INDONESIAN FURNITURE AND HOME DÉCOR
The average temperature in Yogyakarta ranges between 26 degrees and 28 degrees Celsius with its minimum at about 18 degrees C and sometimes reaches a max of 35 degrees C. Humidity is around 74%. With tropical temperatures like that, who could resist going to Yogya? Indonesian furniture has taken the world by storm over the past three years, especially Balinese décor products. Seventy percent of the furniture produced in Indonesia is made by hand by small co-operatives scattered throughout the archipelago. Villagers use skills handed down from generation to generation. Invariably you will find an amazing piece of high end furniture starting its life in a small shack with children and chickens running through the wood shavings on the workshop floor. These craftsmen supply factories that collate, dry and finish the furniture. There are different areas in Indonesia that specialize in certain products like Jepara for instance; it produces reproduction furniture from Mahogany wood. The Jogyakarta and Solo region produce the bulk of the rustic, colonial and ethnic furniture. Electric Saws, planers and routers are unheard of in these villages as electricity supplies are intermitant and expensive. Carpenters rely on skill and old fashioned hard work to produce your unique and exotic piece of furniture. It is hard for some Westerners who are accustomed to machine produced furniture to come to grasp with these imperfections as we have all been educated and steered toward perfection in our societies. Solid wood is a living and breathing organism that will adapt to its environment consequently there will be movement in your original piece of handcrafted furniture. Antique furniture from the late eighteen to the early nineteen hundreds which was produced from solid wood is known to move up to sixty to a hundred years after production. If we can accept these imperfections in Antique furniture then we can accept this in Indonesian Solid wood furniture that will be antiques and highly sought after in the next century. Wood supply around the world is dwindling at an astonishing rate and these handcrafted exotic décor pieces will be collector's items in the years to come. Concerned citizens around the world have expressed their concern to me about Indonesia's rainforests and some get quite heated up about the subject and quite rightly so. Firstly; Teak and Mahogany are not indigenous woods to Indonesia. Secondly; Teak and Mahogany saplings were bought to Indonesia in the late eighteen hundreds by the Dutch from Honduras. The Dutch settlers used Teak to make boats and the Mahogany to build their furniture. They created a sustainable plantation of these timbers and ran a strict rotation program which was later discarded by the Indonesian Government due to lack of funds after the country attained independence. The replanting of saplings has been reintroduced over the past decade. The only problem we have as producers of wood in present time would be illegal logging by border countries making it difficult to source wood for furniture production within Indonesia. This problem is now being addressed by the Indonesian government and hopefully will protect the furniture industry in the future. We look forward to introducing you to the wonderful world of Indonesian Furniture and Décor. About the author: Margarette Haskell is the owner and webmaster of Indonesian Furniture, Exporter and Manufacturer of Indonesian Furniture and Décor Products for more information Yogyakarta, or more fondly known as Yogya, is the foremost cultural centers of Java. It is located at the foot of the active Merapi volcano. Yogyakarta itself has a special charm which seldom fails to captivate the visitor. Yogyakarta is also often called the main gateway to the center of Java! We urge you to gather more information on Yogyakarta, check out the splendid hotels there and do pick Yogyakarta as your next holiday destination! |
Yogyakarta, Yogya In A Nutshell...
Resources on Yogyakarta, Yogya
| Yogyakarta is known for its silver work, leather puppets used for shadow plays (wayang kulit), and a unique style of making batik dyed fabric. It is also known for its vivid contemporary art scene. Yogyakarta is also known for its gamelan music, including the unique style Gamelan Yogyakarta, which developed in the courts. |