Wonderful Art Craft Of Leather Puppet

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June 4, 2008

Leather puppet is made from buffalo skin as the material. It has a price at around USD 75 to USD 100 per sheet. Basically to create an art craft of Leather puppet, for the first started the skin is soaked in the water, better to soak it in the river at around 12 hours. Then, it is dried by widely exposing it to the sun after the fur is scraped. One sheet of dried leather can be used for 20 to 30 smaller puppets or 2 to 3 larger puppets.

Gunungan (image at the left) feature is the most difficult due to its sunggingan detail and its large size. One Gunungan feature price may reach up to USD 250. Other regular puppets are sold for around USD 70 to USD 75 per sheet.

Regular inlaid and painting works take one week, but Gunungan feature takes almost one month. The puppets are colored using acrylic paints. Each character, especially the figure’ face, is represented by special color.

Besides making orders of single puppet, Sugio the art leather puppet’s maker also makes orders of complete set of puppets. One of his customers of complete set of puppets is dalang Hadi Sugito or Ki Timbul. “One box of complete set of puppets made by gold pradha has a price at around USD 5000 and USD10000 to USD 15000 for puppets made by brown pradha,” said the man who had also been a lecturer in the Academy of Leather Technology (ATK) for leather product subject for the last 6 years.

His excellent skill in making leather puppet handicraft made him frequently chosen to participate in many exhibitions in foreign countries such as Taiwan, Holland, Tokyo, Boston, Hongary, British, Franc, Singapore, and New Zealand. He was also given a chance to lecture in Suriname as one part of cooperation series between the Provincial Government of Yogyakarta and Suriname.

His home is also his show room not only for leather puppets but also for variety of handmade leather art of souvenirs, such as small leather puppets with the size 30 x 30 cm for walls and tables and key accessories. “I also make leather accessories for Javanese stage show (wayang orang), such as sumping (a kind of ear ornament) and crown” said Sagio whose favorite puppet figure was Hanoman.

Some of Sagio’s leather puppets collectors are Gus Dur, whose favorite figure is Kumbokarno, and Megawati Soekarno Putri, whose favorite object is leather hand-fan with puppet figures background. “But none of provincial executives of DI Yogyakarta nor municipal officers of Yogyakarta and Bantul have become my product collectors,” revealed Sagio who had been an employee (abdi dalem) of Kraton Palace of Yogyakarta by the name of ML.Perwita Wiguna.