Batik!

While our theme for the 2024 Indonesia SST unity is “unity in diversity,” with a particular focus on inter-religious work, we have participated in a number of arts in Indonesia as well.  Having these creative outlets over the last 5 weeks (our gamelan weekend, eco-printing, and now batik-making) has felt like a healthy way to both nourish our emotional/creative health and engage in Indonesian culture.

With that in mind, we spent a day this week at a batik-making workshop here in Yogya.  Folks, we have a creative bunch here!

First, spoiler alert.  Here are some of our end products in the drying phase:

We started out with instruction from Pak Andi and assistance from other employees at Batik Seno:

Lindsey talks over her concept with an employee at Batik Seno

Then we headed into the first phase: using the canting tool to create a beeswax outline of our pictures.  Some of our students used designs already penciled on the cloth by Batik Seno and some of us forged on with their own designs.  We covered the pencil outlines with wax.  It required a steady hand.  Mistakes (dribbles, uneven lines, etc) were inevitably made, but we either chalked it up to “no one is perfect” or asked one of the employees to remove the mistake!

Step two was dabbing on the background color with a cotton ball:

After putting on the background color, that color was covered with wax so that it was protected from later dribbles.

Peri and Jonathan get some advice about the waxing process from the incredibly skilled employees here:

There was of course, some lounging about throughout our time here!  Lounging is necessary here in this heat, especially in the middle of the day!

Then we moved on to the next intricate part (it all felt intricate, actually): painting the picture itself.

After painting, we washed the picture with hydrochloric acid and water.

After that, the cloth was boiled in water for 30 seconds.  Sadly, I did not get a picture of this so you will have to use your imagination.  We stirred the pot of boiling water, then rinsed the cloth in cool water and hung them out to dry!

And our students with their finished products:

You may notice some silly faces in these pictures– some people attempted to make faces that mirrored their batik image!

Thank you, Batik Seno and Pak Andi, for your guidance in this activity!