Inacraft

How to explain this... Let's see. The tickets state that Inacraft is an International Handicraft Trade Fair and that it is the biggest and most complete exhibition of gifts and housewares.  It was held over 5 days in April.

Some of my friends were going to go on Thursday but due to other commitments I had only 2 hours to dedicate to this enormous event. I decided against going on Thursday and  B and I went on Saturday morning. It wasn't too crowded for the first few minutes but the crowds quickly increased. I read that the target attendance was expected to reach 200,000 people. Yikes!

My fair buddy (B) quickly commented there was too much fabric for sale. To quilters and people who sew it was like a giant candy store of fabric.  There were so many vendors selling what I'll call regular batik and batik tulis. What I'm calling regular batik is stamped batik. A hand-made copper stamp is dipped into wax and repeatedly stamped on the yardage of fabric, then dyed. Batik tulis designs are hand drawn with wax and dyed. Both can have multiple wax and dye steps. The more steps, the more colors, the more expensive the fabric. I was surprised with a few vendors selling pastel colored batiks which are not commonly seen, but without a project idea I didn't buy any. I have read that many batik makers are changing over from chemical dyes in favor or natural dyes and these colors are less intense. Maybe that was the case with the more"pastel" prints? I don't know.

I must discuss the size of this event. It is geared towards promoting artisans—mostly Indonesian— but also included craftspeople from other parts of SE Asia. Items for sale: fabric, fashions, jewelry, objets d'art, woven basketry items, wooden carvings, mirrors, toys/games, footwear..... On the website there was a list of about 1200 sellers. Yes, 1200! Other information said there were over 600 "booths," so maybe many were shared. The math doesn't make a lot of sense, but this thing was HUGE whatever the actual numbers. Here's the layout.

Here's the vendor listing:

It turned out we didn't stay very long once the number of people limited free movement from booth to booth. (B comment: didn't stay long is a matter of opinion and reference. It was WELL over two hours.)We didn't even finish seeing everything. Amazingly, folks brought strollers! I've seen strollers banned at craft fairs in the US. One thing I've not witnessed at craft fairs in the US is the vendor staff putting their chairs into the public aisle blocking movement of folks at the fair. I think there was just no place for chairs inside their area so they put them in the walkway. We were there on day 5 and we saw fabrics and such still being unpacked. They filled every square centimeter with goods, so maybe there wasn't any room for chairs.

I will probably go again next year, but once without this year's fair buddy, opting to go with other fabric lovers and returning a second time with B to look at non-fabric items. The entry was only Rp25,000 (less than $2.00 US).

Parking on the other hand was extremely difficult. Pak Oky ended up just dropping us off on the street and we walked into the convention site following other folks doing the same thing. When it was time to leave we had quite the wait. After contacting Pak Oky to be picked up, he tried to text us and call us to tell us the traffic was very bad and it would be a while until he could get to the pick up point. Unfortunately, B's phone was acting up again and Oky couldn't reach us so when he did arrive he was extremely apologetic. Pak Oky always communicates with B only when he and I are together so Oky didn't even try my phone. We reminded him to always try my phone as well under these circumstances.

While we were waiting for pickup I lost the lens to my prescription bi-focal sunglasses. The wire holding the lens in place had broken and I'd attempted to repair it 2 times. The second repair seemed to be working. However, while waiting, I went to put them on and the lens popped out and fell into a storm drain. Sunglasses finished. We ended up buying me a pair of $50 US Ray Ban Polaroid sunglasses. I can keep my eyes open with them, but don't ask me to read anything.