Indonesian batik has a variety of patterns and colors influenced by various acculturations. At first, batik has a limited variety of patterns and colors, and some patterns can only be used by certain groups. However, coastal batik absorbed various outside influences, such as foreign traders and ultimately, the colonizers. Bright colors like red were popularized by the Chinese, who also popularized the phoenix pattern. European colonizers also took an interest in batik, and the result was previously unknown floral patterns (such as tulips) and objects brought by the colonizers (buildings or horse-drawn carriages), as well as their favorite colors such as blue. Traditional batik still maintains its style, and is still used in traditional ceremonies, because usually each pattern has its own symbol.
Batik (or the word Batik) comes from the Javanese "amba" which means to write and "dot". The word batik refers to a cloth with a pattern produced by a "night" (wax) material that is applied to the fabric, thus preventing the entry of dye (dye), or in English "wax-resist dyeing".
Indonesian Batik is a craft that has high artistic value and has been part of Indonesian culture (especially Javanese) for a long time. Javanese women in the past made their skills in batik a livelihood, so in the past batik work was the exclusive work of women until the invention of "Batik Cap" which allowed men to enter this field. There are some exceptions to this phenomenon, namely coastal batik which has masculine lines as can be seen in the "Mega Mendung" pattern, where in some coastal areas batik work is common for men.
Batik technique has been known since thousands of years ago. There is no clear historical information about the origin of batik. Some suspect this technique originated from the Sumerians, then developed in Java after being brought by Indian traders. Currently Indonesian batik can be found in many countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, and Iran. In addition to Asia, Indonesian batik is also very popular in several countries on the African continent. However, the most famous batik in the world is batik from Indonesia, especially from Java.
The tradition of batik was originally a hereditary tradition, so that sometimes a motif can be recognized as coming from a certain family batik. Some batik may indicate the status of a person. Even today, some traditional batik motifs are only used by the royal families of Yogyakarta and Surakarta.
Although batik is identical to Javanese traditional clothing, now batik has become a national dress for the people of Indonesia, and has even been widely known in foreign countries. Its use is no longer as traditional clothing but has followed the development of fashion for both women and men, and is even used for interior design and household items.
Types of Indonesian batik can be divided into:
1. Classic Batik
Classical batik has a high artistic value and taste, with complicated workmanship and takes weeks. Classical batik has certain basic patterns with various variations of motifs, such as kawung, machete, nitik, tuntum, ceplok, patch, and so on. The basic ingredients of batik are fine quality white cotton cloth, as well as white silk cloth, batik with silk will produce more vibrant colors.
Classical Batik Making Process
Almost everyone has seen batik. In fact, many of them have seen how to make batik. They thought they saw him on a trip to Java during a visit to a batik workshop where women drew designs on white cloth with a canting. This part, which is actually the application of the night, is only one of the various processing steps that must be carried out to make an item called batik.
1.1. Preparation
A white cotton cloth with a width of about 110 cm and a length of 240 cm is pre-treated so that it can be used for further processing. This cultivation consisted of washing, starching, drying and tapping, a process that took days.
1.2. Design
If the fabric is ready for the next process, then the motifs are drawn by following the patterns that are already available on paper or directly drawing on the fabric for skilled batik craftsmen. After the design is made, one by one is colored. But you can also draw around the design first so that the areas can be covered. How to draw is done with the wax that comes out of the canting in the form of a smooth shower, while the size of the canting varies.
The canting is shaped like a small brass teapot the size of the head of a tobacco pipe and has a wooden stem. The smaller the canting, the smoother the night flow that comes out. Previously the night was thawed by preheating, the most important thing is to keep the temperature right. Then on the reverse cloth surface, the same design and workmanship are carried out so that there are no differences on both sides of the batik cloth.
1.3. Coloring
Furthermore, the fabric can be dipped in blue dye. This coloring/dyeing is repeated many times until the result is achieved. On high-quality products up to 30 times staining is a must. The traditional dye is indigo, the specialty of this color is that the color only appears after the dyed fabric is dried and exposed to air. If the cloth is still wet then the parts of the design that will be given a brown color, are scraped at night. After that the parts that are colored blue and still have to be blue are also covered with night. Then the cloth is dipped in brown dye.
The traditional coloring agent for chocolate is soga, a certain type of tree bark. Cultivation of a good color takes 15 days, with 3 kinds of coloring per day. The parts that are first colored blue and then brown to black in color. Thus there are three colors of the two dyes, namely blue, brown and black. And besides that some parts remain white.
1.4. Night Disappearance
After repeated coloring is done so that it fits. Then the whole wax can be released, this is done by boiling until it melts, and the wax will float to the surface. After that the cloth is washed again.
Different techniques are used to make batik on silk because it requires wax and different dyes so as not to damage the silk.
The result of the batik-making process mentioned above is called written batik. Another type is stamped batik, where in the process of depicting the canting on written batik is replaced by using a stamp (as shown below) to apply wax to the fabric.
Classical batik is known by various sizes and names, namely long cloth batik with a width of 110 cm X 240 cm length, batik cloth sarong (about 105cmX200cm), scarf (45~60cmX200~300cm), head iket (90cmX90cm) and kemben (60cmX200cm).
In daily use, Indonesian batik is found in various forms such as various kinds of formal clothing for men and women, and various materials for interior decoration of homes, offices or hotels, as well as household variations such as tablecloths, napkins, place mats, bags, pillowcases, bed covers, bed sheets, and more.
A.History of batik technique
Batik textiles from Niya (Tarim Basin), China.
Details of the cloth carvings worn by Prajnaparamita, a statue originating from East Java in the 13th century. This intricate carved circle pattern filled with flowers and plant tendrils is similar to traditional Javanese batik patterns.
The art of dyeing fabrics using a dye barrier technique using wax or wax is one of the ancient art forms. Discoveries in Egypt show that this technique has been known since the 4th century BC, with the discovery of mummy wrapping cloths which were also coated with wax to form patterns. In Asia, a technique similar to batik was also applied in China during the T'ang Dynasty (618-907) and in India and Japan during the Nara Period (645-794). In Africa, techniques similar to batik are known by the Yoruba Tribe in Nigeria, and the Soninke and Wolof Tribes in Senegal.[8] In Indonesia, batik is believed to have existed since the Majapahit era, and became very popular at the end of the XVIII century or the beginning of the XIX century. The batik produced was all written batik until the early twentieth century and stamped batik was only known after World War I or around the 1920s.[9]
Although the word "batik" comes from the Javanese language, the presence of batik in Java itself is not recorded. G.P. Rouffaer argues that this batik technique was probably introduced from India or Sri Lanka in the 6th or 7th century.[8] On the other hand, J.L.A. Brandes (Dutch archaeologist) and F.A. Sutjipto (Indonesian historian) believes that the batik tradition is native to areas such as Toraja, Flores, Halmahera, and Papua. It should be noted that the area is not an area influenced by Hinduism but is known to have an ancient tradition of making batik.[10]
G.P. Rouffaer also reports that the gringsing pattern has been known since the 12th century in Kediri, East Java. He concluded that such a pattern could only be formed using a canting tool, so he argued that canting was invented in Java around that time.[10] Details of cloth carvings that resemble batik patterns are worn by Prajnaparamita, a 13th-century statue of the Buddhist goddess of wisdom from East Java. The details of the clothes feature intricate patterns of plant and flower tendrils that are similar to the traditional Javanese batik patterns that can be found today. This shows that making intricate batik patterns that can only be made with canting has been known in Java since the 13th century or even earlier.[11] In the last quarter of the 13th century, batik cloth from Java was exported to the Karimata islands, Siam, and even to Mosul.[12]
The legend in 17th century Malay literature, Sulalatus Salatin, tells of Admiral Hang Nadim who was ordered by Sultan Mahmud to sail to India to get 140 pieces of litter cloth with a pattern of 40 types of flowers on each sheet. Unable to fulfill the order, he made the cloth himself. But unfortunately the ship sank on the way home and was only able to carry four pieces, making the Sultan disappointed.[13] By some interpreters, who? the litter was interpreted as batik.
In European literature, this batik technique was first described in the book History of Java (London, 1817) written by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. He had been the British Governor of Java during Napoleon's occupation of the Netherlands. In 1873 a Dutch merchant Van Rijekevorsel gave him a piece of batik he had obtained during a visit to Indonesia to the Ethnic Museum in Rotterdam and it was at the beginning of the 19th century that batik began to reach its golden age. When exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900, Indonesian batik fascinated the public and artists.[8]
Since industrialization and globalization, which introduced automation techniques, new types of batik emerged, known as stamped batik and printed batik, while traditional batik was produced by hand-written techniques using canting and Malam was called written batik. At the same time immigrants from Indonesia to the Federal Territory of Malaysia also brought Batik with them.
Now batik has developed in several places outside Java, even abroad. In Indonesia, batik has also been developed in Aceh with Aceh batik, Cual Batik in Riau, Papuan batik, Sasirangan Kalimantan batik, and Minahasa batik.
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