As many as thirty members from the Empowerment and Family Welfare (PKK) Purworejo Regency took part in the Bengok Craft Workshop activities. This was held on Wednesday, 7 December 2022 at afternoon local time. Taking place at Darungan Kesongo Culture, PKK members who come from lady’s circles make water hyacinth crafts.

The crafts created by these members are slippers.

Before directly practicing making sandal crafts, the participants first watched a documentary video from Bengok Craft about its journey to establish this environment-based business. Next, the participants listened to water hyacinth craft materials from the Bengok Craft team.

The material explained is in the form of water hyacinth characteristics and steps for making water hyacinth handicrafts, starting from harvesting, cleaning, drying, sorting, and flattening (if going to make woven).

Afterwards, the participants were very enthusiastic about making predetermined creations.

Firman Setyaji as the owner of Bengok Craft on (12/17) said the reason why PKK participants were asked to make sandals.

“Indeed, this workshop is different from usual (children), instead of creating simple water hyacinth creations such as making bracelets and key chains, we ask them to make sandals because they have a higher level of complexity,” said Firman.

“This is of course according to the level, the level of adults, especially the members of the PKK, of course, are expected to have more expertise in making crafts than children,” continued Firman.

In addition, instead of forming groups to produce one craft per group, this time Firman is targeting individual creation.

“Yes, one person makes 1 pair of sandals, so there are 30 pairs of sandals created,” said Firman.

Even so, Firman had prepared his water hyacinth woven, so that the Purworejo PKK participants could attach it directly to the rubber layer on the slipper.

Even though they had been assisted by the matting, it appeared that some of the PKK members were quite challenged by the application of the matting to the slipper.

Fortunately, they managed to create it. Of the 30 pairs of sandals, there were many types of slippers that were created, such as selop, double selop, flops, and many more.

However, Firman said that most of their creations are slippers with selop type.

“Maybe because the type of sandals looks suitable for women and also looks classic, many of them create it,” said Firman.

Of course, the results of their water hyacinth creations could be brought home as their souvenir. They were able to purchase water hyacinth creations belonging to Bengok Craft which are available at Daringan Kesongo Culture.

The participants from PKK Purworejo Regency took part in the Bengok Craft Workshop in order to improve their hard skill expertise in the field of handcrafting, so that later they may apply it when returning to their region.

#bengokcraft #bengok #craft #bengokcraftworkshop #workshop #hyacinthworkshop #pkkpurworejo #purworejo #pkk #encenggondok #waterhyacinth #handicraft #handmade #artisan #localcommunity #empowerment #export #unique #creative #msme #umkm #Indonesia #semarang #tuntang #ecofriendly #gogreen #upcycle #saveearth #artisan #ourstory #localstory