CHAPTER IITHE METHOD IN JAVA

The work of Batik making is definitely divided, in Java, between the men and the women. The women do the designing and waxing, while the men do the dyeing.

In Java, in the earlier days, Batik was largely a home industry, but like all such it is being taken out of the home and transferred to primitive factories, where the workers come together to work, but continue the old methods and technique. Even in that far-off land, machine imitations of Batik are flooding the country, and it is difficult today to be sure that a given piece is a genuine example of the hand process, unless the individual history of the piece is known, since the old designs are still used, and the native work is imitated in the printed cloths even to the crackle and irregularity of the designs.

In former times they wove their own cloth, but now the cloth used is largely muslin woven in England or Japan. Several qualities are used for different grades of work. Practically all Batik work is done on muslin, though occasionally a silk scarf may be colored in this way. The cloth is prepared before using, first, by thorough washing to remove all starch and filling; second, by soaking it in cocoanut oil, and third, removing the oil with ashes. This removes the dead-white look and gives the creamy color with which we are familiar in Batik pieces. Next, the cloth is starched with a rice starch made by boiling rice in water until it is a thin paste. The cloth is then dried and rolled up. In a primitive fashion, it is then softened or ironed by pounding with a wooden pestle until it is smooth. The cloth is now ready. The wax used is a mixture of rosin, animal fat and beeswax. The proportion of each has been worked out by long experience. A little iron pan or stone jar holds the melted wax. The tjanting, which is the characteristic tool of Batik work, is used to apply the wax. This is a little oval cup made of very thin copper with a slender curved spout projecting from the base of the cup. For a handle, a short piece of reed with a soft pith is used. Tjantings vary in the size and number of spouts. A tjanting with a fine slender spout is used for very narrow lines and small dots. Then comes a series of others, each with a little larger spout for the purpose of covering more surface. One kind is made with two spouts and is used to draw parallel lines. Others have from three to six spouts to give the little groups of dots which are quite an essential part of some designs. (See page 13.)

The remainder of the equipment consists of a wad of cotton tied to a stick, a cocoanut-shell spoon, a copper basin for boiling out the wax, a light upright frame for holding the cloth while it is being worked, a straightedge of wood, and assorted basins and vats for dyes and dyeing. These are of copper, pottery or wood.

After dyeing, the color is set, wax is boiled out and saved to be used again. It is now waxed a second time for the next color, dyed and washed. This process is repeated for each color desired.

More tjap stamps giving Javanese Batik designs, from the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago

The use of the tjanting is the ideal method of making long even lines and for outlining large spaces. Up to the present it has been difficult to secure tjantings in America, but they will undoubtedly soon be available, since Batik has firmly established itself as a beautiful and practical art-craft for American workers.

The design for this Batik Tray was done in wax and the silk then dipped in an all-over dye

Showing design for a Batik Bag with crackle

Detail drawings of units taken from Batiks in the possession of A. B. Lewis

The native Javanese Tjantings, showing two sizes of single spouts and one with double spouts

Modern Tjantings, made by R. H. Earl, New York City

Showing the use of the Tjanting. Courtesy of R. H. Earl, New York City

A detail of a rare Javanese Batik in the American Museum of Natural History, New York

Detail of a Javanese Sarong. Property of A. B. Lewis

Some means of keeping the wax hot must be produced. Anything that will hold the wax at an even temperature will do, an electric stove, gas burner, or alcohol burner. A bowl of wax may be set in the top of a tea-kettle of boiling water and will remain hot enough to use for half an hour without reheating the water. All danger of burning the wax is eliminated by keeping the wax in a bowl set in a pan of water. If the water is kept just below the boiling point, that will give sufficient heat.

In covering a large space, it is sometimes better to begin waxing in the center and working outward toward the edge.

When the woman is ready to start her work, she sketches in the main outlines and more complicated parts of the design with charcoal; then she hangs the cloth over the little upright frame and sits down on a little mat before her work. She fills her tjanting with hot wax by means of the cocoanut-shell spoon, and, holding the cloth in her left hand, draws the design in with the tjanting by resting the tjanting lightly on the cloth or moving it gently around the outline. The small parts of the design are generally done without first drawing the design in charcoal. The cotton swab is used as a brush to wax the larger places.

The more we study the designs of the Javanese the more we realize the influence of their tools. The dots on leaves and flowers, the use of the light outline, the kind of line, the beautiful line designs used—all have been worked out with this characteristic tool and in certain ways are suggested by it.

After one side of the cloth is waxed, a good piece will be turned over and the design very carefully followed on the back. In doing this there are generally small differences in design between the back and front, which give one a means of determining whether a piece is real Batik or a print. After waxing all parts of the design not to be dyed with the first color, the piece of goods is ready to be dyed. This work is done by men. The dye is, of course, used cold, and to render it permanent the cloth must be left in the dye for several days; in the case of indigo often as long as two weeks. When removed from the dye the cloth is first hung out in the air until the color is oxidized or “fixed.” The wax is then removed by steeping in hot water and is saved for use again.

A Batik Mural Decoration by Fall

A decorative Wall Hanging of modern Batik

A Javanese Batik Turban. Property of A. B. Lewis

A corner of a Javanese Batik Turban. Property of A. B. Lewis

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