Lurik

Lurik is striped cloth woven on a backstrap loom, and its stripe patterns have names: tuluh watu, udan liris, sodo sakler and dozens more. Some names say what they depict — udan liris means fine rain — and some say what they are for.

Unlike batik, lurik is working cloth. It is worn as everyday cloth, as the surjan jacket, and as a jarik gendong for carrying a child or goods; strength and resistance to washing are the properties that matter. Some patterns were formerly used on particular occasions, for instance at mitoni, and that use continues in some places.

Gedog lurik is woven on a loom one end of whose warp is tied to the weaver's waist, so that thread tension is regulated by the body. Its width is therefore limited by arm's reach, and wide cloth is made by sewing two lengths together.

Since the mid-twentieth century most lurik in circulation has been woven on larger non-machine looms or by machine, producing wider, cheaper and more uniform cloth. Gedog lurik survives in a few places in Yogyakarta and Klaten, worked by weavers who are mostly elderly women, and costs several times the machine-woven kind. This encyclopedia records both under the same name because both are called lurik, and states the difference because it is not visible in a photograph.