It didn't take that long at all... 2 days later the finished shirt was on his desk, neatly folded in the original box. Pretty, yes? This will be the ultimate formal Batik shirt for evening and other significant events.
Sunday, January 24, 2016
The New Batik Shirt
Remember the fancy fabric B received? The tailor did come to the office, made the measurements and went away. B had no idea how long shirt construction would take because he knew they were being made for several of the gentlemen.
It didn't take that long at all... 2 days later the finished shirt was on his desk, neatly folded in the original box. Pretty, yes? This will be the ultimate formal Batik shirt for evening and other significant events.
It didn't take that long at all... 2 days later the finished shirt was on his desk, neatly folded in the original box. Pretty, yes? This will be the ultimate formal Batik shirt for evening and other significant events.
Storm Photos
Every once in a while we get the chance to catch some great storm images. I haven't taken very many shots like this where you can actually see the separation wall of raining/not raining so clearly. If we were back in the mid-west, we'd be thinking seriously about grabbing Toto and heading for the storm cellar. Thankfully, Toto will remain safe outside— tornadoes don't occur here.
Food Items
Just a brief post to show the pretty bread I made last weekend. We had made what Ibu Tin and I now call "emergency chicken soup" because neither B nor myself really felt like eating but hot chicken soup always helps. Then I mentioned I could make a bread. I had the ingredients. So off I went. Here is the result! A tasty loaf topped with onion, poppy seeds and a little Bali sea salt. It was great with the soup.
We discovered recently that a Wing Stop has opened at the mall around the corner so we had to share that. It's not the first Wing Stop we've seen here, however. It's right next to a Carl's Jr burger place. I don't know if there are any of those left in the US. The two might be owned by the same people.
No green drinks in this set of postings. Sorry about that. We will do better next time.
The Site
In December, we held a small, groundbreaking ceremony at the plant site. Why small? The official one will be a little later this year. We will do a joint celebration with our partner. Between us, we will invest close to 1 billion USD on a couple of projects. At the big one, the President of Indonesia and several cabinet members will come. Since activity was beginning at site, we wanted to do a little something to recognize the event with our contractor and their subcontractors.
So what are you looking at, besides the handsome men in the blue shirts (aka B and the Board of Directors for SRI)? The first thing to be built is the temporary construction facilities. Yep, we need to build something so we can build the plant. There will be multiple thousands of workers present soon and we need a place to store materials, the engineering offices (large building on the left), the Musholla (Mosque), the training center and the clinic.
Since we have been tardy in posting this, the temporary facilities are almost complete and real construction will start very soon. Stay tuned for more progress pictures.
So what are you looking at, besides the handsome men in the blue shirts (aka B and the Board of Directors for SRI)? The first thing to be built is the temporary construction facilities. Yep, we need to build something so we can build the plant. There will be multiple thousands of workers present soon and we need a place to store materials, the engineering offices (large building on the left), the Musholla (Mosque), the training center and the clinic.
Since we have been tardy in posting this, the temporary facilities are almost complete and real construction will start very soon. Stay tuned for more progress pictures.
2016 Begins/Explorer's Group Tour Part 2
After the tea, the dance program and the company presentation, we were offered the chance to decorate a porcelain bisque blank of our very own.
They brought us 4 colors of "paint" as they called it. There was a browned mustardy yellow, a ruddy flesh color, a blue and black. I don't know how many of you know this, but my mother and I had a
ceramic studio in her home for many years. We took a lot of
certification classes, including achieving a national certification and
taught lots and lots of classes. I assumed the "paints" had to be underglazes (color applied before a clear or mostly clear glaze is applied). Typically there is some time in a kiln after the underglaze application, the item is glazed and then re-fired to get that shiny, durable finish. We got a single coarse brush not designed for this type of application. The handle end of the brush, though, made very nice dots.
About the colors. There was no good information as to what the colors would look like once glazed and fired. I asked about glazing, etc., because they weren't giving us that information either at first. I think part of the issue was definitely the language barrier, but I also believe most of the folks helping us had never applied underglazes themselves. We made recommendations later that they have a cup or plate with the underglaze colors with glaze applied and fired so everyone could see what the finished color would look like. I remembered that underglazes are tricky things—very often they change color when glazed and fired and the change can be dramatic.
Prior knowledge also allowed me to 1)suggest to one lady that she not use pencil to write her name on the back of the plate as it would likely disappear during firing and 2) suggest to another lady that she not keep repainting areas as they were drying and changing color. The first needed to use the underglaze to sign her name and the second needed to just let the color dry and then it would appear mostly uniform. If you apply the underglazes too heavily the glaze can actually pull away from the color during the glaze fire.
For my first plate, I figured blue mostly stayed blue so even if it changed shade of blue I would still like it once completed.
Once the helpers saw I had finished a plate and was waiting, they brought me another plate. Well, now I had to switch colors. The helpers insisted the ruddy flesh color was "red," I created a design that I felt might go with the plates we brought with us. They are a Corelle pattern with red and black on a white background.
In the case of these colors, there was not a huge amount of color shift, though the blue got darker and the "red" got more orange. Here are my two finished plates.
After the artistic session of underglazing, we had a factory tour. On the tour I was amazed at how they stack stuff that is fragile—both in the kiln and just on pallets.
But I would love to have a color applicator like this device! Load them up, tilt it over, press start, tilt it back and done! It even spins it pretty dry.
About the colors. There was no good information as to what the colors would look like once glazed and fired. I asked about glazing, etc., because they weren't giving us that information either at first. I think part of the issue was definitely the language barrier, but I also believe most of the folks helping us had never applied underglazes themselves. We made recommendations later that they have a cup or plate with the underglaze colors with glaze applied and fired so everyone could see what the finished color would look like. I remembered that underglazes are tricky things—very often they change color when glazed and fired and the change can be dramatic.
Prior knowledge also allowed me to 1)suggest to one lady that she not use pencil to write her name on the back of the plate as it would likely disappear during firing and 2) suggest to another lady that she not keep repainting areas as they were drying and changing color. The first needed to use the underglaze to sign her name and the second needed to just let the color dry and then it would appear mostly uniform. If you apply the underglazes too heavily the glaze can actually pull away from the color during the glaze fire.
For my first plate, I figured blue mostly stayed blue so even if it changed shade of blue I would still like it once completed.
2016 Begins/ Explorers Group Tour Part 1
Interestingly, a snow storm in Chicago the day before we were to leave resulted in cancellation of our return flights so we were able to spend a few extra days, yes I said days—3 days in fact— with family before returning home.
2015 Holiday decorations have segued into Chinese New Year decorations. Time flies quickly.
Shortly after our return we alternately seemed to be dealing with upper respiratory issues which left briefly but returned with gusto. We are still trying to fully kick these beasties out once and for all.
In the meantime, I want to tell you about my Explorer's group visit to a porcelain factory last month. One of the other ladies in the group hitched a ride with me as this was pretty far out of town. The lead on this trip had changed drivers without giving us a new name and phone number so we had a little trouble finding the place and eventually waited on the toll road until we saw the other cars from the group catch up to us. We had been making very good time prior to that. And I should say rather that Pak Oky was watching for the other car. He is a car-recognition savant. He will often tell me who's at a friend's house as we arrive—based on the fact that their car is parked out front. Memorizing other people's vehicles and plate numbers is just not something I can handle. It was always hard enough to memorize my own.
Anyway, we arrived to "test drive" this new tour. The place pulled out all the stops for us. We were all very impressed. We had tea, we had a nice lunch, a short intro to the company and holdings, a dance performance by local children, we applied underglaze to a plate which would be later glazed, fired and returned to us, and had a tour of the facility. Now for some details.
First up, personal tea services for each lady. This is one of the patterns of porcelain they produce here. I forget who they make this for but they have customers in the US, Europe and more. Interestingly, while sugar is usually the only sweetener supplied here, these personal tea services had only artificial sweetener.
The dance performance was interesting. The children performed dances from 6 different regions. The hands play a very important part of the storytelling in the dances.
Here are a couple of very short clips of 2 of the dances:
Note: I was having trouble seeing the videos myself on the blog website, so if they don't appear, my apologies!
...
2015 Holiday decorations have segued into Chinese New Year decorations. Time flies quickly.
Shortly after our return we alternately seemed to be dealing with upper respiratory issues which left briefly but returned with gusto. We are still trying to fully kick these beasties out once and for all.
In the meantime, I want to tell you about my Explorer's group visit to a porcelain factory last month. One of the other ladies in the group hitched a ride with me as this was pretty far out of town. The lead on this trip had changed drivers without giving us a new name and phone number so we had a little trouble finding the place and eventually waited on the toll road until we saw the other cars from the group catch up to us. We had been making very good time prior to that. And I should say rather that Pak Oky was watching for the other car. He is a car-recognition savant. He will often tell me who's at a friend's house as we arrive—based on the fact that their car is parked out front. Memorizing other people's vehicles and plate numbers is just not something I can handle. It was always hard enough to memorize my own.
Anyway, we arrived to "test drive" this new tour. The place pulled out all the stops for us. We were all very impressed. We had tea, we had a nice lunch, a short intro to the company and holdings, a dance performance by local children, we applied underglaze to a plate which would be later glazed, fired and returned to us, and had a tour of the facility. Now for some details.
First up, personal tea services for each lady. This is one of the patterns of porcelain they produce here. I forget who they make this for but they have customers in the US, Europe and more. Interestingly, while sugar is usually the only sweetener supplied here, these personal tea services had only artificial sweetener.
Note: I was having trouble seeing the videos myself on the blog website, so if they don't appear, my apologies!
...
Friday, January 22, 2016
Ah... Winter...
It's been a while, yes? I am working up some postings and you will see them very soon. The start of 2016 has been a little hectic, but in the meantime...
Many of you are already seeing some interesting weather and for others, the storm front has yet to reach you. (For those who don't see any snow this time around, I'm sorry!)
Happy snowstorm! Enjoy! Build a snowman or two or three for us! And send us pretty snow pictures, please. Here's one way to go with the snow! I always wanted to do a very large cardinal and color it by spraying it with a red food coloring and water mixture. Anybody game to try it?
Many of you are already seeing some interesting weather and for others, the storm front has yet to reach you. (For those who don't see any snow this time around, I'm sorry!)
Happy snowstorm! Enjoy! Build a snowman or two or three for us! And send us pretty snow pictures, please. Here's one way to go with the snow! I always wanted to do a very large cardinal and color it by spraying it with a red food coloring and water mixture. Anybody game to try it?
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