Made, our tailor from Bali is one of my longest sewing artist acquaintances. I already discovered his little magic shop in 2012 by accident and fell in love with his pretty little things. The extraordinary fabrics and  intelligent elaborations inspired me so much that from this moment on, I have visited his shop so often that we became friends. Most of all I liked his practical cosmetic bags and the hippie backpacks.

Made is so funny and heartfelt. Every time I visit him, we are making jokes,  giggling and teasing eachother. He´s such a chilled and easy going person, and you definitely feel welcome in his little shop. I am already looking forward to visit him again.

The fascinating bags in different variations are handmade from colorful cotton fabrics from all over Indonesia. Fabrics like “Ikat” or “Batik”. If you ever travel to Indonesia, you definitely gonna hear from one of these very special fabrics.

Batik, comes from the Javanese “mbatik” and means “write with wax”. It is a native Indonesian dyeing method of textile. In this elaborate coloring technique the embellishments are drawn or stamped by hand with liquid wax on cotton, silk, rayon or linen. Afer that, the fabric goes into a bath of color and all those parts which weren´t covered by wax suck up the color. Then the wax needs to be removed and you´ll see the drawings on the fabric.

Ikat is a typical weaving and dyeing technique from Indonesia. Before it comes to the weaving, bundles of yarn are tightly wrapped together and dyed to create a pattern.  After the yarns have been dyed, they are getting lined up on the loom to form the pattern and woven to a fabric. That method is very complicated and time consuming.

By the way. The name “Made” is a typical Balinease name and if you ever visit Bali you´ll meet many girls and boys with this name.

The naming is according to the order of birth and intended for four children, regardless of the gender. As more children are born in the family, the order of names starts all over again.

  • The first child:
    WAYAN (the oldest): Based on the Javanese wayah-an. Wayah = old, the ending -on the superlative. Say the name `Wayan ‘means` the oldest’.
    PUTU (grandson): also comes from the Javanese and means ‘grandson’.
    GEDE or GDE (the biggest): Balinese meaning ‘big’ or ‘the biggest’. Only used for male offspring.
    LUH (little girl / flower): The name LUH is a pure maiden name. It comes from the Javanese word galuh, which means ‘little girl’ or ‘flower’.
  • The second child: MADE (in the middle): The origin of this name lies in the Kawi language, an ancient literary language that was spoken in Java, Bali and Lombok and has borrowed many loan words from Sanskrit. The name `Made’ goes back to the term` base Madya’ and means `in the middle’.
    NENGAH (in the middle): Its origin goes back to the Bahasa Melayu, the Malay language and also means ‘in the middle’.
    KADEK (the second): also comes from the Malay and means ‘the second one’.
  • The third child: NYOMAN (the youngest): its origin goes back to the Javanese word `nom-an ‘and means` the youngest’.
    KOMANG (baby): also comes from Javanese (kamong) and means baby or spoiled, guarded child.
  • The fourth child:
    KETUT (Follower): The name comes from the Javanese word `katut’, which means to call or follow.