"Pearl of Silk" — and the company deserves the name

Before I take a few deep breaths and begin to sort through 700+ photos from our four days in Yogya and Solo, I want to paste in a Garuda in-flight magazine article on the source of our most precious textile. We hunted for Lenan the first afternoon we were in Yogya, because we both had been seriously impressed by a heavy pale blue silk piece we'd seen at their display booth in the Jakarta Convention Center. That wasn't available in the residential home our driver tracked down, but Michael spotted an exquisite silk weaving in a beautiful shade of cokolat, now part of our collection. The Attacus Atlas silkworms described here provided the raw material.

 http://garudamagazine.com/features.php?id=88

Lenan - Pearl of Silk - Innovation in wild silk ‘tenun’

Garuda Indonesia, through its "One Passenger One Tree" program, is in the process of planting 50,000 mahogany and cashew trees in the Village of Karang Tengah, Bantul, Yogyakarta.
The purpose of this initiative, apart from promoting eco-tourism and environmental conservation in the region, is to provide wild silkworms with abundant breeding ground. Attacus Atlas silkworms that breed on mahogany trees produce exotic brown-coloured wild silk, and Cricullatriphenestrata silkworms that breed on cashew trees produce stunning gold-coloured wild silk which is unique to Indonesia.
Meanwhile, since 2005 Yuke Setiyoko Simon, the owner and designer of Lenan, has been purchasing Attacus and Criculla cocoons from people who gather them, then processing them into wild silk thread. This wild silk thread is then woven into various products, such as scarves, wall hangings, Japanese obi, sarongs, and material for shirts. In the finishing process, the wild silk tenun products can be left natural, further coloured, or occasionally given a hand-batik painting.
Lenan – Pearl of Silk, for the past few years has been developing exclusive 'tenun' (woven cloth) products, utilising this special wild silk processed from the cocoons of mahogany and cashew leaf- eating silkworms. As the name of the silkworms suggest, Attacus products are made from the brown wild silk and Criculla products from the gold wild silk.
Lenan's wild silk products have been showcased at various exhibitions in Indonesia and abroad. International exhibitions include Tokyo in 2005, Niort, France, in 2006, the Asean Centre in Tokyo in January 2008, and Brussels, Belgium in May 2008.

Simon is delighted with Garuda Indonesia's initiative to boost the production of Attacus and Criculla wild silk in Indonesia, as this will enable Lenan to further innovate with its wild silk products.
As Simon sits in his traditional silk weaving workshop in Yogyakarta, pondering over designs and concepts for his next 'Lenan Pearl of Silk' creations, a few kilometers away in the village of Karang Tengah, Yogyakarta, the planting of 50,000 mahogany and cashew trees is in full swing.
For more information, contact:
Lenan – Pearl of Silk
Jl. Ciomas V/12A, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta Selatan
Telp/Fax: +(62) (21) 7395947
Jl. Patehan Lor 18, Yogyakarta
Telp/Fax: +(62) (274) 374486
Email: lenan_silk@indo.net.id