Learning How to Make Batik Tulis

During Aina’s mid semester break, we all went to Yogyakarta for a family vacation. One of the highlights of the vacation was when we went for a Batik Class.

Aina is pretty familiar with batik, since her favourite clothing pieces are daster batik, and she has tons of those. So, finally that she was in the birth land of batik, she was curious on how it was made.

With help of Rumah Budaya Tembi, we went to the house/studio of Batik Tulis Sidomukti in Desa Giriloyo, Imogiri. The ride to the studio itself was already an adventure for the little Singaporean girl, she had a lot of fun seeing paddy fields, birds, chickens and cows hanging out on the side of a steep street. And she finally saw how warung looked like.

Batik Tulis Sidomukti studio is owned by a family. The mother and the son are the batik artists. Mas Akhyar, the son, was our teacher. Before we started, he had already prepared a few sketches on the white cloth for us to trace. Aina chose the drawing of a pigeon, while I decided to do the flower. He also showed us the wax, and explained that there are actually a few different waxes used in the making of Batik Tulis. The wax used for drawing outlines are different than the wax used for fillings. Same thing for the canting (the pen used for drawing the batik), there were a few different ones: for fine line, for filling, and they even have for double-line. And we could try out all the different cantings while we were there.

Then he taught us on how to work the canting: scoop the hot wax from the wax pot carefully. We don’t need to fill up the cup in the canting completely, just a little bit of wax is fine. And when you take it out of the pot, wipe the excess by the side of the pot to avoid spilling. We then wait a little bit for the point to cool down before we can start drawing. When the line had become thinner, that means it was time to refill the canting. Sounded easy, right?

Well, even though the drawing process was sooooo much fun to do, it was actuallly much harder than it looks. Sometimes the canting drips, spilling wax onto our canvas and ruined our drawing. So we had to think of a way to cover up the spill. And we couldn’t even draw an even nor a straight line, hahaha. But it was addicting, nonetheless.

It was so much fun that we ended up going to seconds. I ended up tracing another design, a shark. Aina decided to make her own design of a rose for her second piece. And Ari, who wasn’t interested at the beginning, ended up drawing his shishi and everyone agrees batik making is addicting. Mas Akhyar told us to sign the batik drawing with our names, which is kinda cool.

After we finished drawing all the design, Mas Akhyar started the dyeing process. He had three bowls filled with liquid. One was water, the other one was an affixing agent, and the last one is the dye. He first dip the cloth in to the water, then the affixing agent, then dye, and back into the water. After all of our cloth had been dyed, he boiled some water, dip the cloth into the hot water to get all the wax out and hung the cloth on the clothing line to dry.

And our batik is done!