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11/17/2004: "a mini lesson on batik"
Even though its exact history is uncertain, fragments of batik’s projected origin dates back to the first century where it was discovered in ancient Egyptian tombs. Evidence of early Batik has also been found all over the Middle East, in India, Central Asia and Africa. By the nineteenth century, after the importation of more finely woven cloth from India and Europe, it became a highly accomplished art form in Java and Bali in Indonesia. The word Batik seems to come from an Indonesian word 'ambatik', a cloth with little dots.
the example from the previous post below is done on plywood. the artist that taught us has done batik on many different materials, but wood is her favorite because it is so easy to remove the wax after you are done. we just popped our pieces in the oven for a few minutes to melt the wax and then wiped it off with a paper towel. on my piece, the paisley pattern in the right was drawn right onto the plain wood with a tjanting. then i painted on some yellow, orange and blue dyes. i picked up a small paintbrush and added wax over the dye on the right in a pattern of diagonal lines. finally, i put red dye over the right side.
