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.