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The Making of Balinese Double Ikat Textiles

Travel to the Balinese village of Tenganan to discover how double ikat textiles, known as "geringsing," are made. "Gering" means "sick" and "sing" means "no." Geringsing are prized for their ability to ward off evil and sickness.

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Video transcript

There are many communities in Bali and its neighboring islands that weave textiles. However, in the Balinese village of Tenganan, we find a cloth considered by many to be the most precious due to the skill and time required to make it. This sacred cloth is known as geringsing. Gering means “sick” and sing means “no.” It is prized for its ability to ward off evil and sickness and to bring good fortune to the wearer. Geringsing is a fabric produced by double ikat. Ikat is a resist technique in which bundles of yarns are wrapped to create patterning prior to dyeing and weaving. Double ikat is a process in which both directional weave elements, the warp and weft yarns, are prepared with this technique. Tenganan is one of three places in the world producing double ikat today. It is not a cloth that is worn daily; geringsing is carefully stored and used for important rituals and occasions, such as weddings and other life celebrations. Let’s look at the process of making a geringsing textile. At one time, cotton was grown in the hills around Tenganan and yarns were made by hand. Today, commercially produced cotton yarns are imported and often boiled with a mixture of water and ash, which removes softeners or other chemicals and adds the alkalinity necessary for dyeing. A mordant, or dye fixative, is prepared using natural ingredients such as crushed candlenut, papaya leaf, and turmeric. Turmeric is largely a colorant, imparting a deep cream, slight yellow color to the cotton. The ingredients, when mixed with water and wood ash, fix the red dye to the yarns. In the past, these ingredients would be pounded by hand; however today a blender is often used, as it is faster and produces a more consistent yield. Yarns are then added to the prepared mordant mixture and allowed to soak for three nights, for a deep penetration. The yarns are hung outdoors for six weeks, ensuring that the dye is well fixed. The long drying process in the sun, together with the turmeric colorant, stains the yarns a golden yellow, the base color of geringsing cloth. Both the warp and weft yarns are wrapped onto wooden frames and grouped in sets. Each set will have the same number of yarns The number of sets will vary, depending on the width of the final product. Yarns are then tied off in grouped bundles The bundles are marked with dark and light hash marks, in a non-permanent ink to aid in the patterning and alignment of the yarns in the final design. Using the hash marks as a guide, the artisan begins tying off areas of the yellow yarns. The artisan knows from experience where to place the ties and how wide to make them. These bound areas will resist the dye and remain yellow during the first dyeing process. The first color to be applied will be natural indigo. It is not dyed in Tenganan but in nearby Bugbug. Legends say that it is bad luck to dye both colors in the same village, but there is a practical explanation: Bugbug gets more sun than Tenganan and the soil is better for growing and harvesting the Indigofera tinctoria, which grows wild in and around Bugbug. Resist-tied yarn bundles are placed in vats of locally grown indigo. The process takes about two weeks— dyeing and drying several times, repeating until the color is a deep consistent blue across all yarns. The yarns are then returned to Tenganan for further resist tying before they will be dyed again, this time with a red dye made from the bark of the Indonesian Morinda or Mulberry tree. At this time, some of the blue dyed areas will be bound and some of the ties binding the yellow yarns will be removed, exposing different areas to the red dye. To achieve the deep brick red desired, the process can take upwards of twelve dippings over three months. Once the dyeing is completed, the last of the resist ties are removed, showing the complex coloration which has been achieved by this lengthy process. Deep blue-black indigo and reddish-brown Morinda-colored areas contrast boldly with the honey yellow yarns. The yarns are always the same colors and saturation; a tradition that has been maintained for centuries by the villagers. Warp yarns are then placed into a backstrap loom where the pattern can be seen taking form. The weft dyed yarns are woven continuously into the warp yarns. There are only a few sizes of cloth width made, and no more than twenty-four patterns are produced under strict agreement by the Bali Aga, or “old families” in Tenganan. Some of the motifs found on geringsing can be seen on Indian trade textiles; other patterns are similar to scenes found on relief carvings in East Java or Balinese shadow puppet figures. The most expensive textiles contained prada, or gilded yarns, which were woven at the end of the ritual geringsing cloth. The patterns reflect both the times and the wearer of this unique and cherished cloth.