Saturday, 2 July 2011

The Art and Craft of Batik

By Dmitry Vasenyov


You need to know that batik takes its beginning in ancient Egypt, but has seen Asia as its major production center. You need to know that in Indonesia, only members of royal family had the right to use batik creative art by tradition as it was considered that batik art had a great importance for its wearers.

Some other people think that batik has come from India, however after that its application had passed to Africa as well as to some other parts of the globe with various new subculture in addition to region contributing it its own various styles.

Nowadays people wear not just batik clothing as shirts and sarongs, however as well batik is applied for canvases, home furnishings and many others. It is necessary for you to remember that batik is a labor intensive process that produced quite original and attractive motifs on permeable materials like silk and cotton. Aside from this, you have to know that first of all, the cloth that is commonly white in color is washed in boiling water in order to take out all the traces of some other materials before the process of batik making starts.

The patters are traced on the fabric. Those areas of the cloth that are to be left uncolored of any dye are usually covered with the liquid wax to prevent them getting colored. This is usually done with the help of a brush or canting with the spout of the pen changing in size depending on the intricacy of the pattern.

The dyeing process could be started only when the wax is hardened. The coloring process is usually started with the lighter hues. If you keep the fabric immersed for later intervals that way you will be able to intensify the color. The process of dyeing could continue till the needed result is reached. When this process is completed, the wax is scraped off from the fabric.




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