.: Nomenklatur dompet :.

Dari ke sekian kali kunjungan ke Cibangkong, hari ini adalah salah satu hari yang paling banyak tantangannya.

Terutama karena kondisi badan sedang kurang fit (common cold) dan waktu kunjungan pas di siang hari bolong… tapi ke semuanya itu tentu aja gak mengurangi niat untuk ketemuan dengan ibu-ibu di Cibangkong (plus ngambil pesanan).

Anyway, dompet pesanan pun diterima dengan selamat.
Dan seperti biasa, selalu puas dengan hasil buatan tangan ibu - ibu disana.

Bahkan kali ini sebagian dompet dengan corak baru jadi menginspirasi untuk pemberian nama, atau istilah kerennya 'nomenklatur' … supaya mirip dengan perombakan nomenklatur kementrian kabinet Jokowi : )

Sederhana saja, tujuan nomenklatur ini supaya memudahkan calon klien juga.
Apabila menginginkan dompet dengan corak tertentu cukup merujuk pada nama ataupun nomor yang diberikan.

Setali tiga uang, ibu - ibu pembuat material pun bisa merujuk pada nomenklatur serupa. Semisal ada yang ingin memesan dalam jumlah banyak corak tertentu, dapat merujuk pada penamaan yang ada.

Pemberian nama memang sengaja menggunakan bahasa Inggris, sebagai bahasa yang umumnya dikenal secara internasional, karena banyak calon klien berasal dari luar Indonesia.


Sebagai contoh, langsung saja bisa kita lihat pada gambar dibawah:

Black White #01

Dominasi warna hitam dan putih (serta krem) menjadi acuan pemberian nama 'Black White #01' pada corak ini.

 

Brown White #02

Dominasi warna putih (bentuk silang) dan coklat menjadi acuan pemberian nama 'Brown White #02' pada corak ini.

Red Stripes #03

Dominasi warna merah dengan akses garis menjadi acuan pemberian nama 'Red Stripes #03' pada corak ini.

Red Yellow #04

Dominasi warna merah dengan akses seperti bunga berwarna kuning menjadi acuan pemberian nama 'Red Yellow #04' pada corak ini.

Black Yellow #05

Dominasi warna hitam dengan warna kuning sebagai aksen menjadi acuan pemberian nama 'Black Yellow #05' pada corak cantik ini.

Pink Finger #06

Gambar jari berwarna pink yang menjadi tema utama sehingga menjadi acuan pemberian nama 'Pink Finger #06' pada corak ini.

Red Cups #07

Ini adalah dompet pesanan khusus favorit saya, karena materialnya terbuat dari bungkus kopi instan kelas premium yang harga satuannya lebih mahal, maka harga jual dompet jenis ini pun lebih mahal.
Dengan warna merah dan dominasi gambar cangkir, maka nama 'Red Cups #07' disandang corak ini.

Black Lotus #08

Corak ini sangat spesial. Sehingga dompet bercorak cantik nan elegan dengan dominasi warna gelap dan aksen putih ini selalu dinanti calon pembeli (sold out terus!).
Pemberian nama 'Black Lotus #08' semata-mata karena teratai adalah bunga yang cantik dan angka delapan dipercaya orang dapat membawa keberuntungan :-)

B/w zigzag #09

Last but not least. Corak hitam putih beralur (zigzag) ini juga termasuk yang sering dipesan para calon pembeli. Cantik memang dan penggunaannya uniseks.
Nama 'B/w zigzag #09' dianggap cocok mewakili corak ini.

.:~*~:..:~*~:.*~:.*~:.*~:.*~:.*~:.*~:.*~:.*~:.*~:.*~:.

Sama seperti sebelumnya, kali ini mereka mengeluhkan masi kurangnya material bekas bungkus kopi sebagai bahan pembuatan dompet (!!!!) Sehingga waktu pembuatan dompet melewati waktu yang diperkirakan atau bahkan tidak dapat diprediksi akibat bahan bakunya tidak tersedia.

Sayang sekali yah… padahal kalau kita lihat di jalan atau di tempat umum lainnya sering sekali orang membuang bekas bungkus kopi ini. Dianggap sampah belaka.

Sedangkan barang serupa yang dianggap sampah oleh orang lain itu bisa diolah menjadi karya bernilai jual tinggi di tangan ibu-ibu Cibangkong ini.

Makanya, kalau kita mau usaha sedikit sih gampang ... pisahkan bungkus kopi, teh, atau minuman instan yang biasa dikonsumsi, lalu kirimkan ke Ibu-ibu di Cibangkong supaya bisa diolah lagi jadi kerajinan tangan.

Hasil karya mereka juga sangat layak dikoleksi, sebagai hadiah untuk teman, atau dijual ulang. Apa pun itu kerajian seperti ini patut diapresiasi karena sifatnya mengurangi sampah yang mencemari lingkungan atau 'eco-friendly'.

Sebagian besar teman-teman bule saya sangat tertarik dengan isu seperti ini, sayang sekali orang kita sendiri masih kurang kepeduliannya.
Jadi gak aneh juga kalau sebagian pembeli tetap kerajinan dompet di Cibangkong ini malah tamu luar (Jepang, NZ, Korea, Swiss). Karena memang malah orang luar cenderung lebih sadar akan pentingnya kerajinan ramah lingkungan yang berbasis daur ulang (recycle), mengurangi sampah (reduce) atau penggunaan ulang (reuse).

.: Waste product goes around the world :.

Just recently I came back from a short trip in few different places.
Always, if possible I brought some pouches from waste-based products in my luggage.

I gave it as a gift to my friends in Europe, or asked them to buy it in reasonable prices (2-3 Eur). It's not money motivated me to do this. It's the awareness to spread the messages that your wastes could be unused and clogging the pipeline or floating on the river (which is very common view, if you ever visited developing parts in Asia). Or else, the very same waste materials could be reused and resell it to make income.
Of course there is creativity process in between to add more values, before the used-to-be waste materials could be sold as handicrafts.

This is the interesting part for me, as the creativity process actually came from those who 'categorized' as low economic group, living not very far from where the garbage storage.
Oh.... what I really like, they are mostly housewives (isn't great that women always know how to make things better?)

They (or some people as initiator) refused to accept the situation that they could not change their future. It took some time until people realized and they got more publicity from local (and later national) news.

During my several visits to the area, I have heard stories from the housewives how the situation before they become 'empowered' basically from trashes.
When it rained, oftentimes their houses (or the whole alleys) got drowned for one and half meter (!!!!)
It was because people just threw everything on the river, including a big sofa bed (believe me, some people in this world think it's normal to just throw away ANYTHING on the river).

The fact that their houses got drowned didn't always relate to how they should treat their garbage. It took some time of course by building awareness, build the system (e.g. to separate organic and plastic wastes), as well incentives by selling their products.

I must admit the efforts of these simple housewives to build their community not just inspirational, but also beneficial in terms of making themselves respected and getting financially independent.

These are the stories I shared to my friends every time I gave them the waste-based products.
It probably only cost 2-3 euros, which is nothing really even for them.

For a medium sized pouch (length 11 x height 6 x width 2 cm) they need at least 150 small sachets and some hours to work on it. It was all handmade.

this what your 150 instant coffee sachets could do

When I asked them why they did not want to sell it on higher prices to foreigner tourists (because they could and make much more sense). FYI, at this moment they already have buyers from all over the world due to the widespread publicity. They have sold it to tourists from Japan, European and Asian countries nearby.

Here's what they said : They have agreement beforehand among the housewives and they have set certain prices. Doesn't really matter who are the buyers, they're going to sell only based on these agreed prices. It is not money they are looking for.

This fact has impacted on me so much and motivated me to do something for the benefit of them.
That's why I started this blog (it's free anyway) and tried to resell the products among my close friends. 

What I also really wish, people would gain awareness to treat their garbage wisely.
I did it already from our home. We separated plastic bottles, instant coffee (or drink) sachets, paper waste, organic wastes etc.
Just like what I did when I lived in Europe (even for a short period).
We even tried to make our own eco-enzyme recently and encouraged people to do so : )

I believe we could really make big differences in life by doing small things.

.: From Bandung, for Mother Earth :.

Today was my 4th visit to the place that has taught me, that a person does not necessarily has to be highly educated to know how to take care of the environment by reducing and reusing waste.

These housewives have learned from their experiences, or their living environment that waste could be something useful. They have successfully made organic compost, biogas , handicrafts that are literally made from something people usually considered as trash.

Why I started to dedicate this blog for them, is because most of times they did not have enough publications or steady market where they could sell their products.
Although their activities has established since 2009 and many media exposed the way of reduce and reuse waste among this humble population, majority of the products were made only based on request from direct buyers.

Last year when I was off from my regular office work, I committed to dedicate (a little bit of) my effort, competency, time and gigabyte, to introduce some of the products from MyDarling (abbreviation from Masyarakat Sadar Lingkungan) to people out there.

I'm giving a shout, as they have inspired me to manage the waste wisely, so I'm helping them to spread the messages.
 

medium size : dimension 17 x 11 x 2 cm

 

it took more than 160 sachets (of your instant coffee) to make this wallet

 All are waste-based, hand made, with love from the simple housewives.

Plenty hours were spent to made this handicraft and it took more than 160 small sachets (of instant coffee or milk) for every medium size wallet, yet they sell it for only 2 USD.

They said even if they could sell it higher (as they have buyers from outside e.g. Japan, Australia, Europe) they wanted to keep it non-profit, because money is not the thing they looking for.

Mother Earth indeed needs more of them.