The Fine Art of
African Batik
Batik Art & Resist Dyeing
Batik is believed to be at least 2000 years old.
It
can be
defined as a method of applying a colored design on to textiles by
waxing those parts that are not to be dyed. Evidence of its practice
has been discovered in most Eastern and Middle Eastern countries
including India, China, Japan, Persia and Egypt, but although its
actual source is unknown, it was on the island of Java in Indonesia
that the art reached its peak development.
Batik Methods
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 to be dyed is white bleached cotton, linen, or silk, then
wherever hot wax is applied 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. Some African Batiks may use a reverse order of
dyeing, with dark colors first.
Paraffin and beeswax are the two waxes most commonly used in batik and
are usually combined in different proportions.
A painter uses pigment; a batik artist uses dyes. A painter may
completely obliterate an undesirable color by covering it with another
color. In batik, however, each color used is significantly
affected by the proceeding color. The only pure color is the first one,
so all other colors used are mixtures, determined largely by the first
color.
Batik Paintings are produced by brushing molten wax onto a piece of
cloth. The cloth is then painted with, or dipped into a dye which
adheres to all areas not covered by the wax. The wax is then removed,
and the process repeated over and over again for each color used. It is
an exceptionally time consuming process that yields an exceptionally
high quality work of art.
History of Batik
It was around 1500 that travelers first brought back tales of highly
artistic batik fabric on which people worked for months on end. At the
close of the last century the technique was introduced to European arts
and crafts. Batik, a
traditional technique from Java, Indonesia, in which a wax resist is
applied by hand, was introduced into Africa by European traders.
The
word "batik" is Indonesian in origin. It also occurs in
Javanese as Ambatik, which actually means drawing and writing. Batik
has evolved around the principle that wax and water repel each other,
therefore an area of fabric that has been covered with wax is unable to
accept dye. The Indonesian word "tik", meaning a drop (referring to the
small drops of hot wax), shows how the word batik was derived.
BATIK
Batik has come to be used as a generic term which refers to the process
of dyeing fabric by making use of a resist technique; covering areas of
cloth with a dye-resistant substance to prevent them absorbing
colors.
The batik technique offers unique possibilities for artistic freedom as
patterns are applied by actual drawing rather than by weaving with
thread. The colors in Batik are much more resistant to wear than those
of painted or printed fabrics because the cloth is completely immersed
in dye and the areas not protected by resist are allowed to absorb hues
to the extent that the colors will not easily fade.
