If one would be made for you how would it be?

[A. G. Maisey]

I'm really surprised that this thread has not been flooded with posts. To my way of thinking, this is one of the most interesting topics that has been opened in some time.

My approach to this would be a bit different to Ferry's.

I would want a keris that was the best piece of keris art that I could obtain.

Like Ferry, I would want a straight keris, because I believe that traditional keris artistic concepts are better expressed in a straight keris than in a waved keris.

I would not want nagas or singa barongs or any other carving, and I would not want kinatah work.

Most importantly, I would want the best work available, so to begin with, I would try to decide who was the best current maker.

I would also want sole authorship, which means that I would want the bakalan and calon forged by the same man who did the bench work.

With all those parameters in place, my choice of maker would be pretty limited.

I would then talk to that maker, explain what I wanted and ask him what pamor he considered was his best, and what dhapur he was most comfortable working with.

I would ask him to name his price, which I would then double---on the understanding that if what he produced was in any way less than perfect, I had the right to reject it, and he would do the job again---and again----and again, until I was satisfied with the result.

I would want the surface aged very lightly, just sufficient to enhance the pamor, and I would probably do the warangan myself.

I have not mentioned any of the details that I would request that the maker used in his approach, and I have not mentioned dress.

Does anybody else have any ideas on what might go to make his dream keris?

[BluErf]

But there is always a gap between what I imagine and what the keris maker can do... And then there is the issue of how 'inspired' the maker can be. He could execute a keris (cld be an established type) in such a way that no one before him could have thought of doing it in that way. It could be a very subtle and nuanced difference, but in the realm of great kerises, that subtleness makes the whole world of difference.

So without being able to completely share my imagined keris with the maker, and without knowing what he could be creatively capable of, I don't know how to commission my dream keris effectively...

Although there are more beautiful kerises out there, I kind of already have my 'dream keris' with me. It's the one that I would not hesitate to choose to save in a "there's-a-fire-and-you-can-only-save-one-keris" scenario. Sometimes, the bird of paradise is already in our own backyard.

[Jussi M.]

Originally Posted by ferrylaki

Well how about you?

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Does anybody else have any ideas on what might go to make his dream keris?

My dream keris would be straight, relatively wide and robust. Something like Surakarta high on steroids so to speak

I would prefer the sculpting to be very three dimensional with highly organic, dare I even say out of this world flow on how the lines come together as a whole greater than the material, design and earthly work that made it. I would prefer it to have a rather simple but complex on closer look pamor. Sinister and stealthy for a lack of better words. Warangan should be without pendok and I´d like it to follow the clean, organic and sinister feel of the blade. No frills, no decoration, just pure, unrestricted lines that flow onto a cohesive whole. A sort of Old School Jawanese with a flair of Alien air.

Cold
Simple
Sinister
Organic

Something like that.

I would probably use adjectives like the above to describe the feel of what I personally like and let The Maker - granted he knows what he does - draw his own conclusion on what the outcome should be like. This would undoubtedly mean a sufficient amount of dialogue and interaction. This would undoubtedly proceed to a material possession with more and deeper meaning than solely what meets the eye. Not just a keris. But truly "my" keris.

Thanks,

J

[gwirya]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

I would also want sole authorship, which means that I would want the bakalan and calon forged by the same man who did the bench work.

With all those parameters in place, my choice of maker would be pretty limited.

Dear Alan, a little bit of topic, could you name some of the empu/pandai/artis that fits into this particular parameter? I am thinking of having one personal keris.
thx

[Marcokeris]

My dream keris is a blade that, every times i see this blade, the keris can tell to my soul something news and different from the latest time. My dream keris would be like a open Door toward another site....a place where i can feel the the breathing of the artist that made the blade .

[Kiai Carita]

I would want a Carita with 11 luks.

It would be kelengan without pamor made in the Majapahit style. I would want it to be slender and gracefull and light but very sharp and very strong. The sharpness and the strength of the blade would be very important to me, and I would want to test it.

I would want a sturdy pesi and defined ricikan, and it woud be dressed in a bold timoho pattern or aromatic sandalwood with the whole scabbard one peice of wood, in a Yogya gayaman style.

The pendok would be suasa with a discreet Suryoningalogo coat of arms on the back.

After that, I would want two more kerises. One would be made by Pak Alan and the other would be made by Lemmy the UK Mpu who also posts here. I would treasure the work of these two current Mpus.

If Pak Alan could obtain it, I would want him to make the keris from scratch using iron and steel from the First Fleet that landed in Botany Bay and make it a tangguh Ngostrali. Any dhapur or pamor would do but I prefer simple rather than fancy.

For the keris made by Lemmythesmith, I would be very happy to keep the patrem he showed us a while back. If not then any other keris he feels happy to make using meteorite would be splendid.

[A. G. Maisey]

Probably couldn't get any first fleet ferric material. If I did, and if I used it, they would probably put me jail for 25 to life.

Could do meteoritic material. I welded meteorite into a bakalan a number of times back in the early 1990's---this was pure meteorite, Canyon Diablo. It was not meteorite held together with iron to enable welding.Some of these meteorite bakalan were handed to a Solo maker and used as pamor in keris. The result is shown.

The whole problem with me making a keris for anybody is that I work with traditional tools and not electric tools. Shortest time it has ever taken me to make a keris was 16 days. Longest time was 49 days. These are 8 and 10 hour days. On Australian wage rates that makes my work completely out of the market.

Maybe we could make it a tangguh Khangghuru ?

[tunggulametung]

A broad Cirebon keris, 40 cm long, 13 flowing luks, featured with all well defined kembang kacang, jenggot, jalen, two lambe gajah, jalu memet, bungkul, pejetan, pair of sogokan, tikel alis, sraweyan, ada-ada, tungkakan, greneng robyong, "God-given" wos wutah pamor, solid blade, ivory raksasa hilt with swasa selut and mendak, dressed in swasa long gone Cirebon sendang walikat sheath.

P.S. swasa is upgradable to gold or downgradable to silver dipending on the world economic conditions

[lemmythesmith]

Hi all, I'm currently making my dream keris Balinese 19.75" long, dapur Pasopati, wos wutah/ngulit semangka pamor, 12 meteorites, 30 irons (Roman to 1900) 4" wide at the gongo (third attempt gongo! ) 5/8" thick.

Kiai-many thanks for the vote of confidence, but I wouldn't call myself an mpu (or a master), just a crazy Englishman who likes making keris.

Sneak preview below.... It no longer has this gongo, made a right mess of it!!

[Kiai Carita]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

....
The whole problem with me making a keris for anybody is that I work with traditional tools and not electric tools. Shortest time it has ever taken me to make a keris was 16 days. Longest time was 49 days. These are 8 and 10 hour days. On Australian wage rates that makes my work completely out of the market.

Maybe we could make it a tangguh Khangghuru ?

Tangguh Khangguru dhapur mlumpat might be appropriate Pak Alan. Maybe it would have a winking kangaroo head instead of a tlale gajah.

As this is only fantasy, I would have no problem in paying you in Australian dollars. I would count 60 working days and pay you $500 - $1000 a day, so the blade would cost between $30.000 to $60.000 - not much at all for a fantasy keris, don't you think? You get contemporary paintings that fetch more than that at Christy's - so why not a keris?

Thanks for uploading the photos of the meteorite keris, very nice!