Elephants and Batiks

Another day of rain but we didn't let it deter us.  Today we rode an elephant!!!

Later that afternoon we visited a Batik factory...

Batik is a cloth that is traditionally made using a manual wax-resist dyeing technique. It was a facinating process to watch.  Here is Micaiah's write up of our visit.

On February 13th we went to a Batik factory to see how they make batiks.  A batik is a colorful design using all natural dyes.  You can see the design on both sides.  Now I will tell you the process.  They use 100% cotton.

The first step is to trace the design you want.  After tracing you have to put wax on the parts you don't want colored.  The two types of wax they use are paraffin wax and bees wax.  They use more paraffin wax than bees wax.

tracing the design

the tool used to apply the wax

applying the first layer of wax

the wax pot

 The second step is dyeing the cloth.  First they soak it in three types of water.  One type was salt water.  They can only dye one color a day.  The choose which color to dye the cloth.  Let's say they choose yellow first.  After the cloth is dry they  put more wax on to keep some yellow areas from turning the next dye colour.  They do this over and over until they have used all the colours they want.  To remove the wax they soak it in boiling water.

adding another layer of wax after dyed cloth is dry

dying the second time

soaking the completed project in hot water to remove the wax.

 The batiks in the gallery were amazing.  Mommy bought a wrap that is very pretty.

It was a great day!

By Micaiah