Jogja City

Batik is generally thought of as the most quintessentially Indonesian textile. Motifs of flowers, twinning plants, leaves buds, flowers, birds, butterflies, fish, insects and geometric forms are rich in symbolic association and variety; there are about three thousand recorded batik patterns.

The patterns to be dyed into the the clothe are drawn with a canting, a wooden ‘pen’ fitted with a reservoir for hot, liquid wax. In batik workshops, circles of women sit working at clothes draped over frames, and periodically replenish their supply of wax by dipping their canting into a central vat. Some draw directly on the the cloth from memory; others wax over faint charcoal lines.
This method of drawing patterns in wax on fine machine-woven cotton was practiced as a form of meditation by the female courtiers of Central Java; traditionally, batik tulis (tulis means ‘write’ in Indonesian) is produced by women.

In the 19th century, the application of waxed patterns with a large copper stamp or cap saved the batik industry from competition with cheap printed European cloth. The semi-industrial nature of cap work allows it to be performed by men. Batik motifs recall characters from the Hindu epics, plants, animals, sea creatures and gamalan melodies.

In Surakarta rich creams and browns are juxtaposed with tinges of yellowish gold.White, undyed cloth is left to contrast with the sombre opulence of brown and blue dyes in Yogjakarta.

The palette of the north coast were influenced by lively maritime trade and the textile traditions of the Chinese and Arab mercantile communities living in port and coastal towns.

Java’s principal Batik centers are Yogyakarta, Solo, Pekalongan, Cirebon, Taksimalaya, Indramayu, Garut and Lasem.

Several size of Batik are available. A kain panjang , for example , is one meter wide and 2.5 meters long. The sarung is one meter wide and two meters long, sewn into a cylindrical shape and worn as a skirt. Sarung are usually worn by men, kain by women. The selendang is a breast and shoulder cloth worn by women.

Batik design offer a fascinating window onto the history and mythology of Java. In traditional Batik, three types of design are used: Horizontal (called ’soft rain’), vertical and diagonal.

The introduction of Islam, which forbade depicting lifelike pictures, led to stylized patterns without representation of human of animal forms.

Chinese and European influences are evident in the design and color combinations of Pekalongan and Cirebon batik, where bright colors and filigree-like birds, flowers, and trees all form part of the pattern.