We tend to think of the Batik as a design made by using wax to resist the fabric, and so it is with the fabric featured in this section. Most of the designs are made by dipping wood blocks cut by hand into wax and then pressing the block onto the fabric leaving a coating of wax that generally saturates the fabric so that the dye is resisted on both sides. In some cases the side that was not waxed directly shows a hint on the dye on it, where the front side of the cloth shows a clear resist. Of course this varies.

Some of the designs here are made by putting brush strokes of wax onto the fabric, or spattering the wax across the cloth to resist the dye in a more dynamic and less controlled manner. Some of the most beautiful designs—unfortunately we don’t have any for sale at this time—are original and one of a kind patterns made by painting a free-form design on the length on numerous occasions during the dyeing process.

Usually the colors are added from light to dark, reserving the darkest for last. In most cases, if a second color of dye is to be applied, the original layer of wax is not removed after the fabric is dyed the first time. Sometimes the original layer of wax is reinforced if the artisan wishes to keep all edges crisp and wants none of the second color to enter the areas where the first color was prevented from working.

In traditional Batik from Indonesia, the wax coating the fabric is deliberately cracked to allow the black or dark blue dye to penetrate and leaving the tell-tale crackled aspect that we identify with hand made batik.

The printed fabrics known as Wax are made in a machine process that actually employs wax in imitation of the hand-made process. The fabrics here are all made by hand