Ques 3: BATIK ARTIST ROBIN PARIS!

One of the famous batik artist is ROBIN PARIS.
Some of ROBIN PARIS's work revolves around the world internationally, such as Australia. there are also alot of marine and sea life, and they gave me the idea of Singapore when it was a fishing port years ago. Whatsmore, they also suggest that the world have many nature places to go to. Most of his artworks have a very natural 'kampong' feeling. For the 'marine' theme of his art, it links me to the Maldives. Thus, Robin Paris's artwork revolves around the world's natural places.

"Australia"

"Marine Ecosystems"

"River Fowey"

"Sealife"

Question 2

Traditional batik colours includes indigo, dark brown and white as natural dyes are most commonly available in indigo and brown. Certain patterns can only be worn by nobility; traditionally, wider stripes or wavy lines of greater width indicated higher rank. But modern batik includes a wide range of colours. The old process of Batik does not allow the artist to apply many colors in one go.

However, the modern techniques have advanced and have made it easy for the artist, where one can use the brush to apply many colors in one go! There is no restrictions whether who you are and what you can or cannot wear a certain pattern. Traditionally, it was used as a material to clothe the human body. But now, it is used for furnishing fabrics, heavy canvas wall hangings, tablecloths and household accessories.

"Modern Batik"

"Modern Batik design"

Traditional Batik

Traditional Batik design

What Is Batik?

WHAT exactly is BATIK!

Batik is one of the earliest known methods of fabric decoration and has its roots in many different cultures. Traditional methods of producing a batik have varied from continent to continent but all have in common the use of some sort of "resist", (most commonly different types of wax) and dyes, to produce an image on cloth. The ways in which the wax and dyes are applied are as varied as the artists themselves who choose batik as a means of self expression. The word 'batik' originates from the Javanese 'tik' and means to dot.


the Batik PROCESS!

Creating Your Design:
Trace your design onto the material using a soft blunt pencil. This can be done by placing the design
under the frame and holding it up to the light or placing it over a light box. Alternatively draw the
design directly onto the fabric.

STEPS:
1)The first wax is applied over the penciled-in outline of the pattern. The cloth is normally white in colour.

2)The cloth is dyed in the first dye bath. The area of the cloth where the wax was applied in Step 1 will remain white.
3)Second application of wax is applied.The darker color helps to differentiate it from the first wax applied.
4)The cloth is dyed in the second dye bath.
5)All the wax that has been applied thus far is removed. This is done by heating the wax and scraping it off and also by applying hot water and sponging off the remaining wax.

6)The fabric is submerged in the final dye bath.
7) AND YOU'RE DONE!

Some TIP!
-To remove a bad area,scrape off the wax on both sides of the batik using a knife. Soak a teaspoon in boiling water and thenuse it to gently rub over the surface of the damaged area. Repeat this process until it is removed.
Materials needed for Batik:
-Tjantings
It is a little cup-shaped tool with a handle set at right-angles to the base on one side and on the other is a fine spout arrangement. Through this spout the hot wax is drawn by capillary attraction when the point is brought in contact with the material.

Tjanting tool

-Brushes
-Wax Mixtures - Bee Wax
Pure bees-wax cracks very little and will stand the highest temperature when in the dye-bath, and inversely the larger proportion of paraffin used the more the medium will crackle and the cooler the dye-bath must be used if one does not want one's design to melt away.

-Dyes
-Fabric
Batik can be done on all kinds of woven material, such as cotton, silk, velvet, wool, mixed goods or leather. It is rather difficult to get satisfactory results on cotton owing to the fact that cotton dyes have to be boiled in order to attain any degree of brilliancy, and of course boiling is not practical when one is dealing with waxed material.

Woman doing Batik.