Indonesia has diversity of cultures and arts. With the multiethnic people, we can find various traditional craft made from various material of natural resource. In the history of Indonesian stamp issuance, there was a lot crafts stamp been issued, such as bronze, earthenware vessels from different province all around the Indonesia archipelago.

On December 23, 2006, The Directorate General of Post and Telecommunication of The Republic of Indonesia issuing The Indonesian Crafts Stamp Series. These stamps depicting Rattan Craft from East Kalimantan and Bananaleaf Craft from Bali. On the same time Pos Indonesia issuing First Day cover of this series.
Rattan Craft from East Kalimantan. Rattans are spiny climbing palms in the tripical forests that can attain lengths of over 185 meters. There are 13 rattan genre with 700 known species.
Growing in the tropics and sub-tropics, rattan, or cane as it is commonly known, is a ready source for the cane furniture industry. It is collected from the wild forests througout Southeast Asia and is the most vital forest produce after timber.
Because of its strength and flexibility, the stem of rattan is used extensively in the manufacture of the cane furniture and in matting. Other uses of rattan, mostly in the rulral areas, are for cordage, in construction, basketry, thatching and matting. Long before the Portuguese discovered the trade route to the East and took back rattan (along with the other wonder, spices) it had been an invaluable part of the of of rural fold throughout Southeast Asia.

In the 1970s, Indonesia become the major supplier of rattan, accounting nearly 70 percent of the entire globe trade. Since then, the trade profile had undergone dramatic changes. The value of export has increased a stupendous 250-fold in just 17 years in Indonesia. The rise has been 75-fold in 15 years in Philippines, 23-fold in 9 years in Thailand and 12-fold in 8 years in Malaysia.
Rattan is increasing in popularity because it is easly to work with, requiring only simple tools and low-cost machines. It lends itselft to uncomplicated labour-intensive processing and thus generates diverse employment, and its manufacturing costs are minimal. It is environmentally friendly and biodegradable: it "hugs" the trees and saves them from logger's axe by providing equal or more benefit thant the companion tree, without disturbing the natural habitat.
Rattan has a unique beauty in the finished goods form, reflecting the traditional skills and the unique allure of material fashioned by human hands. Rattan products have become to be cherished throughout the world ofr their elegance and simplicity.

Bananaleaf Crafts is the one of the Balinese crafts, precisely from Tagal Lalang Village, Ubud. Bananaleaf Crafts is the innovative traditional craft which combined wood material and dried banana leaf. Besides using a banana leaf, they also made some variation by using other materials, such as banana stem, lotus leaf, even petai-cina leaf, although this crafts still known as bananaleaf.
Actually, banana leaf is not a main material of this product. Banana leaf use to cover a main form (such as wood lathe vas or wood box). Sometime they add some color to the leaf, or keep it on its natural color. They also add other natural material to decorate this craft.

Source: Indonesian Crafts Stamp Series Issuance leaflet