an Article About Indonesian BatiK

One of the simple patterns is worn by royalty and looks like an Schain with dots in the hollow of each S. One design with a very large S-chain in a yellowish tint running diagonally from right to left on a warm brown background was designed in 1973 for the engagement ceremony of Gusti Pangeran Raditya, scion of an old noble Indonesian family, and the daughter of the Sultan of Cheribon.

The best batik is found in the batik-making centers of Jogjakarta, Solo (Surakarta), Tasikmalaya and the north coast cities of Java island between Cheribon and Semarang. But Jogjakarta, simply called Jogja, in south-central Java about halfway between Bali and Indonesia's capital of Jakarta, is an easy stop en route to or from either destination. Though batik can be bought anywhere in Indonesia, Jogja may have the world's best selections of reasonably priced batik.

Jogja is said to have 900 batik factories, which simply means that there are a lot of women sitting at home putting hot wax on cotton fabric. Because batik is a cottage industry, some of the best places to buy batik are in private homes, which are open to the public. The main streets of Jogja are lined with factory/galleries, which are easy to find, air-conditioned and usually competitively priced. Merchants routinely give discounts of up to 20 percent on batik cloth and items made from batik. Bargaining is permissible and expected in the public market, where a shopper can get excellent prices. In Jogja's central market, there are scores of women squatting in tiny stalls, surrounded by piles of batik. The most expensive handmade batik will cost between $75 and $150 for a single piece of cloth called a kain, a standard swath of material 40 inches wide and 100 inches long.

Using an instrument called a canting, a tiny copper or brass crucible with a long narrow spout, a woman will spend hours retracing in wax a design which has previously been made in pencil. It often takes six months to complete a kain, which is traditionally two and one-half times as long as it is wide.

A less expensive type of handmade batik is the stamped ''capt'' batik made by using an engraved copper block called a capt to create uniform designs which carefully interlock to look continuous. In use since 1815, stamped batik is almost exclusively made by men. And, because it takes less time to produce, a kain of this material made in private homes will sometimes sell for as little as $5.

Often, stamped batik is so well done that it is difficult to distinguish from its more expensive counterpart. Handmade batiks are uniform on both sides; machine-made batiks have a definite right side and wrong side.

The most expensive batik will be the completely handmade and using organic dyes. The most prized antique batiks will be blue and dark brown, the colors of dignity. Blue indigo, made from the plant, is the oldest dye, Indonesians have found other ways to produce the traditional dark browns by using plant dyes instead of human blood that was once used. A few guidelines on batiks Where to Begin The Jakarta Central Museum has a fine collection of batiks (admission about 6 cents). Many of its batiks are national treasures and if available for sale would cost thousands of dollars. Prices of batiks, incidentally, are often as much as 50 percent higher in Jakarta than in the batik-making towns of central Java. Silk batiks at the factory will start at $100 a kain. Generally, a fine quality handmade batik on cotton, one which would take at least four months to produce, will cost at least $75 a kain, but there is plenty of good batik available at $10 up. Where to Buy Batik In Jogja, the Gurda Batik on Jalan Parangtritis 77 B (phone 5479); the Jago Biru Batik on Jalan Mangkuyudan 141 (phone 4227); the Suryakencana on Ngadinegaran (phone 3798). In Jakarta, Sida Mukti in Wisma Batik Indonesia on Jalan Drive (phone 21-271), and the Saharjo 311 Srikandi Batik Shop in Hias Rias shopping complex on Jalan Cikini Raya 90. Ready-to-Wear Batik clothing is available in department stores in Jakarta and in batik factory/galleries elsewhere. A short summer dress in small, medium or large will cost $12 to $45, depending on the style. A floor-length dress will run about $35 to $100. Proper Care Modern batiks are made with chemical dyes that fade quickly if exposed to direct sunlight, but do not run much when washed in cold water using a mild hand soap. Many batiks sold in shops are guaranteed color-safe.

BY : Pamela G.Holly

Materials for Batik

The tools and materials used in batik are simple and readily available.
Any tool that can efficiently transfer hot wax from a container to the fabric will serve to produce a design on cloth when it is dyed. At the simplest level, a lighted candle can be used to distribute drops of melted wax on the fabric. A variety of objects such as bent wire or the rim of a tin can, can be dipped in melted wax and pressed onto the cloth to make a design. However the serious artist uses the brush. The best to use is about a Number Twelve water-color brush. The brush needs to have a large enough tip to retain a good quantity of wax. A larger brush for waxing out large areas of cloth is very useful as is a small brush-a Number Six is about as small as one can use-for delicate work.

The selection of waxes is important to the quality of the finished batik. Paraffin and beeswax are the two waxes most commonly used in batik and are usually combined in different proportions.

Because of its ready availability the best fabric for most batiks is cotton. The weave of the cloth should not be too close, and the fabric should be translucent when held in front of a light. For the best results, the fabric to be waxed should be stretched on a frame in a taut manner to prevent wrinkles which may cause the wax to run in an unpredictable way.

Wax is an inflammable substance, so the wax container should not be placed directly on the source of heat. It should sit in boiling water, and care should be taken to see that the water is replenished as it evaporates.

As with painting, color is an integral part of batik. A painter uses pigment; a batik artist uses dyes. The Painter can, if he chooses, completely obliterate an undesirable color by covering it with another color. Perhaps he must wait until the unwanted color is dry, but there is no doubt about it, he has another chance, he can cover up his mistake.

In batik the correction of mistakes, in most cases, is impossible. The Painter is not limited in any way in the variety of colors he uses and juxtaposes. In batik, however, each color used is significantly changed by the proceeding color; or at least it is certainly affected by the color "underneath". The only pure color is the first one, so all other colors used are mixtures, determined largely by the first color, or the first strong color.

Procces To Make Batik

The technique of batik is a demanding one. In general, the final design must be conceived before the picture is begun. The batik artist works intimately with color; if he wishes parts of his design to be light yellow, for example, all these parts must be waxed at the same time before any subsequent dyeing. He cannot isolate one part of his design and complete it before moving on to the others as an artist in oils or watercolor may; he must create his design in stages, each of which encompasses the whole picture.

The basic process of batik is simple. It consists of permeating an area of fabric with hot wax so that the wax resists the penetration of dye.

If the cloth we begin with is white, such as bleached cotton, linen, or silk, then wherever we apply hot wax that area will remain white in the final design. After the first waxing the fabric is dipped into a dye bath whose color is the lightest tone of those to be used. When the piece has dried, we see an area of white and an area of cloth that is the color of the first dyeing. Wax is now applied to those parts in which we wish to retain the first color, and the entire fabric is immersed in the second dye bath whose color is darker in tone than the first. This process is repeated until the darkest tone required in the final design has been achieved. When the fabric, now almost wholly waxed, has dried it is placed between sheets of absorbent paper and a hot iron applied. As the sheets of paper absorb the wax they are replaced by fresh sheets until the wax is removed. At this point the final design is seen clearly for the first time.

Technique Of industrialization

The application of wax with a canting is done with great care and therefore is very time-consuming. As the population increased and commercial demand rose, time-saving methods evolved. Other methods of applying the wax to the fabric include pouring the liquid wax, painting the wax with a brush, and putting hot wax onto pre-carved wooden or copper block (called a cap or tjap) and stamping the fabric.

The invention of the copper block developed by the Javanese in the 20th century revolutionized batik production. By block printing the wax onto the fabric, it became possible to mass-produce designs and intricate patterns much faster than one could possibly do by using a canting.

Batik print is the common name given to fabric which incorporates batik pattern without actually using the wax-resist dyeing technique. It represents a further step in the process of industrialization, reducing the cost of batik by mass-producing the pattern repetitively, as a standard practice employed in the worldwide textile industry.