HANDCRAFTED BATIK - HOW IS IT MADE?
- Kelangan Gayo
- Oct 22, 2018
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 18, 2018
The Indonesian textile batik is a cultural heritage of the country – a pride of the nation. It’s even awarded as cultural heritage from UNESCO. Local artists make these cloths all by hand with such dedication to their art.
STEP BY STEP PROCESS
It's an art where skillfull artists hand-decorate cotton cloths with wax. It's a long process, artists have to be very patient by doing this. After all the wax is put on the cloth, it's time to put the cloth in the dye bath. The parts with no wax will turn the color of the dye bath. The last part of the process is getting the wax off, so the color difference is visible.
The result? A beautiful lively work of art. And this is only the process for one-colored batik... Imagine a deep colored, four-colored batik. This can take even months!
The tradition of batik making was handed down from generation to generation, what a beautiful gift to learn from your mother! And the cloths are still used in the traditional way, for celebration of marriage, pregnancy or certain rituals. And only special designs are used for these special occasions.
But also, nowadays, the batik cloths are used to wear for everyday life.
canting: the delicate art of the batik
There are different methods to design a batik cloth. Nevertheless, the most traditional is
Canting (with a wax pen).
The 'canting' (wax pen) is used to create the designs called Batik Tulis. The hot wax is put in the container of the pen and then drawing on the cloth can start. This is a very difficult and time consuming process, only to create the best quality of batik. Making a cloth can take months.
Do you like traditional Batik Tulis? Share this article and leave us a comment! Thank you.
Sources:
http://www.larasbags.com/blog/batik
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