Batik Fabric Production - The actual Old Is Fresh Again.

Introduction In case you are passionate about textiles with amazing color and texture the chances are good you've got a special love for batiks. It is easy to be captivated by these gorgeous color-saturated marvels. While there always seems to be a place in a batik lover's stash for the new "Bali" few of us know much around the fascinating, time-honored processes that are used to make our batik material. In order to discover in which the batiks in our local fabric store result from, let's take a virtual vacation into an Indonesian batik manufacturing area.

Batik making is an early art for embellishing cotton quilting fabric through the use of wax, (or other media that will creates resist), and dyes. While batik fabric is produced in India, China, Thailand and in numerous African nations, it is most renowned in Indonesia and Malaysia. In these areas you'll find two basic processes used to provide batik fabric; Batik Tulis (hand attracted batik) and Batik Cap (stamped batik). This informative article will focus on the manufacturing of stamped batik.

Stamping Rubber stamping, involves the application of molten wax to cloth with the aid of a metal or wooden stamps called a cap, (Pronounced Chap). The cap is often a cookie cutter-like devise that is made in the image of the batik motif which it intends to produce. The stamping process begins using the preparation of the cloth.

Cloth Preparation and Application regarding Base Colors Raw fabric must first be prepared before it can undergo batik generation. The prep involves the elimination of impurities and starch. Often this can be done by bleaching the fabric before it finds the batik factory. If the base cloth is heavily starched it usually is washed to improve the penetration in the dye to those parts of the cloth left un-waxed. After fabric prep it's necessary to apply base colors towards the fabric before the wax is usually applied. The base colors fill the surface area throughout the motif positions that are eventually shaped with the wax resist. In situations when the base color must be applied the fabric is normally placed on the factory floorboards.

The Application of wax As soon as the base colors have been applied to the prepped fabric, it's time for it to apply the wax. Usually the fabric is draped over the padded table which provides the mandatory give to the pressure from the stamp. Before it is dissolved, the wax is in the shape of blocks. The wax blocks are put in an open pan called a Wajan that sits in addition to a small barbecue-like stove. The wax is put on the fabric after it is melted on the right consistency. The batik artisan dips the stamp in to the pan until its surface will be covered with molten wax and applies the stamp to the cloth. The artisan must carefully dovetail the wax impression into people who have already been created to stop unsightly gaps in the repeat in the motif.