t are characteristic of batik. Traditionally, cracks were a sign of inferior cloth especially on indigo color batik. On brown batik, however, the marble effect was accepted.
The number of colors in batik represents how many times it was immersed in the dye bath and how many times wax had to be applied and removed. A multicolored batik represents a lot more work that a single or two-color piece. Numerous dye processes are usually reflected in the price of the cloth. Nowadays, chemical dyes have pretty much replaced traditional dyes, so colors are endless and much more liberally used.
Special Treatments to the Batik Cloth
Prada or Gold Cloth
For special occasions, batik was formerly decorated with gold lead or gold dust. This cloth is known as Prada cloth. Gold leaf was used in the Jogjakarta and Surakarta area. The Central Javanese used gold dust to decorate their Prada cloth. It was applied to the fabric using a handmade glue consisting of egg white or linseed oil and yellow earth. The gold would remain on the cloth even after it had been washed. The gold could follow the design of the cloth or could take on its own design. Older batiks could be given a new look by applying gold to them. Gold decorated cloth is still made today; however, gold paint has replaced gold dust and leaf.
Batik Home Furnishings
One of the distinct pleasures of living in (or visiting) Indonesia is the opportunity to purchase some truly magnificent home furnishings made of batik. As the fabric is truly unique to Indonesia, this is definitely the best place to purchase authentic batik! Batik factories can product batik to your order, with custom colors and designs in large rolls, ready to use for your home decoration projects. The 100% cotton fabric is usually preshrunk in the batik dying process and other fabrics are usually available with the batik design, should your design requirements warrant. Higher end shops also have design consultants who can help you with the layout of the room you are planning to design with your batik fabric and work with you on additional furnishings (pillows, bed covers, and cushions) to complete your color scheme.
Schematic drawing of a form of couching.Drawing by Martin Henze.
Couching is an embroidery technique in which laid threads are placed on the surface of the ground material. The laid threads are then fastened down with a separate thread (couching thread) using small tying down couching stitches (often an individual overcast stitch).
This form is frequently used for a line, outline or border. The couching threads may be of the same colour as the laid threads or in a contrasting tone. If more than one line is laid on the ground material, then this technique can be used to cover large areas of ground material relatively quickly, especially if the laid threads are relatively thick. This technique is often (incorrectly) called laidwork.
Couching can be found in many parts of the world, including Europe, India, Indonesia, Japan and the Middle East.
Beadwork in Indonesia is an ancient tradition most prevalent on the islands of Sumatra, Kalimantan, Timor and Sulawesi, where decorative beadwork pieces have been used in ritualistic ceremonies for millennia. In Bali, beadwork has been traditionally used as ornamentation for sacred items. For example, white beads are sewn onto Lontar leaf temple baskets in preparation for offerings. This is a unique method which involves utilizing two needles simultaneously. The Balinese are seemingly the only culture in the world to employ this technique.
Beadwork has become popularized over the years, so that today, there are many wholesalers and retailers in Bali, both foreign and Indonesian, who create a wide variety of intricate and striking beaded designs on sandals, purses, clothing, and many other items.
Ikat (literally means tie and in the malay language it means “to bind”) is a dyeing technique used to pattern textiles that employs resist dyeing on the yarns prior to dyeing and weaving the fabric.
In ikat the resist is formed by binding individual yarns or bundles of yarns wit