HOW TO MAKE AN ANGKLUNG

1. THE BAMBOO ELECTION

Bamboo is the material of an Angklung. It is elected by its age. It has to be at least 4 years old and not more than 6 years old. It is cut on the dry season, between 9 am in the morning to 3 pm at the afternoon. After being cut at its base for about 2-3 span of the hand, it will be stored for about 1 week, so that the bamboo will contain less water.

  After a week, the bamboo will be separated from its branches. It will be cut into certain various sizes. Then, will be stored for about one year to keep it from termites. Some of the procedures are: by sinking out the bamboo beneath mud field, pool or river, also by smoking it at the fireplace, and the modern procedure: by using a certain liquid chemistry formula.

2. SHAPING PART OF AN ANGKLUNG

Each Angklung consist of 3 parts:

The Voice Tubes
The Voice Tubes are the most important of an angklung, which produce the intonation made. Tuning process makes the intonations.

The Frame
Frame is supporting the voice tubes to stand inside the hollow space.

The Base
It is function as the frame of the voice tubes.

3. TUNING THE VOICE TUBE PROCESS

Half-Done Process
Shaping the bamboo become laths of voice tube.

Resonance Tuning Process
Blowing the lower part of an angklung to the floor and measuring it to the tuner.

Main Voice Tuning Process
Tuning the voice by increasing and decreasing the tone by strike voice. Increasing the tone by cutting its upper parts slightly, and decreasing the tone by shaping both voice laths with shaping knife.

How to Use a Tuner:

Make an attention to both of the lamps at the left and the right of the panel, and also the pointer needle.

For example, if you're going to make an "F" tone, so that when the angklung is shaking, both of the lamps will flame together, and the pointer needle will point the "F" letter.

4. FINISHING After each of the voice tubes has its tone, then it will be put into the frame laths and being strengthen by tied of rattan.


                                     





 www.angklung-udjo.co.id
 

THE HISTORY OF ANGKLUNG

Based on the Balinese mythology, angklung consist of two words, angka  which mean is tone, and lung which mean is broken, incomplete, or gone. Then, angklung could be meant as broken or incomplete tone. By those definitions, arranged that angklung is one of the traditional musical instruments made of Bamboo, and to sound it by shaking the angklung to produce certain tone. But, if we are really consider the history of development of sundanese arts and culture performances, strongly believed that angklung originally invented and developed in West Java, Indonesia.  

In its development, angklung spreaded and reached almost all region in West Java, and being used to enriched the traditional ceremonial in Banten, Baduy, Sukabumi, Cirebon, etc. Angklung has its special functions related to religious and ritual matters. Angklung played to honor the Dewi Sri as the Goddes of Fertility in Indonesian’s ancient believe.
Beside functioned as religious and ritual matters, it also used for the entertainment purposes. In this function, angklung played along with other Sundanese traditional arts and culture, and later known as Angklung Degung, that played as musical background in traditional dancing or traditional plays. And further, developed until Angklung Padaeng that already has diatonic tone scale and it made possible to play in modern musical arrangements.
Angklung, also played in the Royal Ceremony, and used to play to escort the soldiers and warriors before they went to the wars. And then, angklung not played only in the royal functions, but also played in the traditional village functions, to honor the gods and the goddess before the plantations and the harvesting seasons. The region that developed and spreaded angklung are Garut, Tasikmalaya, Ciamis, Sukabumi, etc.
In 1938, Daeng Soetigna the late, modernized the angklung arrangement into diatonic tone scale, so it could be popularized and be known and also could be played many international and popular songs.

The angklung history and development, divided into two diversifications, which are:

1. Traditional Angklung.
    a. Angklung Baduy.
    b. Angklung Buncis.
    c. Angklung Gubrag.
    d. Angklung Bungko.

2. Modern Angklung.
    a. Angklung Padaeng by Daeng Soetigna the late.
    b. Angklung Udjo by Udjo Ngalagena the late.

www.angklung-udjo.co.id 

Tidak Hanya Ambalat, Pulau Sipadan dan Ligitanpun Masuk Wilayah Indonesia

Jika selama ini Indonesia dan Malaysia terus bersitegang masalah perbatasan, mari kita lihat perbatasan Indonesia-Malaysia dengan Google Erth. Ambalat tidak sekedar bagian dari ZEE (Zona Ekonomi Ekslusif), melainkan benar-benar bagian dari wilayah teritorial Indonesia. Ini dapat dibuktikan dengan software peta bumi & foto satelit yang dilansir oleh Google, yakni Google Earth. Terlihat jelas pada gambar di bawah ini bahwa Blok Ambalat berada di selatan daripada batas wilayah Indonesia-Malaysia (di Google Earth, sejak awal batas negara ini ditandai dengan garis kuning tebal). (dikutip dari KabarIT tandef)

Ternyata tidak hanya Ambalat saja, menurut citraan satelit dari Google Erth, pulau  Sipadan dan Ligitan ternyata masuk wilayah Indonesia. Lihat garis kuning tebal pada peta yang menunjukkan batas wilayah Indoneisa dan Malaysia.

Mahkamah Internasional ternyata tidak menggunakan bukti empiris dari data-data sejarah dan bukti nyata tapi hanya mengambil dalil dari effective occupation, dimana Malaysia sudah membangun cottage and resort di Pulau Sipadan dan Ligitan walaupun pada masa itu kedua pulau ini masih dalam sengketa.

Kita berharap para aparat terkait tetap dapat mempertahankan kedaulatan Indonesia dengan sagala cara. Apa lagi wilayah Ambalat konon kaya akan cadangan minyak bumi. MaSuk

Sumber : kabarit.com

Painting on clothes

The art of "batiking" is similar to the one of drawing or painting on a piece of cloth. The main tool, the canting ('tjanting'), is used in staed of a pencil or brush, and liquid wax (see paragraph here below)in stead of paint. Finely detailed designs are first drawn freehand with a pencil on the textile. Then hot liquid wax is applied. Here above, a Javanese woman applying wax in the intricately involved patterns with a canting (tjanting), a small copper container with a long slender spout. From time to time she blows on the tip of the canting to secure an easy flow of the wax. Areas not slated for coloring are filed with the wax. The cloth is then passed through a vat of dye. The wax is removed with hot water, scraped from the portions of the dried material still to be dyed. The parts that were covered by the wax did not absorb the dye and thus remain white (or whatever color the original cloth was previously dyied). Since the wax behave as a resisting medium, this process is called resist-dye process. Next, other areas are waxed over. this is repeated during each phase of the coloring process, up to four or more times, until the overall pattern and effect are achieved.
Cantings of several shapes.	A canting with more than a spout (it can be up to seven) is used for patterns with dot forms. Basically, as an art, batiking is painting. The canting is used to produce the picture; its size depending on the type and degree of fineness of the lines or points desired

  THE WAX
A traditional recipe for batik wax is a mix of beeswax and paraffin, about 60%/40%. Beeswax is soft, pliable, and blocks completely: no cracking. Paraffin is more brittle, and lets dye penetrate wherever cracks form. Crackle is a characteristic batik effect, a scatter of thin dark wavy lines, a batik hallmark. Some dyers seek crackle, freezing and crumpling the cloth to make more. Others avoid, if they can, any effect that seems uncontrolled. For more crackle, more paraffin. Any clean, low-oil paraffin, melting from 130 - 150° F will work. Beeswax should be light yellow or tan and clear of debris. But most batik today is done with synthetic micro-crystalline waxes. They’re more consistent, more often reusable, penetrate better, can be heated (safely) to higher temperatures. They usually fall between beeswax and paraffin in price and in working properties. They can be blended with other waxes for intermediate effects.

Indonesian Batik has a worldwide recognition.

The word "batik" is Indonesian in origin, even if the concept was known by Egyptians and Indians. It is known to be more than a millenium old, and there are evidences that cloth decorated through some form of resist technique was in use in the early centuries AD in several West African, Middle-Eastern and Asian communities. The word Batik is originally an Idonesian-Malay word and means to dot .This art of textile is spread in the hindu and malay world, but Indonesia is certainly the heart of the Batik.This way of painting and coloring textile has reached its higher degree of excellence in the Island of Java , in cities like Solo, Yogyakarta, Pekalongan or Cirebon. From Java this 'batik' cloth was exported to other islands of the archipelago and to the Malay peninsula. On the 17th century, the Javanese sultanate of Mataram accorded important ceremonial functions to the Batik clothes. Sultan Agung of Mataram is known to have dressed in white cotton decorated with Indigo blue, and his court dancers wore kain kembangan colored with a red organic dye. During the past two or three centuries batik has become one of the principal means of expression of the spiritual and cultural values of Southeast Asia. from :  discover-indo.tierranet.com

Indonesian Art of Textile

Although the process of decorating cloth through the process of batik is found in several regions in Africa or India and even in some South East Asian countries, the batik of Indonesia is unique and unequaled. Indonesian Batik is made in several regions, but the center of the art is Central Java, in cities like Yogyakarta, Solo, Cirebon, Pekalongan and Indramayu.

The pride of Indonesians to wear batik till the present day has preserve this art of textile.

The beauty of Batik is a tribute to the patience, creativity of the woman of Java, the main island of Indonesia. Credit should be also given to men who prepare the cloth and handle the dyeing and finishing process.

Batik is generally thought of as the most quintessentially Indonesian textile. Motifs of flowers, twinning plants, leaves buds, flowers, birds, butterflies, fish, insects and geometric forms are rich in symbolic association and variety; there are about three thousand recorded batik patterns.

Batik Indonesia

Batik

Dari Wikipedia bahasa Indonesia, ensiklopedia bebas

Batik (atau kata Batik) berasal dari hasa Jawa "amba" yang berarti menulis dan "nitik". Kata batik sendiri meruju pada teknik pembuatan corak - menggunakan canting atau cap - dan pencelupan kain dengan menggunakan bahan perintang warna corak "malam" (wax) yang diaplikasikan di atas kain, sehingga menahan masuknya bahan pewarna. Dalam bahasa Inggris teknik ini dikenal dengan istilah wax-resist dyeing. Jadi kain batik adalah kain yang memiliki ragam hias atau corak yang dibuat dengan canting dan cap dengan menggunakan malam sebagai bahan perintang warna. Teknik ini hanya bisa diterapkan di atas bahan yang terbuat dari serat alami seperti katun, sutra, wol dan tidak bisa diterapkan di atas kain dengan serat buatan (polyester). Kain yang pembuatan corak dan pewarnaannya tidak menggunakan teknik ini dikenal dengan kain bercorak batik - biasanya dibuat dalam skala industri dengan teknik cetak (print) - bukan kain batik.

Batik telah ditetapkan oleh UNESCO sebagai budaya Indonesia dan merupakan kebanggaan tersendiri bagi bangsa Indonesia.

Batik adalah kerajinan yang memiliki nilai seni tinggi dan telah menjadi bagian dari budaya Indonesia (khususnya Jawa) sejak lama. Perempuan-perempuan Jawa di masa lampau menjadikan keterampilan mereka dalam membatik sebagai mata pencaharian, sehingga di masa lalu pekerjaan membatik adalah pekerjaan eksklusif perempuan sampai ditemukannya "Batik Cap" yang memungkinkan masuknya laki-laki ke dalam bidang ini. Ada beberapa pengecualian bagi fenomena ini, yaitu batik pesisir yang memiliki garis maskulin seperti yang bisa dilihat pada corak "Mega Mendung", dimana di beberapa daerah pesisir pekerjaan membatik adalah lazim bagi kaum lelaki.

Ragam corak dan warna Batik dipengaruhi oleh berbagai pengaruh asing. Awalnya, batik memiliki ragam corak dan warna yang terbatas, dan beberapa corak hanya boleh dipakai oleh kalangan tertentu. Namun batik pesisir menyerap berbagai pengaruh luar, seperti para pedagang asing dan juga pada akhirnya, para penjajah. Warna-warna cerah seperti merah dipopulerkan oleh Tionghoa, yang juga mempopulerkan corak phoenix. Bangsa penjajah Eropa juga mengambil minat kepada batik, dan hasilnya adalah corak bebungaan yang sebelumnya tidak dikenal (seperti bunga tulip) dan juga benda-benda yang dibawa oleh penjajah (gedung atau kereta kuda), termasuk juga warna-warna kesukaan mereka seperti warna biru. Batik tradisonal tetap mempertahankan coraknya, dan masih dipakai dalam upacara-upacara adat, karena biasanya masing-masing corak memiliki perlambangan masing-masing.

Teknik membatik telah dikenal sejak ribuan tahun yang silam. Tidak ada keterangan sejarah yang cukup jelas tentang asal usul batik. Ada yang menduga teknik ini berasal dari bangsa Sumeria, kemudian dikembangkan di Jawa setelah dibawa oleh para pedagang India. Saat ini batik bisa ditemukan di banyak negara seperti Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, dan Iran. Selain di Asia, batik juga sangat populer di beberapa negara di benua Afrika. Walaupun demikian, batik yang sangat terkenal di dunia adalah batik yang berasal dari Indonesia, terutama dari Jawa.

Tradisi membatik pada mulanya merupakan tradisi yang turun temurun, sehingga kadang kala suatu motif dapat dikenali berasal dari batik keluarga tertentu. Beberapa motif batik dapat menunjukkan status seseorang. Bahkan sampai saat ini, beberapa motif batik tadisional hanya dipakai oleh keluarga keraton Yogyakarta dan Surakarta.

Batik merupakan warisan nenek moyang Indonesia ( Jawa ) yang sampai saat ini masih ada. Batik juga pertama kali diperkenalkan kepada dunia oleh Presiden Soeharto, yang pada waktu itu memakai batik pada Konferensi PBB. UNESCO menunjuk batik Indonesia sebagai mahakarya warisan budaya manusia pada 2 Oktober 2009.

Cara pembuatan

Semula batik dibuat di atas bahan dengan warna putih yang terbuat dari kapas yang dinamakan kain mori. Dewasa ini batik juga dibuat di atas bahan lain seperti sutera, poliester, rayon dan bahan sintetis lainnya. Motif batik dibentuk dengan cairan lilin dengan menggunakan alat yang dinamakan canting untuk motif halus, atau kuas untuk motif berukuran besar, sehingga cairan lilin meresap ke dalam serat kain. Kain yang telah dilukis dengan lilin kemudian dicelup dengan warna yang diinginkan, biasanya dimulai dari warna-warna muda. Pencelupan kemudian dilakukan untuk motif lain dengan warna lebih tua atau gelap. Setelah beberapa kali proses pewarnaan, kain yang telah dibatik dicelupkan ke dalam bahan kimia untuk melarutkan lilin.

Jenis batik

• Batik tulis adalah kain yang dihias dengan teksture dan corak batik menggunakan tangan. Pembuatan batik jenis ini memakan waktu kurang lebih 2-3 bulan.
• Batik cap adalah kain yang dihias dengan teksture dan corak batik yang dibentuk dengan cap ( biasanya terbuat dari tembaga). Proses pembuatan batik jenis ini membutuhkan waktu kurang lebih 2-3 hari.