Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

A. G. Maisey · 17th April 2022, 05:06 AM

I'm pleased to be of service Marco.

There is actually quite a lot that could be written on seluts and mendak, and other dress items too. These days new technology and new application of existing old-time processes has altered a lot of things.

For instance, those Purwokerto seluts that I mentioned are actually cast, but have the appearance of being fabricated and with applied krawangan work. The take-away is that a well made Purwokerto selut can look as good as a Solo fabricated selut at a fraction of the Solo price.

Other things are changing too. Way, way back, maybe about 1984 Harjonegoro told me that at that time there was only one man in Central Jawa who was able to make the traditional style granulated mendak. This man had a son who was mentally handicapped, but he was able to make this mendak style. The father passed away long ago, this mendak style was still in the markets for a while, but it has now --- well, as of 2019 --- virtually disappeared.

But new productions and variants on old styles seem to continually appear. Regrettably, finding any dress of decent quality these days is difficult. I used to know several m'ranggis who were capable of very good to superb work, as of 2019 they had all either moved to some other form of work or had died.

There are still tukang jejeran & tukang wrongko in Solo, but from what I've seen of their work I would not entrust a valuable item to them. I am not implying dishonesty, only a lack of skill.

I get told that all the really good craftsmen have moved to Jakarta and are working on contract to the Big Boys. Maybe. I don't know anything for sure, except that I can no longer get the standard of work that I am prepared to accept.

17th April 2022, 05:06 AM	#23
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,746	I'm pleased to be of service Marco. There is actually quite a lot that could be written on seluts and mendak, and other dress items too. These days new technology and new application of existing old-time processes has altered a lot of things. For instance, those Purwokerto seluts that I mentioned are actually cast, but have the appearance of being fabricated and with applied krawangan work. The take-away is that a well made Purwokerto selut can look as good as a Solo fabricated selut at a fraction of the Solo price. Other things are changing too. Way, way back, maybe about 1984 Harjonegoro told me that at that time there was only one man in Central Jawa who was able to make the traditional style granulated mendak. This man had a son who was mentally handicapped, but he was able to make this mendak style. The father passed away long ago, this mendak style was still in the markets for a while, but it has now --- well, as of 2019 --- virtually disappeared. But new productions and variants on old styles seem to continually appear. Regrettably, finding any dress of decent quality these days is difficult. I used to know several m'ranggis who were capable of very good to superb work, as of 2019 they had all either moved to some other form of work or had died. There are still tukang jejeran & tukang wrongko in Solo, but from what I've seen of their work I would not entrust a valuable item to them. I am not implying dishonesty, only a lack of skill. I get told that all the really good craftsmen have moved to Jakarta and are working on contract to the Big Boys. Maybe. I don't know anything for sure, except that I can no longer get the standard of work that I am prepared to accept.