Batik

Materials Needed:

*Muslin fabric

*Black sharpies

*Large plain white paper

*Tempura paint

*Water

*Water cups

*Various paintbrushes

*Paper towels

*Flour

*Alum

*Hair dye applicator bottle

This project focuses on the early art of Batik. Batik does not come from a pinpointed origin but has been found in the Middle East, Asia, India, and Africa. This project is a great way to teach children how textile art works as well as learning pattern, which can be incorporated into a math lesson.

*For a tutorial on this project, visit Elementary Art Education and/or The Art of Kids*
To begin, I researched many batik designs. I sketched some patterns and then decided to combine two that I saw. I created a flower pattern using two different flowers. One flower has four narrow petals that when put side by side with the same flower, a circle is created with their petals. Inside the circles, I put another flower design. Once I had created one circle in my pattern, I traced it with sharpie to darken up my lines. Once I did that, I then took a large sheet of paper and placed a square-cut muslin piece of fabric on top of the paper and traced around it to show me guidelines of the size of the fabric. I then placed the large paper on top of my sharpie design and traced again using the sharpie. After tracing, I moved the large sheet of paper over until I could see my design showing through again to the side of the first I just drew. By tracing over and over, I was able to get a consistent looking pattern filling my paper. Once the paper was filled with the repeated tracing of a pattern, it was time to apply the resist substance onto the muslin cloth.

To make the resist, mix one cup of flour, one cup of water, and one tablespoon of Alum (spice used in making pickles) in a bowl. Once it is thoroughly mixed, pour it into a bottle that has a nozzle at the top for easy controlled squeezing such as a hair color applicator bottle. Then I placed the muslin fabric on top of the large paper with the sharpie design drawn on it. You should be able to see the design through the fabric. Taking the resist mixture in the bottle and squeezing out the mixture, I traced the lines of the pattern onto the fabric. After I finished tracing all the lines, I allowed the mixture to dry over night.

Once dry, take tempura paint and paint the pattern with desired colors. It is also possible to crack the mixture all over to give a worn texture to the textile. That is optional. I decided to go with the complimentary colors that I absolutely love and use for everything: purple and yellow. I painted the yellow on the flowers in the center of the petal circles, blue as the background, and yellow as the circled petals. Once I had it all covered and the cracks in my mixture filled in, I gave the paint about a half an hour to dry.

Once the paint was dry, then I carefully peeled off all of the resist with my nails and fingertips and threw it away. You can either just allow it to be as it is and leave the paint, you can rinse in hot water in a sink, or you can put it in the washer with hot water. The hot water will allow for the stain to become more deeply embedded into the fabric. A dryer or hair dryer will also work in setting in the stains. I chose to just rinse my fabric in hot water in the sink and then allowed to air dry over night.

I learned so much about this project. I didn’t even know what Batik was. It was an adventure learning a new kind of art – textile art. I had never dabbled in anything like this before. It was fun to learn resist techniques, come up with patterns, and decide on a color scheme to paint onto this fabric. This helped me gain an appreciation for textile artists, as well as the ancient practices of textile dying. Although we may have more advanced or convenient methods of dying textiles, I still am in awe at how this process worked. This experience has opened my eyes to the possibilities of textile art and what else I could make. This knowledge and experience could easily be passed on to students.