batik

Amy and I had the most wonderful day making Batiks! We're currently in Ubud (Bali) and took an all day course.

This wiki article describes the process a bit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batik However, the process we learned was a little different. First you create a drawing using pencil. After much erasing and redrawing, you are eventually satisfied with the sketch and use a black marker to embolden the lines. Then you stretch a thin piece of cotton, which will later become the Batik, over the paper and re-trace the same image on the cotton using pencil. Then you transfer the cotton sheet to a frame and employ a tool to draw thin lines of wax over the lines you penciled in. The wax will act as a negative. Once the wax dries, they stretch the cotton out horizontally and you get to paint on it using a variety of dyes. The intensity of the paint/dye you use will be apparent in the final product, so this isn't just a fill in the dots type exercise. Once you finished painting, you expose the light sensitive dye to sunlight and let it dry. At this point, the dye is dry, but hasn't been 'set' or 'fixed'. Next, you use these large bronze stamps to impress wax in different shapes over the image you painted. Once the wax dries, you paint again using different color dyes. So, each layer that you waxed and painted retains it's color, and the unwaxed portions take on the cumulative color. Finally, you set the dyes (using a chemical) and dip the batik in boiling water to remove the wax, and voila! Amy's came out awesome. It has a tree, stream, and lots of random shapes. Mine came out pretty well too. I tried to replicate one of the orchids from the garden the other day.

A man named Widya taught the course. He was super patient with us first-timers and taught us a bunch of tricks to cover up our mistakes. He even brought us out for dinner and will be driving us to catch our crazy bus to Yogyakarta (pronounced Joe-gug-Jah-kart-ahhh) tomorrow.