Judy Flores, the artist, tells us about the Batik artform. Please contact us with any questions!
1. What is Batik?
Batik (ba teek’) is an ancient art practiced in many parts of the world – Indonesia, India, and Africa used the process to decorate cloth. In the Ukraine the technique is used to make intricate art on eggs. Batik is the Indonesian word most commonly used to describe this art form, although each country has their own word to describe it.
2. How do you do it?
I start with a white cloth – usually silk, but I have used cotton and hand-made paper. I apply melted wax on areas that I want to remain white. The wax will prevent successive colors from penetrating the cloth. Working from lightest to darkest, or primary to secondary and tertiary colors, I will alternately apply dye, let it dry, then apply wax on areas I want to retain that particular color. By the time I’ve reached the darkest color, nearly all the cloth is covered with wax. Cracks in the wax will allow tiny bits of dye to penetrate, forming the typical crackling that identifies a true batik. I remove the wax by ironing the batik between sheets of blank newsprint paper, changing the paper each time it becomes saturated with melted wax. The ironing process also helps set the dye.
3. How do you create the white lines?
The lines are created using an Indonesian tool called a Tjanting (chan-ting). The tool has a handle with a copper bowl at the end to hold melted wax and a spout for the wax to flow out evenly onto the fabric. I often use this tool to sketch my outlines directly on the fabric. The wax lines block the flow of dye so that I can paint various colors at one time within separate spaces created by the lines without the colors running together.
4. How long does it take you to make a batik painting?
I usually work on two or three paintings at one time. While one painting is drying, I work on another one. There are about 6 to 8 dye/wax steps from beginning to end, depending on the intricacy of the design. Actual hours spent on each painting ranges from 4 to 10 hours. Because of the drying time, it usually takes two or three days to complete a series of paintings.
5. How long can a batik painting last over time?
I’ve been working in batik since 1972. In the early days I used cotton fabric with Procion fiber-reactive dyes. These dyes faded relatively quickly, with red being particularly unstable even in indirect light. In my experience, the cotton fabric has lasted over 20 years; but the reds have faded out. I switched to silk around 1990, using dyes speciallyformulated for silk. These colors have proven to be very color fast, even in direct sunlight (although I don’t recommend that). Batiks on silk that hang in many public spaces in sunny Guam are still brilliant going on more than 20 years.
