Holla!
This third post on my progress will be on making batik for Bajidor Kahot costume skirt. Making batik is not an easy job. Thats why I went to visit my grandma's older sister. Batik business is part of my family for generations. Currently it is in the hands of my grandma's older sister. Because of her illness she cannot be very active in this business anymore, so her son is taking over her responsibilities. Her son is Bapak Slamet Hadipriyanto which is one of my expert for my personal project.
The name of the batik store is Batik Banyumas Hadipriyanto. It is located at Jl. Mruyung No.46, Banyumas. And right there for 5 days I made my batik for PP. Batik takes a lot of time and steps. I will try my best to explain the steps in this post.
This book contains the template of floral batik patterns. My expert lent this book to me for the night so I can draw the patters on my cloth.
Now use tracing paper and trace using pen or marker the patterns that you like. The patterns are in bits and pieces so you should choose a few and lay it like puzzle forming one pattern that you like!
Now put the tracing paper underneath the special cloth for batik (it is called as kain mori, for the more exclusive batik sutra cloth is used). Then start tracing the patterns onto the cloth using pencil.
Next use canting (a tool which is used to apply hot wax to the surface of cloth) to trace the pencil drawing with liquid hot wax. This is the process unique to batik tulis only. In this step the we also add isen or patterns inside the drawing. This isen have a lot of types like cek-cek (dots) and sawu (lines). These isen is very unique to batik making. Details that differentiate batik from other kinds of patterned cloth.
Note: In this step I need help from batik tulis craftswoman because it is very hard. Most of the craftswoman here have been making batik tulis for decades (Not even kidding). And I also made only a little bit of patter because a full kain took months to complete.. So yeah..
The third step is the first stage of coloring. We color the patterns after letting the wax air dry. The function of the wax it to block the colors from staining some parts of the cloth leaving it in it's original color. The coloring process is unique because we use chemicals.(This part may seem easy but it is NOT. Fun though!)
Then we let the chemicals dry under the sun. We MUST use the sun to dry it because the colors will need the chemical reaction from the sun to pop out!
On the picture before this picture (ha!) the leaves are brown. We don't want brown leaves because it looks sad. Here we use nitric acid which chemical reaction with the coloring agent turns the browns to green! After that we cover all the colored parts using nitric acid (air keras) to lock the colors to the cloth.
Wash the nitric acid out to avoid from ruining the cloth using tap water and let it air dry.
30 December 2014
Today with the help of the craftswoman I covered some parts of the colored flowers using canting and hot waxes again. The parts that I covered indicated which parts I want to keep the color of. Then after letting it air dry, we re color the flowers using darker colors, sunbathe it, cover it with nitric acid, sunbathe it again, wash with trap water and let it air dry. Which is basically repeating the steps from the day before.
1 January 2015
On the pictures above I was taking some coloring powder in the shade indigo for my batik. This color will cover the rest of the white cloth. For my kain I need 7g of this coloring powder.
Then mix the powder with 1 liter of hot water. Mixthe mixture in the basin with 9 liters of water. Which makes a total of 10 liters of water. Dip the cloth in tap water to prepare for coloring or celup.
Now put the cloth into the coloring basin part by part and pry the cloth to make sure the color goes to all parts of the cloth.
After that let it dry under the sun. Preferably on top of stones or rocks because they absorb heat and store it making the cloth dry faster.
Repeat those steps once more to make sure the color is thick enough and spread evenly. This repetition is also done until the desired color is reached. I repeated this process 2x with the help of Pak Asep.
Dip the cloth in Nitric Acid to lock the colors. This step is quite dangerous and the chemical even went through the rubber gloves and may irritate the skin.
Wash off the nitric acid using water.
Boil the cloth to melt off the wax. This step is called as lurut.
Dip it in tap water to neutralize the temperature. Then dip it in soap to make it clean of left over wax.
This is the way of washing the cloth. By stepping on it rhythmically and squishing it on top of one another. (It's hard to explain)
Now dip it in tap water, softener then tap water again to make it clean and soft.
Then we let it dry under the sun again. Batik making takes a long time because it depends so much on the weather. The cloth can only be perfect if it is dried under the sun. If not the wax will melt and make a mess.
Then the last step is to fold, flatten, iron and put the batik cloth into a plastic bag. And you're done!
THIS IS THE FINAL RESULT
So that's it on my post about Batik making. Thank you for Bapak Slamet Hadipriyanto for this opportunity and support!
I asked help from one of the workers and she took the picture like that covered by leaves. I think she wants to be creative, let her be..
Anyways, ciao!
