|
BLAYU
From
Mengwi you may cross the range to the coast
of North Bali. A left turn off the main
road leads to Blayu where the women are
weavers. The clicking of bamboo looms resound,
as locally dyed threads are interwoven in
webs of gold embroidery to fashion ceremonial
cloths worn during festivals.
A
sarong two meters long takes three weeks
to a month to weave, depending upon the
intricacy of the design. The Balinese clean
such cloth by dusting it and letting it
dry in the sun, since it is not washable.
In the past, girls were weaving with their
mothers by the time they were ten years
old. Nowadays, they are away at school and
the ancient Balinese craft is left to their
elders. The sarongs the Balinese wear everyday
are batiks from Java and cloths woven in
Balinese factories. BM the demand for
songkets (the cloths with interwoven
gold thread) for festival and ceremonial
use is still sufficient to keep busy the
women of Blayu and several other villages.
|
