The real Geppetto...

Day One. Have just come back from my first day of carving. My teacher is Nyoman Setiawan. He has been carving for 40 years, of which he has taught for 25. He is so friendly, unassuming, good-humoured, and loves football. And a fucking talented carver. All of which make the perfect ingredients for a great teacher.



He lives, works and teaches at his studio/home in Lantandhidung (translates to ‘Long Nose’). He has a dog called Pinocchio. A mask carver who lives in Long Nose with a dog called Pinocchio. Love.



Anyway, it’s right in the middle of a rice patty field, surrounded by coconut and pule trees (pule is used to carve mask). Absolute bliss.



He greets at the gate to his home, handshakes, nods, asks names, leads me to his gallery, and asks without hesitation, “What mask you want make?”. I’ve been thinking about it for months, but put on the spot, I panic. “Um, teeth!” I say, sticking my fingers in front of my mouth like Dr Zoidberg from Futurama. He nods, “Like this?”...



Um. Yes. Whoa. Cool.

Then, without great casualness I’m led up to the studio.



And so it begins. BUT, not before drinking from a freshly plucked coconut.



More bliss.



Nyoman chatters and laughs a lot, teaching carving technique and philosophy between casual conversation. Like, I.B Anom, he also believes that you must see the face of the mask before you start carving, and that the energy of the carver is infused in the mask.

First, a centre line!



Then features (eyes, nose, mouth) must be blocked out. This stage is called Makalan. Watch this exciting photo essay I will bombard you with. Carving pule is somewhere between balsa and pine. Light, doesn’t splinter, and elastic. Still fricken difficult.











I chose to sit in the traditional carving position (sitting on the floor with the mask between your feet and your knees in the ‘froggy’)...



Which I found very comfortable because it is habitual. I think Nyoman was amused and impressed by this. He almost immediately asked me where I was from, when I revealed I had Asian heritage, he laughed and nodded as if this justified everything.



The next stage of the mask is called Nerebak, which is giving more detail. You’ll note that here Nyoman is using the axe to help me.





He looked up at me, and seeing I was disheartened I didn’t get to use all the tools, assured “This I cannot give. Sorry”.





It’s inevitable that you will get nicks and scratched carving, maybe it might be bad, but you’ll never do it again. Here is where I left my mask.



It was so wonderful today, and it stopped raining! The next month is going to be awesome. I am considering getting him to make a mask for me; a custom made monkey mask would be brilliant.