In the hands of Muhammad Suwoto and his wife, handwoven pandan handicrafts not only support families, but also contribute to protecting the hilly environment from the danger of landslides.
By
WILIBRORDUS MEGANDIKA WICAKSONO
·6 minutes read
WILIBRORDUS MEGANDIKA WICAKSONO
Muhammad Suwoto
Village resources in the form of pandan weaving, a tradition handed down through the generations, have opened the eyes and heart of Muhammad Suwoto, 35. He is determined to preserve and improve the quality of the villagers’ handicrafts. His perseverance has led to the village’s various woven pandan products being exported to Malaysia and Japan.
“Many people used to make half-finished complong, or sarong-like woven sheets of pandan measuring 50 by 50 centimeters,” Muhammad “Oto” Suwoto, the owner of the handwoven pandan crafts brand Jaxee, said on Wednesday (23/3/2022) during a visit to his house in Mbatur hamlet of Karanggayam village in Karanggayam district, Kebumen regency, Central Java.
The father of two started his pandan weaving business in 2012 by accident. “In the beginning, my wife and I opened a shop selling sundries and basic necessities. At the time, the village still used barter to purchase goods. When our neighbors bought vegetables or eggs, they paid with complong, worth Rp 5,000 apiece,” said Oto.
In two days, he continued, a pile of around 50 complong had formed in his house. In one week, he had received at least 300 sheets of complong as payment. As a matter of fact, he and his wife needed money to buy supplies at the market to stock their shop.
“Then, we started thinking about how to sell the complong,” said the machining graduate of SMKN 1 Blora vocational senior high school.
Oto and his wife incidentally became small-time traders, collecting the complong their neighbors made. They sold the complong they received as barter payment to bigger traders in the neighboring village as well as other traders near Gombong. It turned out that the big traders were sending the complong to Tasikmalaya, West Java, for processing into woven handicrafts like wallets and bags. So, Oto also established ties with craftspeople in Tasikmalaya.
“From 2012 to 2014, many students from elementary school to senior high school were weaving pandan to earn pocket money. So, considering the large quantity of complong, I invited several shop owners in the village to sell their complong to me for selling directly to Tasikmalaya,” he said.
WILIBRORDUS MEGANDIKA WICAKSONO
Muhammad Suwoto
After several years, Oto found that the complong woven by the older villagers did not meet the expected standards of their orders, with unclear motifs and loose weave. “I didn’t have the heart to reject them. But if I accepted them, they wouldn’t sell,” he said.
Apart from their inferior quality and a slump in the woven pandan trade in 2015, a total of 500 complong had collected over three months in Oto’s house and were then ravaged by termites.
‘Petromaks’ handicrafts
Observing the condition, Oto decided to initiate the production of finished goods at his village. He aimed to immediately improve the lesser quality complong made by the older villagers so
they could be processed into ready-to-sell handicrafts. Towards this end, Oto purchased a number of finished handcrafted products from Tasikmalaya for disassembling in order to study their patterns and construction methods.
Later, Oto formed a group of eight villagers to take part in the three-month weaving training program, organized by the Kebumen regency administration in 2016-2017.
For marketing, besides supplying complong to Tasikmalaya, Oto also used his Oto Jaxee account on Facebook to market the products.
The brand name Jaxee is a derivation from pandan jeksi, a pandan variety that grows in Karanggayam village. The other two varieties that grow there are pandan sari and pandan pudak.
“To make it sound cool, I changed jeksi to Jaxee,” he said.
During the village’s initial production of finished goods, Oto thought about creating an iconic product that would bring renown to Jaxee handicrafts.
It turned out that petromaks (hand-held kerosene lamp) made from woven pandan leaves, a decorative ornament that was produced in limited numbers and sold for between Rp 250,000 and Rp 350,000 each, was highly sought after by buyers from regions like Pekalongan and Madura.
WILIBRORDUS MEGANDIKA WICAKSONO
Muhammad Suwoto
The Covid-19 pandemic affected Oto and the weavers who were his partners. It brought a halt to the monthly delivery of 1,000 woven hats to Tasikmalaya for resale to Bali. Nonetheless, Oto continued to encourage his partners to proceed with their weaving to meet the demands of buyers placing orders through his Instagram accounts, @anyamanpandan_jaxee and @nauviganie_new.
“Buyers from Malaysia order these woven pandan bags,” Oto said, showing an array of small, colorful bags. “They cost Rp 50,000 to Rp 100,000 per bag. We send 200 bags every 10 days [to Malaysia].”
Oto’s pandan handicraft business uses around 300 sheets if complong per month to produce hundreds of finished products to order. A total of 30 pandan weavers are working to produce complong, earning incomes between Rp 600,000 and Rp 1 million per month.
“The weavers are housewives whose average age is over 40 years,” he said.
Aside from sales and marketing, Oto has also invited youths and other residents to form the Marga Muda Business Collective (KUBe), now totaling 14 members, to cultivate pandan. In the last three years, the collective has developed a total of 2 hectares in three locations for cultivating pandan.
“Pandan roots can maintain soil cohesion to prevent landslides,” Oto noted, explaining the environmental benefits of the plant.
Oto’s efforts have earned him the Best Micro Business award from the Kebumen Business Forum 2018. The Jaxee-branded fruit basket, created in collaboration with designer Fauzy Prasetya Kamal, was also nominated for Japan’s Good Design Award 2020.
In the spirit of promoting their village, Oto and his wife continue to lift the hopes of pandan weavers. They are also encouraging young people to take part in business ventures that range from mushroom farming to livestock breeding.
In the hands of Oto and his wife, handwoven pandan handicrafts not only support families, but also contribute to protecting the hilly environment from the danger of landslides.
Muhammad Suwoto
Born: Blora, 7 Dec. 1986
Wife: Noviati, 34
Children: Ibnu Malik Argani, 12; Sahlana Malika Sani, 4
Education: SMKN 1 Blora vocational senior high school (class of 2005)
Award: Best Micro Business, Kebumen Business Forum 2018
