What are your jeans doing today?

[Sugar Mountain]

I took my Flat Heads to Porto in Portugal for some late summer sunshine. It's a beautiful city with winding alleyways leading down steep hills to the riverside, although there is an element of faded glory to the place. There are many signs that the city has seen better days: much of the architecture could do with some real investment and more importantly, there seems to be very obvious poverty throughout the city. Still, a fantastic place.

[Sugar Mountain]

A few more from Porto:

And of course, no trip to Portugal is complete without Pastel de Natas!

[ThinFinn]

so finally i`m able to post these pics...

had the pleasure to check out the jeans museum from Swiss-Jeansfreak...thanks again Ruedi!

Enjoy the pics everyone...

to cont.

[ThinFinn]

cont.#1

to cont.

[ThinFinn]

cont.#2

25oz - 666

nfQJt9syPlo#ws

thanks for watching.

[almostnice]

thanks for sharing.awesome!

[Obbigood]

sorry Rafa, cant rep.

But this is an extremely cool update from the museum

Thanks!

[kayodic]

R; your posts make me :eek: sorry cant rep you either...

Z; always dig your street photos esp the quirkiness on them and i'm curious to see your film rolls. street photography is fun and i feel bad about not doing for ages... thanks for sharing tho'

[ThinFinn]

no probs and thanks for the rep. all...

it`s just crazy...you really have to see it with your own eyes to actually believe what`s going on

more then 7000pair of jeans (from new to fucked up!) and more then 5000jeansjackets (same as the jeans!)...

Almost everything is still in raw condition and the boxes are FULL as well ...crazy

[rubyblue]

This is awesome indeed!

[yax]

The indigofera plants were first brought to Indonesia by the Netherlands. The indigo that day was originally used as the main ingredient for some cosmetic products (eye shadow), and the pomade / hair oil products. The first indigofera plantation in Indonesia was in Wonogiri (Central Java). In fact, the indigofera was one of the obligatory plants (beside coffee, cane, tea, tobacco, rubber) at the Cultuurstelsel practice during the Dutch colonial in Indonesia. Cultuurstelsel (or Cultivation System in english) is a regulation which requires a portion of agricultural production to be devoted to export crops. Indonesian historians refer to it as Tanam Paksa ("Compulsory Planting"). The practice was issued by the Governor-General Johannes van den Bosch in 1830.

But the story of indigo in Ambarawa is quite different. Although there were many "compulsory plantation" in that area, the indigofera was not included as one of the obligatory plants. The indigofera plants were found accidentally when the plantation was planted with coffee. The people only knew that the plants could fertilize the coffee, but they were not aware with the other function of the indigofera plants. They even tried to feed their cattle with the plants (maybe because they thought it was some kind of grass), but the cattle refused to eat it. It was after the intervene of the local government, the people finally learned about the real function of the indigofera. After the compulsory plantation of coffee in Ambarawa area, the plantation was replaced by the cultivation of rubber tree. The "extra" plants, the indigofera, were also slashed out. That was the time when the people in Ambarawa and the other near area started to plant the indigofera, for the right purpose of course.

That was a short summary that we can conclude after the trip. The idea of this trip was invented when we got an information that somewhere in Central Java, near Ambarawa, there is a batik craftsman that still use natural ingredient to dye their cloth. In the good old days, people in Indonesia used many natural ingredients for the base color of the batik cloth (before they drew a pattern in the fabric). As we always have an interest towards natural indigo, about the process from dyeing until it becomes a ready to wear garment, we decided to visit the relevant place although we're not really sure about how to get there.We decided to take a plane to Semarang (one of the cities in Central Java that quite near Ambarawa) and then take a ground transportation to find a the craftsman place. After 3.5 - 4 hours in total through the air and the land, we finally reached the place.

the departure

the road along the way

the dyeing room

the dyeing tub

the drawing room

the drawing tools

the preparation room (for the mordanting process before the fabric is dyed)

the boiling tools

The owner was generous enough to let us see the process of dyeing the cloth with natural indigo, from the early stage (the preparation, i.e. boiling the cloth) until the end (hang the cloth dry in the sun). In fact, he told us to try the process ourself. Maybe you have seen quite a lot of the same video like this, but it always a pleasure thing to see the magic of natural indigo, about how the color change from yellow to blue after it reacted with the air.

the boiling process (one of the mordanting process, aimed to remove the dirt from the fabric and create a more evenly color in the next dyeing process)

[yax]

cont

the natural indigo liquid (formed as a paste before the dilution process)

after left for a while to settle, the blue color turned into green, and finally turned into a dark yellow color

the video (dyeing process)

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And more importantly, we also tried to dye (overdyed for the exact terms) our denim fabric into the natural indigo. Due to a quite long process (the denim fabric need to be dyed more than five times to create an appropriate dark indigo color) and we only stayed there for one night, we will have the fabric sent in the next couple of days. We'll surely post the result once we receive it. Can't wait.

the dipping process

They're not only using indigofera as the natural dye ingredient, but they also use many other natural ingredients to create several other colors. Most of them are also from plants. For example they use secang woods (Caesalpia sappan) to create a red / orange color, tinggi plants (Ceriops condolleana) to create a red / brown color, jalawe rind (Terminalia Belerica) to create a yellow color, mahogany trunk (Swetenia Mahagoni) to create a brown color, mango seed / leaves (Mangifera Casturi) to create a green color, etc.

other natural ingredients

several resulted color (other than blue from indigofera)

After we satisfied watching the dyeing process, we had a chance to see some of their batik collections. One of many things that interesting about batik, is that the pattern (the drawing) always has a meaning, a philosophy behind it. For example is this batik we finally bought for our souvenir. The pattern is called Sido Luhur. The word "Sido" means become/grow, and the word "Luhur" means high/tall. it explained why there are many bird patterns in the drawing.

some of their batik collections, all of them using natural dyes, and purely handmade (batik tulis)

the sido luhur patern

the night view

[yax]

cont

The slogan about the Indonesian people are very friendly is still valid until this day. The owner is that generous, he let us stay overnight in his place.The next days, we found out there was also a indigofera plantation in the near village. After asking around, we found out where the exact place was, and took about 15-20 minutes motorcycle ride. It is located in Gemawang Village. The road that lead to the plantation was really tough, so many extreme up hills and down hills. Finally we could see the indigofera plants directly. The owner said that the plants were just recently harvested, so almost all the plants we saw were quite short. The indigofera itself can grow to 1 meter height.

The most important determinant to grow the indigofera plants is that the plants must be thoroughly exposed to the sun, without any hindrance. The plants which are obstructed, will not grow well, as you can see (but not clearly) in the picture below. And the other unique thing about the indigofera is that the time to harvest the plants will also be an important factor to determine the quality of the indigo color (the darkness level, the shade, etc) produced later. They said the best time to harvest the indigofera is in the early morning, or in the late afternoon.

fooling around first

the up and down hills

the scenery along the way

indigofera plants

the seed

the obstructed plants (will not grow well)

[saintkeat]

Cool post Yax!

My headphones are finally done. Haven't taken them off my head since completing them today =)

[joelz]

just a regular new york day

hopped on the subway

dodged crowds

dodged cabs

took in the scenery

[clayton]

those are beautiful headphones, excellent work. Like Grado's but nicer.

sweet shots Yax thanks for those.

[saintkeat]

They're modified Grados.

African Mahogany cups, Red Mahogany gimbals, Brass rods, Top grain leather head band.

Effort paid off, they sound better than Audeze LCD-2 now IMO.

[-Z-]

Last weekend via instagram...

Leaving Beijing on the Airport Express

Terminal 3, gate 20...my least favorite, all the way at the end of the terminal. though quite beautiful for my 8:00am flight to Shenzhen.

"Betty" my camera got her own seat...

View from a friends place in Shenzhen...

Passed into HK via train + checkpoint, riding on the blue like out to Kowloon Tong to meet a friend.

--Ya'll already saw HK via my other cam...didn't even bring the iPhone with me for a few days, felt good to be detached from the world for a while--

Back in Shenzhen, went to the beach...

A Huge storm came rolling quickly in, and began to dump rain, ships out in the distance...

a bit more to come...the storm...

[kawawaka]

Cool post Yax!

My headphones are finally done. Haven't taken them off my head since completing them today =)

Yo I want a pair like those! Awesome really cool.

[-Z-]

Took refuge under a huge umbrella that was up at the head of the beach, myself, my friend, and a few dozen locals...

myself, covered in sand, drinking a bunch of TsingTao, and kicking it with my friend...

Stayed through a ton of beers, a ton of laughs, a dispersing local crowd, and nightfall...another couple remained behind.

The next morning I got up at 5 to head home...

Taxi to SZX

Eating a bit of breakfast at...KFC, only place to grab a bite at the airport that early...

Hopped off the plane back in BJ, ready to head back to work!

yup. that's about it!

[zeen]

Recently went out to shoot more macro photography at a Nature Reserve.

Some jumping spiders. Cute aren't they?

Jumping spider by Zeen., on Flickr

Jumping spider by Zeen., on Flickr

Jumping spider by Zeen., on Flickr

Jumping spider by Zeen., on Flickr

Jumping spider by Zeen., on Flickr

[Max Power]

I went to the shore today to go longboarding. It's pretty nice there, gentle slopes and a beautiful view.

Luckily my knee was not hurting too much.

Excuse the many close ups of the jeans (the Heavyweight Contest needed some material). Have a nice weekend everybody.

[Max Power]

[zeen]

A frog's eye

DSC_4705 by Zeen., on Flickr

Long Horned Tiger Beetle

DSC_4697 by Zeen., on Flickr

DSC_4667 by Zeen., on Flickr

Scolopendra

DSC_4595 by Zeen., on Flickr

Scorpion

DSC_4569 by Zeen., on Flickr

[tshontikidis]

My SExSC 02 are headed to see primus. boom

[abcdenim]

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[alexx1976]

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[Maynard Friedman]

All that action and the bird didn't even move!

[MHP]

Road Race World Championships 2011 + LVC 505 1967

[robbie]

boring weekend, stickin around the house listening to the radio tending to the grounds...