Cerita Pengalaman Cecilia Asal Argentina saat Belajar Batik

My experience at batik´s classes

I decided to take batik because I think is one of the uniqueness representations of Indonesian art, at what visual arts concerns particularly. It condensates its history and as in ancient arts, is also used in everyday life. With that last sentence, I mean to say that in every moment at the history of art, it is used for a certain purpose: in the beginning with magic purposes, later to tell stories to the community and nowadays as merchandise.  But there was a moment that art was part of everyday life, empowering the routine and getting in between. That is one of the reasons why I wanted to take this subject. The other is that I thought that understanding batik, its process and meaning, I would get a wider understanding of Indonesian culture and people.

It consisted in 5 classes of 8 hours each.

1^st day. Learning different techniques of how to make batik patterns. Make one personal motif of each in a paper and then use them in a fabric: combine them in a composition, drawing them in pencil.

2^nd day. Draw the pattern with cantin and malam. (batik tulis)

3^rd day. Finish the fabric made with cantin. Learn how to make motifs with stamps (batik cap).

4^th day. Started with some theory about the different ways that I apply the wax and the different ways that I was going to apply the colour. One of the fabrics was dyed in one colour (culup) and one more was painted with brush (colet).

5^th day. Apply the dyeing with sponge and brush.

One last day I went to pick everything up.

I enjoyed very much all the process. Learning how to make the patterns, to use the cantin and getting to see the inside of how batik is made. It´s completely different to read about it and knowing the process by own experience; controlling the temperature of the wax, how the colours expand in the fabric with the brush technique or the right way to make a pattern with stamps.   Thank you very much for the opportunity given this semester, I hope I can keep on learning about batik the rest of my year here.

Cecilia Petrovski