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Batik Studies
To an alternative to doing a second artist evaluation, the decision has been made to take a look into the works of Batik.
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Batik is the main textile art for Malaysia and is done by applying wax onto a pice of white fabric with pencil drawings and painting the colours ontop of the wax and cloth. The wax is lastly removed after all the desired colours have been applied leaving a white outline of the illustrations. The most common theme and illustrations done on batik are either flowers, butterflies, or simple patterns.
Firstly, there are two types of batik that can be made, hand painted batik or printed batik. The main difference between the two is that on the opposite side of the printed batik, the colours and fabric itself appear more faded than compared to the hand painted batik. This is due to only one side of the cloth being printed with the batik patterns, whilst hand painted batik means that the paint had soaked through the cloth appearing in the same tone and pattern on the opposite side.
Batik also differs from one country to another. More specifically, between Malaysia and Indonesia.
Indonesian batik on the other hand, is more detailed and has a more earthy colour palette in comparison. The method of production differs from Malaysia's as well. They start off the same way to the hand painted, with a sketch and canting. But they then use copper plate stamps (cap) to print on a wax-resin resist onto the cloth, and promptly soaking the entire cloth into a bath of dye to colour it. The wax-resin stamp and bath process is repeated after the initial one, if more colours are desired.
The main difference that can be seen is that Malaysian batik has a much more vibrant colour palette and simpler designs when compared to Indonesian batik. This links to the different methods used when making the two types of batik as well. Malaysian batik is done by a process of sketching the pattern onto cloth, then canting (which is using a pen like tool to apply wax lines), and proceeding to paint the colours onto the cloth. Another method which is printed batik, or more specifically, block printed batik, is where a copper or wooden block with a pattern will be used to stamp the pattern onto the fabric. There is a difference in quality, price and production time between the two methods, hand painted being more authentic, pricey and longer to make than printed.
Another main difference between the two countries' batik, is the motif. Malaysia's motif mostly contain various flora and simple patterns, as depicting humans or animals in batik is not as common due to Islam forbids using animals pictures as decoration. An exception to this is butterflies, which are also quite common. Indonesia's motif includes various flora and fauna, as it has been heavily influenced by the culture and history behind it.
The following are two pieces of batik I've found to evaluate.
This is a physical piece that I have found. This batik pieces depicts a flower, having its leaves in the background. In this situation, the wax has not been removed. This can be because the wax has been drawn on many hours prior, resulting in it, or to have a more bold and clear outline of the flora as if it were removed, the lines would blend in with the original cloth's white. Removing wax in situations like this, would remove the detail and penmanship of the work, which is why it was not removed in this case. One thing I must note for batik that it tends to be messy. Mainly in the general sense of the wax work, possibly due to the fact that it is constant and you can't really undo the line you have just put down. It can be clean, but majority of legitimate batik have uneven lines and errors, which only makes it better, knowing it was done by hand, and not by factory. A genuine piece of Malaysian culture, and not a cheap piece of merchandise.
Here is a piece of clothing with batik as the pattern and decoration of it. This is one of the more detailed pieces of Malaysian batik. As per mentioned before, Malaysian batik are usually simple. However, for certain items of clothing, they do tend to get more detailed and darker coloured. Here, the attention to detail towards the flowers are greater and creates a more intricate pattern within the simple illustration, not overwhelming the piece, but a nice touch. I think that a long pattern such as the strip shown, would be suitable for the cafe. As the original plan is to have batik in slices to add onto the products and overall cafe design. This is a nicely subtle way of adding it, without any startling and unwanted contrast between the two, batik and illustrations. The colour scheme here can be disregarded, as it would be replaced with more pastel and brighter colours. The lining's colours, however, may still remain the same as it gives an effect of the wax used to create it in the first place.
From the evaluated pieces above, I have planned to recreate specifically the patterns and hibiscus flower in a similar style to batik, but with some changes to develop yet another style that will pair nicely with the Nakamura style but also still have remnants of batik's traditional and prominent style.
FINISH YOUR BATIK WIPS
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