Learn The

Art of Batik
Forget about tie-dye, make beautiful batik at home!

Begin Here
Gather your materials. You'll need a pencil, tjanting needles, a
large, natural fiber cloth (cotton is great), fabric dyes, and batik
wax. You'll also need fabric scissors, water and popsicle sticks,
and paintbrushes in various thicknesses.

Tjanting needles are a traditional tool used for pouring hot wax
to make batik, and they're still used extensively today!

Start the Art

Tape your cloth down, and begin drawing your design with your
pencil. Keep your strokes light to avoid seeing the pencil marks
on your final piece. If you're inexperienced, stick to large
objects without too much detail.

While contemporary batik features many abstract objects,

traditional batik designs were influenced by nature and folk
stories. Which one will you design?

The Next Step

"Drip" the wax onto your piece with the tjanting needles.
Remember that anything the wax touches will be white in your
final work. When you're happy with your wax job, take your dye
and paint over the piece.

In traditional batik making, the cloth is dipped into dye baths

three to four times. The stark contrast of the white and the dye
make batik artwork vibrant and colorful!

Then
Use your largest brush and paint over the entire work with wax.
Once it's dry, "crackle" your wax by folding and crumpling your
cloth. Dip the cloth in a bucket of black dye to get the batik
effect.

Finish The Piece

When everything's dry, iron off the wax by placing your cloth in
between newspaper and using a hot iron to melt off the wax.

Hope you enjoyed this amazing process!

Batik, the Traditional Fabric of Indonesia, www.expat.or.id/info/batik.html.

“A Step-By-Step Guide to Batik in the Classroom.” The Art of Education University, 30 May 2018,
theartofeducation.edu/2016/04/05/step-step-guide-batik/.

“What Is Batik?” What Is Batik? | The Batik Guild, www.batikguild.org.uk/batik/what-is-batik.