Young People Spread the "Virus" of Jambi Batik

Extraordinary admiration to local batik is like a virus that spreads in the city of Jambi, giving birth to a variety of products, fashions and new events that carry the masterpiece. Young people are behind the expansion.

KOMPAS/IRMA TAMBUNAN

A female craftswoman (right) stamps motifs on sheets of cloth at the Batik Diana Jambi handicraft business, Tuesday (10/1/2023). Batik businesses that all grew in the Seberang Kota Jambi area are now expanding to various surrounding areas.

Diana Batik Gallery in the Seberang area, Jambi city, is not only filled with batik fabrics. There is also everything from shirts, bags, scarves and veils to batik-patterned paintings by Fikri Muhairi (30), who fills out the outlet. All of them use the batik-waste production of his sister, Diana (37).

The idea of processing batik waste into batik shirts started from his confusion when seeing a pile of residual stitches of batik cloth at home. After paying attention to the motives in the waste fabric patchwork, he found the initiative to pin it on a plain shirt. He made a hole on the front of the shirt, then the batik cloth that had been cut was sewn from the inside of the shirt. A piece of a batik cutting-patterned shirt appears. This batik shirt is popular among young people.