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Batik Although the process of decorating cloth through the process of batik is found in several regions in Africa or India and even in some South East Asian countries, the batik of Indonesia is unique and unequalled. Indonesian Batik is made in several regions, but the centre of the art is Central Java, in cities like Yogyakarta, Solo, Cirebon, Pekalongan and Indramayu
The pride of Indonesians to wear batik till the present day has preserve this art of textile. • The beauty of Batik is a tribute to the patience, creativity of the woman of Java, the main island of Indonesia. Credit should be also given to men who prepare the cloth and handle the dyeing and finishing process.
Batik is generally thought of as the most quintessentially Indonesian textile. Motifs of flowers, twinning plants, leaves buds, flowers, birds, butterflies, fish, insects and geometric forms are rich in symbolic association and variety; there are about three thousand recorded batik patterns.
The word Batik is originally an Idonesian-Malay word and means to dot .This art of textile has spread in the hindu and malay world, but Indonesia is certainly the heart of the Batik.
In Indonesia, most batik designs have special meanings. The patterns, are regular repeat, with geometric patterns being native to Indonesia. • Free or random patterns are based on either Hindu or Chinese designs.
Example of a Chinese Batik. • The Chinese contribution to batik design may be seen in the flower and bird motifs, border patterns, and in use of pink, yellow and blue.
Painting on cloth • The art of "batiking" is similar to the one of drawing or painting on a piece of cloth. • The main tool, the 'tjanting', is used instead of a pencil or brush.
Finely detailed designs are first drawn freehand with a pencil on the textile. Then hot liquid wax is applied. applying wax to the pattern patterns with a tjanting, a small copper container with a long slender spout. From time to time the artist blows on the tip of the tjanting to secure an easy flow of the wax. Areas not selected for colouring are filled with the wax. The cloth is then passed through a vat of dye. The parts that were covered by the wax did not absorb the dye and thus remain white (or whatever colour the original cloth was previously dyed). Since the wax behaves as a resisting medium, this process is called resist-dye process. Next, other areas are waxed over. this is repeated during each phase of the colouring process, up to four or more times, until the overall pattern and effect are achieved.
A tjanting is more than a spout (it can have up to seven different sizes) it is used for patterns with dot forms. Basically, as an art, batiking is painting. The tjanting is used to produce the picture; it’s size depending on the type and degree of fineness of the lines or points desired
WAX • A traditional recipe for batik wax is a mix of beeswax and paraffin, about 60%/40%. Beeswax is soft, pliable with no cracking. Paraffin is more brittle, and lets dye penetrate wherever cracks form. Crackle is a characteristic batik effect, a scatter of thin dark wavy lines, a batik hallmark. Some dyers seek crackle, freezing and crumpling the cloth to make more. Others avoid, if they can, any effect that seems uncontrolled. For more crackle, more paraffin
Usually lighter colour dyes are used with progressively darker dyes used later - overdying the earlier colours. • Batik does not lend itself to straight lines and sharply defined designs.
The Arab population has generally favoured patterns based on patola designs from India (The designs, which may comprise floral or animal motifs). • They also prefer designs featuring green, a sacred colour in the muslim world. • Batik was introduced to Europe by the Dutch.
Collaborative contemporary batik artistsNiaFliam and AgusIsmoyo
