How To Make Wayang Kulit

Handicraft industry is one sector that is promising in the community, especially in tourist areas. Indonesia has a rich cultural and handicraft products are very diverse. Handicraft products produced consists of a variety of materials, one of them from the skin. With a leather base material, can be made art carving decoration that uses skin as a creative medium. Products produced in the form of puppets, fan, wall hangings, miniature puppets, calligraphy, bookmarks, lampshades, picture frames, hand fans and other souvenirs.

Crafts carving decoration especially wayang kulit is a craft that combines the art and the history of shadow puppets. This is due to make shadow puppets necessary willingness to learn, perseverance and a sense of love is high with puppet story. Shadow puppets as one of the heritage, especially from the Kraton is expected to be an example of heritage protected and preserved for the sake of the sustainability of the wayang kulit in particular and as the identity of the city of Yogyakarta in general.

Carving decoration craft industry has evolved over the years. The craft industry has been well-known to foreign countries. In the province of Yogyakarta, precisely in Hamlet Karangasem Wukirsari village, Bantul, Yogyakarta there are many craftsmen carve centra sunggging. In this area, almost 80% of the population have a profession as craftsmen carving decoration.

To create a shadow play requires several stages of work, among them are:

Purchase skin

The leather used to make leather puppets consist of several kinds of raw leather and split leather. Raw skin is skin that is directly used for the process of making shadow puppets without going through a chemical process. While the split leather is leather that has been through a chemical process in the factory. The leather used to make leather puppets are usually derived from the skin of buffalo, cows, and goats. Most skin obtained from Magetan regions (East Java), Sukoharjo, Solo, Segoroyoso (Yogyakarta) and Magelang.

Leather Processing

Soaked in water for one day until soft. Then stretched or stretched using ropes and wooden frames were strong. Furthermore, the skin is dried in the sun until completely dry. Skin that is dry immediately diluted with a scraped manner. The portions were scraped off is part of the hair (exterior) and the remnants of meat still attached (interior). Skin scraped off with a knife or pethel little by little carefully. The inner skin is scraped off beforehand and more reduced in order to obtain quality leather. After that, just continue scraping the outer skin. Scrape the outer skin only a few because if done too much reduction of the resulting skin will become brittle when folded. If necessary, this section only hair-hair removed and cleaned with water only. There are several methods used to facilitate scraping the hair on the skin, such as skin soaking in boiling water, and using lime water before it is expanded. Scraping blade nicks the process is only performed in one direction from top to bottom. After the skin is thinned, the remnants of scrapings cleaned with water and scraped portion smoothed with sandpaper. Furthermore, dried in the hot sun to dry more evenly.

Skin scraping process.

 

Animal skin that has been scraped and dried

Once dry, the skin is coated with a base color to close the pores of the skin so that the surface is flat. Then start sketching formed on the surface of the skin. After that, the edge-hewn sketch in order to obtain the basic shape. The next stage is the basic inlay refine and make a wonderful combination in the overlay of light. Once formed roughly puppet, then the face and other details on the sketch in the start-hewn. This process is very important because it affects the puppet characters generated. After going through this stage, puppets produced is called putihan because not colored.

Tatah process of the skin.

The Putihan colored using synthetic dyes, paints Colour Sandy, and using an adhesive rakol. When finished painted and enhanced, shadow puppets by buffer using buffalo horn or bamboo.

The coloring process wayang kulit (Sungging)

The coloring process wayang kulit (Sungging)

The remaining pieces of skin, called the leresan generally be used as an ingredient rambak (bark chips) and as organic fostered.

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