Earthy Banyumas Batik with French Silk Velvet

This exquisite 45 cm x 45 cm cushion showcases the artistry of artisans from Banyumas in Central Java, Indonesia, featuring authentic hand-drawn batik fabric. Crafted using traditional wax-resist techniques, the intricate patterns celebrate Banyumas rich heritage and its centuries-old reputation for bold, expressive batik designs. The back is finished with luxurious French silk velvet, offering a sumptuous contrast of texture and sheen. This cushion is a sophisticated fusion of Indonesian craftsmanship and European elegance, perfect for adding a striking accent to any interior.

Each cushion is made to order, allowing time for careful craftsmanship and attention to detail. Your piece will be ready for shipping within 15 working days of the order date.  It is an excellent birthday present for you and your loved ones. Please place your order now.
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Dimensions: 45 cm x 45 cm. High-quality insert included. Materials used for the front of the cushion: Hand-drawn cotton batik.Materials used for the back of the cushion: French silk velvet. All of our cushions are made in Paris, France. Specialised dry clean only.

SKU: BYF001

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In the valley of the Serayu River, in the southwest of Central Java, lies Banyumas — a region that has long held itself a little apart from the refined court cities of Yogyakarta and Surakarta. Its character is famously down-to-earth: plain-spoken, egalitarian, and rooted in rural life rather than palace ceremony. Banyumas batik carries this spirit directly into cloth. Where the courts favoured restrained, codified patterns, Banyumas artisans worked in a bolder, freer hand, with deep sogan browns and dark indigos drawn from natural dyes and a robust repertoire of plant and everyday motifs. The region is also known for a meticulous double-sided dyeing tradition, in which both faces of the cloth are brought to the same depth of colour — a quiet point of pride among its makers.

Because it grew from village life rather than royal decree, Banyumas batik reads as an honest, unhurried art: the slow tracing of hot wax with the canting pen, the patient layering of earth-toned baths, the willingness to let a motif feel handmade rather than perfect. It is batik, understood as something to be lived in and worn daily, not only displayed. That same warmth — the depth of natural dye, the evidence of a human hand — is what we carry into a cushion made not for a vitrine, but for the rooms where life is actually spent.

Among the best-loved stories of the Banyumas highlands is the legend of Baturraden, whose name now belongs to a hillside retreat on the green slopes of Mount Slamet. In its common telling, a humble stable hand — a batur, or servant — fell in love with the daughter of the local lord, a raden of noble blood. Their bond crossed a line the social order of the time forbade, and when it was discovered, the young man was cast out and imprisoned.

The lady would not surrender her heart. She freed her beloved, and together they fled into the forested mountainside, choosing a life of obscurity together over rank and comfort apart. The name Baturraden — joining the words for "servant" and "noble" — is remembered as the trace of their union: a story passed down in the region as a gentle argument that devotion can outweigh the accident of birth, and that a family may be founded on choice rather than station.