Batik Paintings - Indian Art Form Since 2000 Years Ago

Do you know the art of Batik Paintings in India? It is an exclusive magic of wax and dye when they are shared on the cloth and this magic is well known as Batik Paintings.

The definition of Batik means writing with wax in Javanese and its main origin is in the island of Java that is situated in Indonesia.

However, India takes a lot of pride to have this exclusive art form but one should not forget that this art form got its renown after it arrived in the art schools of Shantiniketan which is situated in Calcutta.

It is really exclusive when one artist comes to know that wax resist skill is used in this creative art form.

Batik Paintings literally provide us with a lot of artistic freedom, and therefore, it makes it a choice of most of the artists.

There is an exclusive skill used in Batik Paintings, which is known as elementary skill which has been derived before thousands of years and can be easily traced to India, some kind of Africa, Middle Eastern countries and various regions of Asia.

History of Batik Paintings exists since last 2000 years and is considered to be one of the oldest art forms that exist in India.

There are 3 simple steps concerned in using Batik Painting as follows;

1. Waxing.

2. Dyeing.
3. De-waxing, that is removing the wax.

There are also many other processes that are concerned in the above 3 major steps as follows;

1. First prepare the cloth.
2. Trace the designs out there.
3. Stretch the cloth over the frame.
4. Wax the particular portion of the cloth where dyeing is not necessary.
5. Get started with preparation of the dye.

6. Insert the cloth in the dye.
7. Then boil the cloth so that the wax is removed.
8. Then finally wash the cloth completely with soap.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Murtaza_Habib

The Meaning of Batik

What is batik? I can safely make this statement that while many people know or have heard about this word, especially so here in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, but many people do not, or rather, have got a wrong misconception of batik itself.

In my discussions with friends and general public, many people have mistaken batik with batik design/ batik designs or even batik fabric.

History has it that batik is an old craft that dates centuries back. Batik is actually a hand-drawn and hand-painted technique, which uses wax.

The wax is a form of ‘resist’ method, and the purpose of this method is so that when colour is put on a certain spot on the fabric, it does not run to the other part. Let's take an example - an artist is is going to draw a floral motif and he wants the background blue eg. the motif of a flower (a yellow flower with a green stalk).

Now, imagine that the artist will be drawing on a white piece of cloth. The artist will first draw the outline of the motif (ie. the flower & stalk) with wax. And later, he will start to paint, starting with the yellow colour of the flower. What the wax does is to hold the yellow in place, so that it will not run to the green stalk. And when he paints with green next, the same thing applies, that is the green will not flow to the yellow flower. Finally, he paints the blue background.

And of course, the artist will later have to wash the wax off the cloth, hence leaving that part which was originally covered with wax back to its original white fabric colour. Hence, the white outline for the motif. And that is all it is to the meaning of batik.

However as mentioned earlier, a lot of people mistake batik with batik design/ batik designs especially if they see a traditional or floral type motif, or patterns on a cloth that have white outlines. These may or may not necessary come from the ‘batik’ technique, as it could come from modern day print.

In addition, just because these prints have the more traditional motifs/ patterns, don’t mistake them to come from the art form of batik.

In fact, there are modern designs, which actually are made from the batik technique as well. But people do not know it is so because it does not have the traditional look and feel to it.

So my suggestion to you that if you appreciate art, and batik in particular, first be aware whether the fabric you buy really comes from the batik art. And secondly to be open minded to embrace the change in modern times that batik need not necessary relate just to old motif/ patterns.

QuaChee is the author-publisher of the unique batik book, Batik Inspirations (http://www.batikinspirations.com), published under his company, Q.Ce. His company (http://www.quachee.com) specialises in lifestyle & entertainment (publishing, apparels, and productions) - modernising old-age heritage and traditions, and bringing them to a new concept. His dream is for these art forms to appeal to all generations, and at the same time relate to them, thus keeping the heritage and tradition alive.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alvin_Titus

How to Tie a Sarong or Pareo

Sarongs are one of the most popular and universally accepted fashion trends from the tropical islands of the South Pacific. Throughout history, sarongs have been used in many different ways in many different countries throughout Asia and the South Pacific. The sarong is popular in tropical climates and makes great vacation wear.

Dorothy Lamour once wore a sarong many years ago throughout a film called "Her Jungle Love". One of the main reasons for the movie’s success was purely due to fact that Miss Lamour was wearing a sarong.

Sarongs are inspired by the beautiful tropical lands around the world. Sarongs are flattering to most figure types and are very easy to wear. They come in many unique patterns, designs and motifs. In North America, the fabric of the sarong is generally quite light, 100% cotton, rayon or silk.

Some artists use a heliographic dyeing technique which involves the use of the sun, fabric and light sensitive dyes. It takes about 30 minutes of direct sunlight at 80 F to properly cure the dyes into the fabric. Hawaiian salt is sometimes used on fabric to create interesting patterns. Anything placed under the fabric creates a positive imprint, any under it creates a negative imprint. All of the designs are hand placed and the fabric has been dyed by hand. Some of the print arrangements on the fabric retell ancient Polynesian legends.

How to Wear and Tie a Sarong

With its one size fits all and variety of ways to wear it, the sarong is the perfect casual wear anywhere! There are many ways to wear sarongs. To wrap your sarong, first hold it horizontally behind you. To tie the sarong, hold it behind you with the top of the material centered at the small of your back. Tying your sarong just takes a little patience, practice and experimentation. There are many videos that show over 20 different ways for men and women to tie a pareo. Simply type "how to tie a pareo" on a search engine to see some videos to give you some ideas.

A long sarong makes a wonderful evening gown for a night on the town. The traveler may wrap a sarong as a beach cover up. For a skirt, hold the sarong lengthwise and wrap it around the waist. Worn over the shoulders and head, a sarong functions as a wind-breaker; wrapped around the neck, it becomes a muffler or scarf.

Although the structure of the sarong garment is quite simple, the variations are endless. Because sarongs are often brightly colored with beautiful patterns, they can also be used as decoration.

The most common way to wear a sarong is as a beach accessory. This fashion is acceptable for both men and women in many sarong-wearing communities. Consider practicing wrapping sarongs of different sizes around your body in front of a full length mirror.

In North America, sarongs are often used by women as a cover-up over swimwear. Certain wrap styles gives your sarong a tighter, sleeker fit and shows off a sexy silhouette.

A sarong does not only have to be for the beach, a woman could usee one while camping, and while wearing shorts and a shirt! Most international travelers know the virtue of carrying an extra change of clothing.

As casual wear, the soft cotton tubular sarong is very cool and comfortable. Everyday wear is often a sarong with a t-shirt. When you shop for batik, you may find the tubular sarongs still flat, with the final seam unsewn. Formal dress today consists of a beautifully patterned sarong, worn with a fine blouse. They border a traditional sarong with contemporary flair. The tubular cloths from this same area are women's sarongs. A sarong wrap around, flip-flops and beach shorts are great for walking or going almost anywhere.

Sarongs with high cut hips make your legs look longer and your bottom look trimmer. Some sarongs have fringes or other trims, although most have plain hems. Carry your sarong with you while touring tropical island destinations, as one must be worn while passing by churches or sacred sites.

Here are some actual uses to which the sarong has been put. With fringed edges on two sides, it is great as a body sarong, scarf, wrap, wall hanging, tablecloth, sheet, and more.

Wall Hanging

Uses of sarongs that are less conventional have been known to include, a sarong wall hanging or a sarong tablecloth. With fringed edges on two sides, it is great as a body sarong, scarf, wrap, wall hanging, or tablecloth. This can be used as a wall hanging or a sarong.

Wedding Dress Sarong

Your beach wedding dress sarong can even double as your honeymoon lingerie and your new husband will love it. All sarongs and pareos are handmade garments that are, one size fits all, full size in length. Our full size sarongs fit beautifully, whether you wear a size 2 or 22! Tying instructions are included with every sarong order. Wear your silk sarong over leggings, shorts or skirts for a romantic, carefree and breezy affect.

A Thoughtful Gift

Handmade to suit the colors, fabric, styles that only a friend or companion would cherish.

Halter Dress

For a halter dress, hold the sarong by the two top corners lengthwise behind your upper back.

Dress

To form a dress, hold the sarong in front of you, laying it just over your breasts.

Mini Dress

The sarong can also become a sexy mini dress for beachfront shopping or evening events.

Blouse

Sometimes the same fabric as the batik sarong, sometimes made of lacey material or silk. It's always tight in the waist and the whole effect is very feminine. For daily use, its usually any old sarong and a t-shirt.

Mini Dress

The sarong can also become a sexy mini dress for beachfront shopping or evening events.

Towel

At a pinch, your sarong may be used as a sheet whilst sleeping, or as a towel whilst on the beach.

Wardrobe Malfunctions

Makes a great and quick remedy for unexpected accidents, spills, etc.

An Evening Shawl and Bikini cover-up

We have a sarong for every print bikini. As each Sarong is hand made and unique there will be slight differences in pattern and color with each sarong. A sarong makes and ideal wrap whenever a little more modesty is called for after you enter or leave a beach area.

More Ideas

Picnic cloth, oversize poncho unique quilt (make a quilt from several different pieces of pareo).

Care Instructions

For best results, wash your sarong in cold water. The colors will not run after it is washed. Hang your sarongs to dry with fewer wrinkles than machine drying.

The Sarong is thoroughly enjoyable and worth preserving as a stylistic artifact. Whatever your culture, whatever your style, a sarong will come in handy in more ways than one!

Learn 20 different ways to tie a Sarong today. What are you waiting for?

Christian Wilson - Born in North Hollywood and raised in Mexico, Brazil, New York, Idaho, Utah and the beautiful islands of Tahiti and Hawaii. Graduated from BYU Idaho and BYU Hawaii where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Adminstration. Christian spent the last 25 years in business, computers and marketing - primarily as a computer programmer, retail manager, nutritional supplement manufacturing consultant and as a SEO consultant.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christian_Wilson

Sarong Batik dari Sarawak

Kod: KS0001
RM35

KOD: KS0002
RM35












KOD: KS0003
RM35

KOD: KS0004
RM35

KOD: KS0005

RM35

Batik

How to Make Batiks

Step One: What You Need to get started;

1. A piece of Natural Fiber cloth (no synthetics or blends, I use muslin but any 100% cotton, silk, etc. will do).
2. Clear or White wax, I just melt down candles.
3. Cold water dyes, kind of a specialty, ask at your fabric store, (I use Dylon Cold Water, the stuff you use for tie dyes).
4. A pot that can get messy, and a can or jar in which to melt down the wax.
5. An Idea of what you want sketched on paper.
   

Step Two: Getting Messy;

• Figure out what colors you want and where, this is elaborate, (and sloppy, sorry,) you probably want to start with something simple, just a few colors.
• Stretch out your fabric on a frame, you can just cut up a piece of cardboard and duct tape it together, (1002 uses for duct tape!).
• If you like you can sketch lightly in pencil directly on the fabric your idea, (careful, don't make it to dark, especially if you use light colors, you can see the sketch through the dyes).
• Put your jar or can full of wax into a pot of water and boil the water, the wax will melt, be careful to keep the water topped up outside of the jar.
  

Step Three: Playing with Wax and Dyes;

1. Assuming you have white in your batik, this will be where you wax first, using a paint brush, brush wax only in the area you want to keep white.
2. Once the first layer of wax is applied, soak the whole piece of fabric in your lightest color, (yellow, pink, orange,) until it is as dark as you want it, then hang it to dry.
3. You do not have to soak your fabric, you may choose to brush or pour the dye on it, but I'll get to that later.
4. If you have NO white, you will want to dye (or brush) your cloth first in the lightest color(s) you will ultimately want to see. This image is poor, but if you look closely, you'll see waxed over white spots in the yellow, (the dye will not set in the cloth where the wax is).
5. Wait for it to dry completely, this art entails alot of patience.
   

Step Four: Colors, Colors, Colors;

• Now we just layer on Colors, begin with the lightest shades. If your first color was yellow, as was mine, you wax over the places where you wish the yellow to remain.
• Once waxed, apply the next color, be it orange, pink, alight green. You will find that some colors mix with previous ones and some cover them up quite well, it's all trial and error really. Also note, the length of time you allow the fabric to dye will darken the color.
• You way wish to brush colors on with a paintbrush. Note in my example, I have dabbed different colors in different places on the cloth, this allows me more variety. iv.) Once the dye has dried, wax over the part which you want to remain that color and continue layering with darker colors. Note, once you make it dark, you can't go back, so be sure to go through all the lighter colors you want before getting into blues and purples.

Very IMPORTANT; always dry the fabric completely before adding the next layer of wax, if the fabric does not dry completely, the wax will not set and the next dyes will bleed in under the wax.

If you like the crumply bled look some of my batiks have, crumple the fabric as you dunk it in the dye, this will create random seams in the wax where dye may seep in. If you don't like it, Don't fold or crumple your fabric at all and be very careful that your wax seeps into the fabric completely.

Step Five: Oops, I messed up;

I mentioned before that you may sometimes fix minor mistakes, here is how:

1. This only works if you made something lighter that you'd like darker, I use the technique with eyes, when I want to add pupils to big white zombie eyes.
2. To get an idea what your batik will look like when finished, you may hold it up to the light, if there are spots that you want to darken that are already covered with wax, this is how.
3. Place a drope of the color dye you want over the wax where you want a darker color, then use a needle or tack and gently scratch into the wax, working the drop of dye into the scratch. You will see it attach to the fabric, and again, holding it up to the light will let you see if you have accomplished what you wanted.

When you are all FINISHED with waxing and dying, and all the dye is dry, place the Batik between sheets of newspaper and iron the newspaper. The wax will seep out of the batik and into the paper. Change the paper frequently and try to get all of the wax out.

NOTE: If you have lots of white, the newsprint will bleed into the white spaces, if this is the case, use butcherpaper or something without print on it around the white areas.

Have fun

Source: http://www.sveninla.com/makebatik.html

History of Batik

Batik has come a long long way. The history of batik is not very clear still – for although the countries in the nusantara claims it originated from here, but there are other countries that have been practising batik as well. Samples of dye resistance patterns on cloth can be traced back 1,500 - 2000 years ago to Egypt and the Middle East. Samples have also been found in Turkey, India, China, Japan and West Africa from past centuries.

Apparently, batik was introduced to Holand in the seventeenth century and later in early twentieth century, it caught on to Germany. Currently, batik is also known in other parts of Europe and America, though they are more in the form of paintings and not like their counterparts in South East Asia who uses them in fashion.

This site aims to give reference to the history of batik for the countries with strong batik history. It is hoped this will broaden the view of batik history.

From: http://historyofbatik.com/

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