4th Assignment - Batik

Examples of Batiks

Batik is a manual printing technique which involves wax and dye to create a pattern. It is made famous by the Indonesians since they have a long history of nationalization and some of the patterns is mostly influenced by the cultures. Here in Malaysia, we too are know for our batik.Our techniques are slightly different from the Javanese, and so is our motif. We tend to use florals as our main motif and not animals or humans due to the restrictions of religion. 

In Malaysia we use the "canting" method which is applying wax on cloth. I might say that Batik is not as easy as it looks. You can see so for yourself. I'll attach a youtube link below so that you could see how Batik is made. 

Malaysian Batik - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUtjl1LQaQg

So, for this assignment. We went to a Batik factory called Jadi Batik which is stated at Jalan Imbi in Kuala Lumpur. It was an exciting trip because unlike any other assignment, we got to be exposed to things like this. Before going to the trip my groupmates and I were discussing about themes that we wanted to do. So we came across many different cultures like :

• Malaysian
• Indonesian
• Egyptian
• Maori
• African
• Japanese 
• Indian

There are many cultures out there that we thought would be a great idea to express through Batik. Instead of having a normal floral motif patterns. We use their culture patterns to create a new motif. Eventually, we went with the African culture. So we all researched a lot about the culture and decided to focus on their tribes. By adding some of their symbols might be another best way to let people understand their culture even more. 

ADINKRAHENE

Symbol of greatness, charisma and leadership. Signifies an importance of playing a leadership role

That is one of the symbols that I decided to use for my pattern. Adding it in the center piece of the 3 combination pattern to create one Batik piece is a great idea. A human face, a monkey and a lion was what we planned to do using african patterns and combination of earthy colours to support the picture and make it look african-ish.

So, those were our final outcome. Mostly my group struggled a lot with the canting part. Obviously, you could see the center piece was not coloured fully and that is because while I was focus doing the canting part, somebody pushed my elbow and the wax fell all over. But, Ms Lisa told us to improvise and so we did. Other than that, finding the right combination of colours we're also difficult for us. But nonetheless, it was fun. It was our first time doing this and for a first timer. I think we did 'okay'. I'm definitely going there again. And this time, I'll make sure I didn't screw it up.