Last day

Our last day in Ubud was a free day and I took a cooking class! Yes, ME. Yes, a cooking class, you heard me right. Actually, it was called an "Appetite Class." Love that. The very first thing we learned was how to make Balinese Spice. When I heard this term throughout our stay, I did not realize it referred to a distinct mixture of spices, just thought it meant one spice or another. Apparently, the women (of course) make this up every three days or so and they use it in everything. You can spice it to taste and I made mine spicy.

the ingredients

this is how it looks all done

Here is what is in it:  Shallot, garlic kencur (aromatic ginger), ginger, galangal (sort of a cousin of ginger), tumeric, red chili, lemongrass, candle nut (like macadamia), white pepper, nutmeg, salam leaf (like bay leaf), coriander seed, grilled shrimp paste, oil, salt.

The first thing we made was jukut ares which is a soup from young banana trunk, chicken and Balinese spice (of course). The banana trunk is sliced and salted to soften it. After ten or so minutes, it is immersed and then wrung out. Crazy. 

While the ares simmered, we made tum udang misi nyuh, which is steamed prawn with coconut. We made a mixture of prawns, grated coconut, coconut milk, kefir lime leaf, salt, salam leaf and Balinese spice (of course). Then the mixture is spooned in to a banana leaf that has been steamed and formed into a packet as above. I was not so good at that.

we got to keep these cute aprons

The last thing we made was Balinese pork skewer. We used cubed pork, tomato sauce and, guess what? Balinese spice! (of course) Then we got to eat what we cooked - there were three of us - and it was FABULOUS!

* * *

After lunch, I took a walk down the street to the Monkey Forest. 

flowers outside of a shop

Ganesha, my favorite

These little thieves wait until the women put out an offering (more on that later) and then they're all over it, picking out whatever is edible.

They are everywhere and I saw one try to take a little Japanese girls camera; he did  get her sunglasses.

I heard an Aussie accent ask, is it a girl or a boy? Really?!

Here is Agung, our one-eyed driver(!), me, Suppi, and Rei, the jump-out guy. Really special people.

So, our last night and we went to dinner at the Cafe Lotus. My flash did not work for any of the pictures so the quality of these is not good. You sit in the restaurant and there is this amazing lotus garden between you and this ornate stage. It was fantastic.

The show we were supposed to be watching was sort of an operetta - just went to look for the info pamphlet but can't find it. I can't tell you anything about it really because we stayed at our table, talking the evening away. There were chairs for us on the stage and it looked quite impressive. Maybe next time . . .

We were presented with our Bali pops from Hoffman - woohoo!! I got the Key Lime which is exactly the one I wanted. Also, a silk scarf and a little bag. Thank you Deb Roberts Tours and Juanelle for those! Then, Suppi presented us with these wooden masks he made himself - takes him three days for each one. We were stunned at how beautiful they were. He even wrapped each one in paper with hearts on it.

And, we got our dyed batiks back. Here is mine. Needs to be ironed but you get the picture. I'm going to make a little quilted runner so I'll get back to you on that.

And, this is the bag that Toro made for me the very first day in Denpesar - batiked and dyed red. 

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, SOPHIE!

My beloved Sophie has been cancer-free for exactly one year today!

Hoffman

stopped off to see this black sand beach and put my toes in the Indian Ocean

on the way to Hoffman.  This day was why we came to Bali. The visit to Hoffman. For those not in the know, Hoffman is a premier line of batiks. Started in the early 1920's by a textile guy, his sons are the ones who made it what it is today. They were championship surfers and combined their love of surfing with their passion for traveling to their favorite surfing stops with discovering unusual printing processes and different types of fabric. Soon, Hoffman California Fabrics were famous for their original designs of surfing scenes, beach life, etc. They were smart to pick up on the popular new wave of interest in quilting in the 1970's and 80's and starting gearing their fabrics toward that demand. Now, for ME, I have loved Hoffman batiks since I knew about Batiks. In my opinion, they are the best and most beautiful and I love the color and designs. I had absolutely no idea - I don't think any of us did - what goes in to making these Batiks. All we do is complain about how expensive they are. Well, now I know why. It is quite an amazing process and we were so lucky to witness it, as they are not normally open to group tours. There are still three generations of Hoffmans involved in the day to day and Yogi showed us around, first at the packaging/shipping facility and then a short drive away, the factories. Oh, also want to say no machines are used in the process - everything is hand done with the age old processes.
This is what I saw when we pulled up. The drying fields. All the color you see in this picture are batiks drying in the sun.
Below, these batiks have been dyed and carried outside, and are crinkled by hand to create the design and sprinkled with soda to make the sort of bubbly look in the fabric.

Carrying out the wet dyed fabric

crinkling the fabric

sprinkling with soda and they might also add another color here 

The sun is necessary to "cure" the fabric and this dark fabric above that they were working on was probably discarded as it started to rain after we left, and rain hard, so there was no saving it. If it had been a lighter color, it could have gone back in to be dyed again.

The batiks go to be stamped and should have said earlier on that these stamps are actually called Tjaps (pronounced chops). 

ready to be stamped

It is wicked hot in these spaces due to the wax pots. This is one of five factories in this space. The guys are paid by the piece so it is up to them how long they work. I would last about five minutes.

This guy is doing a continuous design. His precision is just amazing, like a dance as he applies the stamp, making a perfect pattern, stamping three to four times before it goes back in the wax.

What you see here is the guy in the foreground pumping propane to keep a hot fire burning under the vat of boiling water. The guy up top with the stick is stirring the fabric to remove the wax and set the dye. I think he has the worst job - so hot.

The guys in the water tanks are rinsing the batiks and passing them along to be boiled.

I felt the water and it is cool so I would pick this job - although they must look like prunes from the waist down when they get out. Just saying.

Then, they go out to the drying fields. Almost all of these workers are Javanese. It was explained to me by Yogi, that the Javanese are like the Mexicans in this country. That they send money home to their families, and go home for the month of August, at which time Hoffman has to close down. When I asked why the Balinese didn't work here, Yogi said well, the Balinese don't really need to work. They have their land and their inheritances and I'll tell you more about that later. So.

mom and kids in the field

Next up is the facility where the finished batiks are checked, and processed for shipping to California. These workers are salaried and Hoffman reportedly takes good care of their workers, many of whom have been here from the beginning. I got my lab fix with Ringo here. He came running up with a tennis ball, so cute.

When the fabric comes here, it is checked twice for quality control. First, every yard is looked at by hand for defects, or dye errors, etc. Also, a few samples are taken of each and washed and put out to dry to make sure they match the previous batches.

Then, every single yard is looked at on a light box by two people.

The yardage is measured. I think the pieces are 80 to 100 yards. The next pictures are of batiks being laid out on long tables and ironed, layer by layer, up to 40 layers to make Bali Pops and Jelly Rolls. (And if you don't know what those are, well you are not a quilter!)


It was amazing to watch the guy cut through all of those layers. I had no idea this was how it was done and truthfully, I never really thought about it . . .


These people are sitting outside under a shelter doing the packaging. Pleasant out of the sun and so quiet. We were absolutely drooling over the packages. Oh the colors.

Packaging Bali Pops

Geese hanging out in the yard

The yardage is sewn together for the rolls of fabric.

And, rolled on with one of the few machines I saw.

Then loaded into a pick-up to start the journey to California.

These people are readying bolts.

What a fantastic experience. I feel like the luckiest person in the universe. Oh, and I want to say that I'm sure I made some errors in trying to convey what I saw here so please forgive me for that.