Folk Art Chronicles

Batik Maker Hartono

We are so pleased to be able to host Hartono, a talented young batik maker from central Java,  for presentations and demonstrations in the Gallery this weekend! This will be his first visit to the US and his first stop on a brief tour of the SF Bay area.

Along with rice farming, batik making has been a way of life for his family and their small village. The complex batik cloths embody the culture, customs, ceremonies and history of the island of Java, a center of batik making for over 150 years.  It is a process that can only be done by individual artisans using centuries old techniques.

Batik making is an immensely time-consuming and laborious process but the final results are glorious!

Drawing the Pattern

Each step in the process depends on the one before it; if the design is poorly drawn on the cloth, the batik maker cannot usually improve it with the canting, the tool used to apply the wax. If the wax is not properly applied, the color can leak through and cause an unwanted result when the wax is removed. If the coloring is not good, the end result will not be good, regardless of the beauty of the design and the skill of the batik maker.

Designing is a Special Skill

Batik making is by nature a collaborative process. Many different skills are required and usually only one person masters each skill. Women are most skilled in applying the wax.

Rinsing the Wax from the Cloth

Once all the layers of wax are created and dyed one by one,  the next step is to remove the wax.

An integral part of the process and the foundation of a beautiful batik is the creation of the dyes.  Managing the chemistry of coloring  is a skill that is highly guarded and can only be acquired by trial and error. Many things can affect the results from reactive dyes such as the weather, the water, the type of cloth, and the quality of the dyestuff.

The initial step, after the design is created, involves drawing the designs on the cloth. Men skilled only in drafting usually draw the designs on the cloth . Yet another person who could be a man or a woman usually creates the designs. Men almost always do the coloring.  Often the batik maker has mastered a repertoire of hundreds of different designs, which include the central designs as well as the filler patterns.

Many Dye Baths for Many Colors

Making a multi-colored cloth requires many dye bath immersions. Each new area of color is then covered with wax, so it’s easy to forget what colors are underneath by the third or fourth application of wax. One only hopes that the contrast between colors is strong enough to show the detail of the designs applied with the canting tool.

The verb for taking out the wax from a batik is “lorod”. It is the most exciting step of a long process.  The batik cloth is immersed in boiling water and lift out with a smooth stick and held over the cauldron a few seconds to allow the melted wax to run off before it is plunged again into the water. this is repeated many times until the cloth is free of wax.

Inspecting the Batik

A Beautiful Textile Emerges

Hartono who makes most of the batik in our collection will be visiting the US for the first time in October, coming from his village in Central Java and bringing a wonderful collection of new batik, along with the tools of his trade to give a series of presentations and workshops. Hartono is both a master of the chemistry of the dyes as well as an innovative designer who draws on the designs of many cultures to create new patterns which he blends with the more traditional designs of the Javanese patterns to create scarves, shawls and apparel. He has been experimenting with Korean silks as well as handwoven silks and cottons from Laos and Cambodia.

October 9:   Slide Presentation & Demonstration. 6 to 8pm.

October 10:   Demonstrations & Trunk Show. 12 to 5pm.

Location:   The FolkArt Gallery, 1321 4th Street, San Rafael, Ca.

415-925-9096

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