was almost done. So we ended with asking several to present their work. Although it goes with many laughs, they explained so greatly who made what and got many wow’s & applause from their fellow schoolmates. 
It was an amazing morning and experience, thanks Mbak Yullia for inviting me to SMP Negeri 2 Rembang, looking forward to return next year!

 Ibu Sulasmi, Ibu Suharti and Mbak Sri at KUB Srikandi

Ibu Ramini showing my photos

Saturday morning I returned to Ibu Ramini again. The batikmakers would be back and working again. Ibu Yullia joined me, since she got super excited seeing the batiks I bought from Ibu Ramini the day before. Even another teacher requested photos so she could buy as well. 
It was good to see Ibu Sulasmi again, and meet Ibu Suharti and Mbak Sri. At the moment Ibu Ramini only has five regular pembatiks and two come part-time when there is more work. Actually it was the same before the pandemic, so pretty stable if you compare with others. Mbak Eka had to let go of 1/3 of her pembatiks because sales has dropped.
We asked how the pandemic was to the makers. They stayed home about 2 months, but soon started working again, since income was needed.
We talked some more business with Ibu Ramini and about researchers in the region. Ibu Ramini pulled out proudly a photo-album which includes photos I took and one of me as a 25 year old and a postal package I send. It was so good to see how she keeps and cherish the things I send to update her on her growing fandom in the Netherlands.

More from Pak Soesantio's collection

After Ibu Ramini, Ibu Yullia dropped me of at Mbak Eka. Mas Pop was staying there so together we headed to Warung to eat and to look at some more archive. 
This time Pak Soesantio had a stack of old letters from a Sumatran businessman running batikshop in Pekalongan. I photographed them all, unwrapped some to photograph the backside. Again interesting material which Pak Soesantio is also happy to lend me if I want to make an exhibition.

Pembatik Ibu Lasmi of batikworkshop Nyah Kiok

The same design or over 50 years


Mas Pop wanted to show me a place before it was closed.  We went to again a beautiful Chinese home, yet this one looked abandoned. The owner passed away, recently, and the family who took over lives in Surabaya. Yet the batikworkshop Nyah Kiok located in the back of the house continues. The pembatiks come on their own accord to produce the most oddest batik, one single motif for over 50 years. The design with a red base of bamboo with two birds in it while butterflies fly above on a background of kind of ‘gunung ringgit’ has been made from as early as the 70’s accorded to the oldest, lead-pembatik Ibu Lasmi. Within 3 months 100 batiks with this motif are being produced and send to Surabaya, only leaving a hand full in Lasem. 
Shortly after our arrival the pembatiks finished their workday to return home on their bicycles. 

Pulang

Mas Pop had one more house for me in store before we headed to another beach. This old house had both a Buddhist and a Chinese altar in the home. The house is empty, but the altars are still lighted, with electric light, and offerings are made by the housekeeper. Outside it had decorated shutters, which includes a really strange cat. A magical and weird place. 

Beautiful, weird, magical house

With this cat! 


We ended the day at the beach, another beach with a route that passes by fishing-boats. One boat got pulled with the tide and got stuck. An amazing sight with the setting Sun, but the owner had to wait until 12 for the water to rise again.

Sunday was a relax day with another beach visit in the morning and lots of rain in the afternoon. While writing this I still have 1,5 hour to go by train, 13 hours on the road in total to Jakarta. But having a nice neighbour to make the time go faster.


Ayo, saya tiba di Jakarta, arrived in Jakarta, until next update!

October 18, 2022

“I wonder how many dots we make"

~ Mbak Siti said while carefully making tiny dots with the canting in wax during my visit to Miss Nurul's home

Buketan inspired costume during Batik Carnival Parade in Pekalongan

Miss Nurul and her family making Batik at their home

Repro's of Fairytale batiks at Museum Batik in Pekalongan


In the bus to Lasem, a pretty bumpy ride and had a few hours a curious neighbour who wanted to know if I knew all the places that have Batik. I got pretty far, still many places I haven’t visited yet.
My week in Pekalongan and Batang went by so quickly and I am happy I know I will return already next month.
My head is busy from all the input & information I got in Pekalongan & Batang. Of course you hope that everyone is just doing good, maybe wish it is going a little better, but it is not well with our Batik city and the pembatiks in this region.

Making a little Batik at the Museum Batik

That disappeared, so didn't see final result

On Saturday Museum Batik was busy as always, but the new exhibition was still being build up. However I was happy to be back here, the space I took my much needed breaks when I was here last time as a special guest.
Went through the exhibition which had reproductions of classic fairy tale designs. The repro in Batik Tulis show nicely when there is access to the original or not. My guess is all were made from books, with some having more detailed images than others. Might dive into this more another time, but will put here photos to compare. 

Batik with Snow white, Original from after 1906

Repro of Snow White at the Museum Batik in Pekalongan

Batik with Little Read Riding Hood - NOT by Von Franquemont 
- wrongly attributed, original from around 1910
At Museum Danar Hadi in Solo

Repro of Little Red Riding Hood at the Museum Batik in Pekalongan

After taking a look around, Ibu Mourni said I should make a batik. The batikworkshop space the museum has is very popular and every day you can learn applying the wax with cap & tulis and even the dyeing. Ibu Mourni let me pick multiple caps and gave me a bigger cloth. Ibu Mourni showed me once how it was done, so I could mess up the border pretty nicely myself. I only did it once correctly, but in my defence haven’t tried a cap since 2009, I think.
Of course had to do the tulis too. There was no time to colour it, since it was busy and when I returned the next Friday my work disappeared. Most likely coloured in by someone else, which I take as a compliment.
I brought the magazine BATIK! to give to museum, Ibu Nurhayati meet me to accept it from the library. She right away tried the wrap tutorial and asked me to explain what other articles were in there, since it is written in Dutch. 
Spend last time here many moments between events drinking kopi. So when Mas Lani saw I was offered tea, he came back with kopi. 
I looked for kucing (cat) Frederika, I think she might not be there anymore, but a very pregnant cat was now roaming the halls that could be her daughter. 

Ibu Nurhayati received a copy of the magazine BATIK! from me
for the museum library collection

After the museum I went to Pekan Batik. The always booming Batik Week event was now an empty space. The big venue has not been filled due to too high prices for stalls, little customers who can afford to buy and the floods…Really sad to see. I thought they will be back with a bang, celebrating Batik. It surprised me, I would have wanted to fill the space.

Mbak Siti showing me her batiks made 
with both natural and synthetic dyes

The red she made by accident, and the retry on cotton that turned brown

The seeds she uses to colour her batiks

On Sunday I went to meet Mbak Siti. So great to see her again after 3 years. Her daughter has grown so much, but still loves to draw and a new baby boy is already a toddler. Mbak Siti showed me her latests experiments. It is so inspiring and beautiful to she her creations. Next to bought better known natural dyes like Indigo, Mbak Siti sources her ‘warna alami’ near here home. She even planted one in front of the house. She opened up the spiky fruit it bears to reveal tiny seeds. The seeds give her an orange kind of brown. With just dyeing pretty bright but with boiling out the wax it becomes more beige. She also showed me a bright red  which happened by accident, but she couldn’t recreate. 
Although there is no local market for her natural dye, she is determine to continue learning and hopes one day more will follow in her region. I am so so so happy I can include her amazing work(s) in my upcoming exhibition. In the meantime I will work with her on dye recipes and improving the market ~ because we need to re-love natural dye, we are so used to our bright, flat colours, that every dot or fade seems like a mistake, but it is not, it is the beauty of hours of labor.
Miss Nurul joined us also, and she said yes too. It was so wonderful to spend the morning here, talking batik and future plans. 

Mak Si'Um showing her latest design

On Monday I went to Batang again. In the morning a live event was being hosted by Batik community Rifai’yah in Kalipucang. It was live streamed to Portland. In the gallery we looked on a screen what was actually happening around the corner.
Mbak Siti met me at the event so we could meet Mak Si’Um. 

I was I this region longer in 2016 when I visited many of the batikmakers in region and filmed some for my short film ‘Tari Batik’.
In 2019 I only got to see some shortly and missed Mak Si’Um. So I was so glad I got the visit Mak Si’Um now twice. This granddame of Batik has been making batik since 10 years old and is approaching 90. Every day she still makes Batik, her own fun designs since she says she cannot produce the fine lines any more. However her Batik is unique and really modern. At the moment she still does everything herself, from the wax until the lorod {boiling out}. Hope Mak Si’Um daughter(s) will start helping their mother in producing more of her designs, Mak Si’Um has so many ideas and it would be amazing if her Art can be enjoyed by more to see. My exhibition being one of them!

Although the batiks from Batang are getting better known, the batikmakers have a hard time. I heard sells had stopped since the pandemic, the money they make now is directly put into new mori {cotton cloth} to be able to produce new Batik. The strength these women have to to keep pushing forward, keep making Batik, not just because it what they do or know, it is truly a commitment of love. That can use much more support. Not just in words, events, promotion, but more practical in the production and in funding…

At Miss Nurul's home

On Tuesday after visiting Mak Si’Um again, I returned to Miss Nurul’s home. I met Miss Nurul and her family first in 2016. That is when I also met Mbak Siti, to find someone speaking fluent English in a desa like this is a big surprise and I have to thank Mbak Siti for making time for me to help me with interviewing Mak Si’Um who only knows Javanese.
Back to Miss Nurul, one of the youngest makers I know, I filmed her in 2016 and returned in 2019 when I did a workshop with them. When I was there Miss Nurul and her family were producing batiks for an upcoming event in Jakarta and for the many orders she got. Instagram really helps her to reach more people and happy to see that at least somewhere sells are picking up. But it also shows how difficult it is for the older generation if re-seller don’t come to the kampung to buy, orders stop and they have no other way of selling their batiks.
At Miss Nurul home everyone joins in the making. Nurul works every day together with her two sisters, mother and aunt. Even Mbak Siti takes some orders at home.
It was great to be there; talking designs, history, inspiration and ideas for the future.
Wish I could stay here all week, but these women have orders to make & households to run. So I am still so so so honoured I got to spend time with them and feel so welcome.

Design by Ibu Widianti

Wednesday I got to meet Ibu Widianti who runs the famous batikworkshop Oey Soe Tjoen. We already met through the phone but this was the first time in person. I am so happy we got to meet twice this week & looking forward to returning to Pekalongan next month.
Ibu Widianti is preparing for an exhibition and a book to celebrate 100 years OST in 2025. The exhibition will be held in Jakarta. For this she is producing new batiks, classic design and of her own hand. Ibu Widianti shared some of her own designs with us and they are the cutest Batik I have ever seen. Fun, cartoon design with all the OST quality and detail. One was of school kids playing and an unlaying theme of cleaning up rubbish. The other displayed the life of Jesus. 
I hope to include Ibu Widianti own work in my own exhibition. So I will return to Pekalongan to discuss this further and interview her. I will keep you posted about it, so exciting!

Eco Print workshop at Museum Batik

Thursday I was a little unwell for a day, so the day after I thought a relax workshop at Museum Batik would be a good way to spend the day. Turned out Eco Printing is very labourful (why is this not a word). I remember my niece Surya de Wit explaining it as “basically you just hammer to flowers into a pulp”.
After the instructions we starting hammering away, only to find out the hammers were too soft for the pretty tough leaves. Everyone got really creative using the wood of the hammer. Although it was a bit much, I had a lot of fun, also because of my kind fellow participants who has all kind of questions for me. Pretty happy with the result, although I couldn’t pulp it that much. Curious how the colours will change over time.

Batik Carnival





Saturday I had the great honour of being in the jury of this years Batik Carnival Parade in Pekalongan. My fellow juries were no other than Ibu Widianti of OST, Arif Tuep of the Solo Batik Carnival and Arif Wicaksono of Kampong Batik Kauman.
I was in the jury in 2019 ~ which was a dream come true ~ and to be invited again for the first edition after the pandemic is so amazing, I am so over the moon.
As a jury we started at 8 in the morning to see all the videos the participants made of their costumes, explaining in detail their concept and showing the making off. 
At around 11 we headed to the stadium where the participants were getting ready for the pre-parade, a showcase of their costumes just for the jury and media. It was great to have the opportunity to see the costumes up-close, check out their use of fabric ~ since the use of Batik Print (fake imitations) meant disqualification. Not from the parade, but for the prices. When I asked how strict this was, since someone can mistake print for real easily, I was explained it was always a disqualification. The participants were given a zoom lesson on how to recognize real Batik and knew the risk when entering with imitations.
So the participants costumes got checked on use of fabric, the more Batik, the better. Plus points were given for using the Batik designs/motifs selected for that year with a connection to Pekalongan being: Jlamprang (similar to Nitik), Benji (which  I know as Banji), Buketan, Tiga Negeri and Liris (which is Lereng, so diagonal motifs like parang).
So much detail goes into the outfits, ornaments and make-up. I loved all the batik shoes, I spotted doc martens with banji pattern how cool. 
What was also fantastic to watch is the community, how everyone is working hard to present their team in the best way possible ~ cheering their models on, often dressed in matching outfits. Some of the models were so nervous at the beginning. When we saw them at the end of the day they all walked so proud.
The pre-parade was at 12, in 2019 I had only the chance to give points during the actual parade, which was a bit chaotic. Now with the videos, time to walk around and the catwalk, it was much easier. 
After the pre-parade we headed back to the temporary office to figure out what our top 3 were. We were pretty much on the same page, having some differences but no big discussion were needed.
At around 15 we were brought to the end of the parade to see the full show and what a show it was!



To all who walked the parade, know you are all winners.
Thank you Pekalongan for hosting this beautiful Batik celebration, 
super proud of you Pekalongan and so happy to be part of it. 
Keep on celebrating Batik!
And till next post!