What is Batik?
Batik is a centuries old method of dyeing cloth. The
wax in the dyeing process prevents the dyes from penetrating the fabric,
ensuring adjacent dyes do not bleed into each other and also creates the 'white
lines' characteristic of the batik process.
Beyond Batik Canada has married this art-form with innovative
and elegant designs based on the beauties of nature.
What is the batik process used by
Beyond Batik Canada?
FOR OUR CLOTHING: The fabric we use is either 100% cotton or 100% first quality
rayon.
First, the design is drawn on the fabric with pencil and then
the fabric is secured onto a frame.
Hot, melted wax is then poured into a special pen, called a
canting. Using the canting, the liquid wax is drawn over the pencil
lines.
After the wax has hardened, the colors (dyes) are painted on
to the fabric by hand. When this stage has been finished, the fabric is placed
in the sun to set the dyes, to bring out the colors and to dry. Next, the
fabric is brought back into the workplace and the fine details are hand-painted
on.
Once again the cloth is placed in the sun.
The next step is to place the fabric in boiling water, thus
melting the wax and removing it from the fabric. This stage also
pre-shrinks the fabric. The fabric is then dried in the sun again.
It is only after all these steps are completed that the
fabric is ready for cutting and sewing.
You can expect slight design/color variations from garment to
garment due to the hand-painting process.
How is this batik process different
from your non-clothing items?
Our duvets, comforters and pillow covers are all
hand-painted batik. However, the main difference between the two processes
is that our clothing goes through 2 stages of painting, while the home decor
products only go through one painting stage.
How is your batik process different
from many other companies?
Many companies do not apply the wax by hand. Instead, a
'stamp' (similar to a cookie cutter) is dipped into the wax and then the fabric
is stamped. This is a much faster batik process and is good for smaller
designs that are repeated a number of times on the fabric. Most sarongs
use this process.
Many times, especially with stamped batik. the dyes/colors
are not painted on by hand. Instead, the fabric is dipped into a vat of
dye.