INDONESIAN FURNITURE : CREATIVITY IN WOODS
INDONESIAN FURNITURE : CREATIVITY IN WOODS
Indonesia is one of the top 25 furniture exporters in the world . Indonesia has ranked 21st of the world furniture exporters . Indonesian wooden furniture has been widely exported to many countries worldwide . Most of these products go to the United States and European countries . Indonesian wooden furniture products are made out of wood products from local Indonesian tropical forest . The most commonly used wood for high-quality furniture making is teak wood and mahogany .
Teak wood ( Indonesian word : Jati ) is a hard , highquality wood used for building high end and long lasting furniture . Teak wood is a genus of tropical hardwood trees in the family Verbenaceae , native to the South and Southeast Asia , and is commonly found as a component of monsoon forest vegetation .
“ Mahoganies ” may refer to the wider group of all the timbers yielded by the three related genera Swietenia , Khaya , and Entandrophragma . Mahogany has a generally straight grain and is usually free of voids and pockets . It has a reddish-brown color , which darkens over time , and displays a beautiful reddish sheen when polished . It has excellent workability and is very durable .
The best of Indonesian furniture can be seen in the furniture that has adorned the palaces and residences of the country ’ s elite . One of the most prominent furniture styles in Indonesia is in the form of wooden relief carving furniture . The most prominent furniture production centers in the country that boast a high furniture making industries are Jepara , Yogyakarta , Jakarta , and Bali . One foreign entrepreneur who has made Jepara his home and business base claim that Jepara people are “ genetically designed ” to carve . One can easily go to any of the countless homes in Jepara that work on furniture products .
The furniture carving industry in Jepara is famous since it emphasizes wooden creative carving design in its products . No furniture from Jepara that are not adorned with creative carvings . Product designs then available include elephant chair ( so called due to its large size ) with Garuda carving motifs , Mojopahit style chair ( with floral and leaf carving motifs ), wardrobe with Ramayana mythological story motif carving , and other simple carving furniture product designs .
The furniture industry in Yogyakarta provides a wide range of selection from elegant classical designs to futuristic , creative and functional ones . Traditional furniture development in Yogyakarta can be seen from the decorative motifs that developed , such as dragon , floral , geometric , Mataram and Majapahit and European motifs . The dragon motif is a product of Hindu and Chinese influence . The garuda motif is sometimes used instead of dragon motif . The Garuda is a giant bird or bird-like creature of Hindu mythology . Floral decorative motif typically takes on the form of lotus as a heavenly flower . The geometric motif is also called the wajikan ( after a traditional cookie with a trapezoidal share , or “ wajik ” in Javanese ). Majapahit and Mataram style takes the form of decorative motifs usually used on puppet shadows . European styles are influenced by designs of furniture and design diagrams brought to Java by Europeans . The European influence reached its peak during the Dutch colonial era . This is due to the fact that the Dutch tried to ship some furniture made in Java to Europe , and thus influenced local furniture designer . Some European designs were copied while others combined with traditional designs already exist .
6 Trade & Investment Bulletin | Number II / November 2016