Batik and Hand Dyed Fabrics
Batik is the traditional fabric of Indonesia. It is one of their most highly developed artforms.
So that all traces of starches, lime, chalk and other sizing materials are removed, the fabric is washed and boiled many times before the application of the wax.
Even though Batik is very intricate, the tools used to make the patterns are simple. A small, thin wall copper container with a spout, which is called a canting or a wax pen, is connected to a short bamboo handle. It is filled with wax and then used to draw the design on the fabric. Different sizes are used to achieve various designs. The artist will sometimes place a wad of cotton over the spout to fill in very large areas.
The most common type of wax used in Batik is a mixture of beeswax and paraffin. Resins are sometimes added to increase the adhesiveness and animal fats are added to create greater liquidity. The wax must be kept at the perfect temperature to keep it from becoming too thick or too thin. Wax recipes can be a closely guarded secret of the artists.
The traditional colors that were used in Batik were made from natural ingredients and were mainly of beige, blue, brown and black.
Blue is the oldest color that was used and was made from the Indigo plant. The leaves from the plant were mixed with molasses sugar and lime and allowed to stand overnight. For a lighter blue, the cloth was only left in the dye for a short time. For a darker blue the fabric was left in the dye for days.
The second color used was a brown called soga and it ranged from a light yellow to a dark brown. It came from the bark of the Soga tree.
Another color that was traditionally used was a dark red called mengkuda created from the leaves of the Morinda Citrifolia.
Skilled artists were able to create many different variations from these traditional colors including yellow and purple. The final main hue would depend on how long the fabric stayed in the dye bath and how many times it was dipped.
Charcoal or graphite are used to outline the pattern. The design can be traced from a stencil or patterns called pola. The men are usually in charge of drawing the patterns on the fabric.
After the design is drawed on the fabric, wax is applied to the areas where the artists does not want any dye on the fabric and on the drawn outline. To ensure a well-defined pattern, the wax is applied to both the front and back of the fabric. The pattern should be identical on both sides as a true tulis batik is reversible.
The fabric is ready for it's first dye bath after the wax is applied. It is placed into the vat of the first colored dye. The amount of time the fabric is immersed depends on how light or dark the artist wants the hue of the color to be. It is then put into cold water to harden the wax.
After the fabric has dried, the artist will reapply wax to the areas where he wants the first dyed color to be maintained.
The number of colors on the finished fabric represent how many times the fabric was dyed with one color and waxed. A multi-colored batik is obviously much harder and takes longer to finish than a two color batik.
