UNS — In our daily life, dry leaves are usually piled up in the trash. Different action was taken by four students of Universitas Sebelaa Maret (UNS) Surakarta who processed dry leaves into beautiful, unique and economically valuable handicraft products named FOLIART. The four students are Luluk Aristiani from Faculty of Art and Design (FSRD), Naila Syafi’ina and Fridha Fadhlurrahma from Faculty of Teacher Training and Education (FKIP), and Shifa Fauzia Quthrunnada Faculty of Engineering (FT).
FOLIART started from the idea to manage the dry leaves into an aesthetic and marketable product. Dry waste can be easily found and sometimes pose a problem for the environment. “Usually this waste is only processed into dry leaves are usually only processed into compost or other agricultural products and not handicrafts product,” Luluk explained in an interview with uns.ac.id on Sunday (13/9/2020).
The FOLIART products consist of photo collages, silhouettes, line art, and bouquet frames. Luluk as the team leader explained that FOLIART has its uniqueness because it is made from dry leaves which is more environmentally friendly and easily obtained raw materials. FOLIART is also a solution to the environmental problem. This handicraft products have a good prospect because people often make it as gift gifts for graduations, weddings, birthdays, and other events.
They got the idea to process dry leaves into handicraft after seeing the number of dry leaves in UNS campus. Currently, FOLIART is one of Student Creativity Program (PKM) 2020 that won funding from the Ministry of Education and Culture. Novita Wahyuningsih as the supervising Faculty Member hopes that this creative idea can inspire other young generations to keep creating.
“Students are required to be sensitive, sensitive to their environment, on how to increase people’s economy. The activity performed by the four students is expected to inspire another student to become an entrepreneur and utilize the existing potential around them without leaving the local genius. Being a student also means being prepared with spectacular ideas that are beneficial to society”, Novita explained. Humas UNS
Reporter: Bayu Aji Prasetya
Editor: Dwi Hastuti