Sambas Weaving Craftsmen in Sulur Medan, Sambas

Sambas Weaving

Helloindonesia.id – About 300 years ago, the ancestors of the Sambas Sultanate had made sambas woven fabrics. It is said that this Sambas weaving has been made by women in the Sultanate of Sambas since Sultan Sulaiman founded this Sultanate in 1675. In the past, Sambas weaving was used as a complement to the implementation of traditional rituals, one of which was in marriage rituals.

Sambas Weaving
Sambas Weaving

Until now the weaving tradition in Sambas is still continued by men and women. Making woven fabric that is known to the people there used to call it by weaving is usually done through the process of crossing 2 sets of yarn by inserting the weft transversely on the warp yarns. But before the weaving process begins, the removal process is carried out first.

Sambas tenum process

The warping process is the process of installing warp threads parallel to each other on the loom according to the width of the woven fabric to be made. This loom serves to hold every piece of warp yarn. While the weft is inserted transversely between the warp threads.

The strands of warp and weft yarn are woven in a cross pattern. This pattern of crossing threads is called woven. There are 3 techniques in the making of woven fabrics, namely plain weaving, woven satin, and woven weaving.

Various kinds of sambas woven motifs

Some of Sambas’s woven motifs are, pat patada, elbow keluang, eye punai, rainy clouds, shoots of bamboo shoots, moles, jasmine flowers, chicken eyes, various banners, swirling winds, stonework seeds, seven small jasmine blushes in the middle, cape flowers, clove flowers, malek flowers and cangkring flowers. “The shoots of bamboo shoots use ordinary thread. For one field requires 15 days. While the yarn must be spun, it takes 2 months to install the suri and coral, “said Rusna, one of the craftsmen.

Sambas Weaving
Sambas Weaving

The Indonesiakaya.com team visiting Medan Sulur Hamlet, Sumber Harapan Village, Sambas, saw firsthand the process of making Sambas woven fabric. Incidentally, at that time Rusna was hatching shoots that were different from the Sumatra weaving. A weaver, according to Rusna, must be able to count threads and understand thread numbers. Interestingly, to make a motive must memorize the formula, because it must be careful and can not be fast. On average it takes about one month, and depends on the level of difficulty of the motive.

“There are 19 motifs that have been patented,” said Diana, a Sambas weaving marketing. However, the weaving that is done depends on the order. Usually, a customer comes and brings their own motives. “The weaving that was done, the motifs that were brought were not Sambas motifs, we finally tried to make these motifs, by working with Sambas weaving techniques,” explained Diana.

From one sheet of cloth, there are 4 people involved. “Their task is to thread the yarn, handle it, stretch the yarn to be rolled up on the board, connect and put the yarn into a thread after another. Then there is another part that arranges motifs in paper sketches, then weaving them, this process is called suji dilang, “explained Diana. People who usually buy Sambas woven cloth usually come directly from Singkawang and Pontianak. In addition, there are also tourists from Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam.

Rusna started to pursue Sambas weaving since she was 15 years old. Then he worked as a weaver in Kampung Air, Brunei Darussalam. Likewise with the surrounding residents, taking turns working as weavers in Brunei. The motifs are worked on Brunei motifs, but with the Sambas technique.

Sambas Weaving Price Range

The price of Sambas woven usually depends on the fabric, material, and motives. The price of ordinary weaving ranges from Rp1.5 – Rp1.8 million per pair of cloth and shawl. For woven from cotton Rp. 2.5 million and silk can reach Rp. 3.5 million. “Usually, many fashion designers from Jakarta order Sambas weaving, they come directly to Sumber Harapan Village and order certain motifs,” said Rusna, who besides being busy as a weaving craftsman, she also farms rice and cultivates rubber for farming.
 
Indonesia itself has a variety of traditional Indonesian weaving crafts such as ikat, songket, and geringsing. Even a textile observer named Joseph Fisher in his book threads of Tradition: Textiles of Indonesia and Sarawak states that the richest and most diverse weaving products in the world are from Indonesia….

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