Batik Art

Today, after quiet some years, I wore a white top with a sleeveless jacket; a waist coat that had been very special to me, once upon a time. It is an exclusive piece of Indian Batik Art and one can feel the vitality it has. I found it; lying beneath my piles of clothing and as I last talked of...umm..rather wrote about the trigger mechanism of writing - you guessed it, I am triggered to write this hub!! So, here you will learn something about Batik as a form of art, its technique and its history. If you get interested, you can also do a batik of your own...cool, isn't that?

Yes, there is also another hub of mine which illustrates an easy to do batik activity where you can learn how to do batik yourself. You can use it as a kids activity also or make beautiful piece of an art for your home and even more, you can also use it as a personalised gift. The link to other hub is this blue text --How to do Batik Art yourself.

What is Batik?

Batik is a form of art prevalent since ancient times and it is fundamentally a textile art that involves a specialized method which can be called a 'resist process' of dyeing a fabric, usually cotton or silk. In simple words, we can define Batik as a way of putting colored designs on a piece of cloth with different colour dyes using a special technique by which specific parts of the fabric remain unaffected by the dye. ‘Batik’ itself is believed to be an Indonesian-Malay word derived from the word ‘Ambatik’ which literally means ‘a cloth with little dots’. I think, the key center of Batik is India and after the Indian country; Indonesia is considered the main center of batik.

Making batik began in South East Asia, mainly introduced from Indonesia and it is argued that Batik has its origin from India or Sri Lanka. It is difficult to say where did the art emerge from as there are facts which show it was an Egyptian culture to wrap the mummies with batik processed fabric!! Nevertheless, the point is that batik has an ancient history and as a matter of fact, it existed all around the globe (almost) including China, Japan, Africa and Germany. Traditionally, objects like flowers, trees and birds; ritualistic characters, mystical symbols, tribal life and abstract patterns are the imagery and themes of Batik Art.

Batik Art Today

Originally, Batik was made, designed and desired to only clothe the human body but today, with its international popularity, we find Batik in varied forms of artistic creations like decorative pieces, designer home decors as furnishings, wall paintings and hangings etc. We also have its use as common household essentials like table cloths, bedsheets, curtains and other form of furnishing fabrics which proves that along with unmatched beauty, Batik fabric is also famous for its durability.

All in all, personally I believe it is an art to cherish in any of its form, be it as a dress material or an exclusive piece of art. Needless to write but in a technology filled world, even modern batik patterns and processes are controlled by computers, like most forms of other ART and CRAFT and everything else!! This development however has evolved to create appealing, interesting, new and never before seen geometric and abstract batik designs.

First of all, the textile artist or the craftsman covers the specific areas of the cloth with a dye-resistant substance, mainly wax, to prevent these particular areas of the fabric from absorbing colors and thereby giving shape to beautiful patterns or designs. Once this is done, the cloth is dyed with a single or multiple colors as desired. After the fabric is adequately colored, it is hung to be dried. It might be stretched on to a frame when beginning with the whole process of drawing the pattern and can be dried frame-stretched.

The second stage includes the removal of wax and all its residue; for which the cloth is immersed into boiling water with a small amount of detergent. The cloth is also rinsed in lukewarm or cold water once out of the boiling water to make sure there are no wax-remains sticking.

The final stage of batik is fixing of colors by dipping the fabric in a diluted solution of sulphuric acid to give the colors permanency. The fabric meant for paintings or wall hangings may or may not go through the final stage as it is not washed like our day-today clothing!

The batik fabric can also be worked upon later through hand embroidery, which adds up to its quality and makes this art form as three-dimensional, adding features of depth and texture. The entire fabric which is plain and simple gets transformed to an attractive piece of art.