Just what is "batik"?

Some of you may have seen that next Saturday the 23rd of July we're having a 'batik' program.  You may not be familiar with this, so I thought I'd give you a little preview.  (and hopefully get you interested in signing up!)

Batik is a fabric dying and designing method from Indonesia.  The basic idea is that you use wax to create a pattern or design on fabric, then dye the fabric with a cold dye.  After the fabric is dyed, you wash it in hot water to melt and remove the wax.  Since the wax prevents part of the fabric from being dyed, you end up with a white (or whatever color fabric you started with) pattern on your dyed fabric.

This technique of wax resistant dying is a pretty old one!  Archeologists have documented batik occuring as far back as 400 BC!  The first known examples of this type of craft was with mummies!  Egyptians would coat strips of cloth in wax, then scratch out designs, then dye the cloth, then use the cloth to wrap mummies!  Batik has also been documented in China, India, Japan, and Africa, as well as Indonesia.

The type of batik we'll be doing at the library will be slightly different.  We don't want anyone to get burned when using hot melted wax, so we'll be using washable glue instead.  (Think white school glue)  This will work just as well as the wax.  We'll use a cold dye, and then after the dye has set, when you bring it home you'll wash it in your washing machine, which will take the glue off!  We'll be dying white bandanas.

Of course, you can invent any pattern or design that you want to for your bandana, (it is going to be yours afterall!) but there are also some traditional designs that you could try to use too.  If you'd like, you could look up 'batik' in a google image search to check out different kinds.  Don't worry if they look really difficult, we'll be doing simple ones.  In fact, you may want to google image search 'simple batik patterns'!

Anyway, I would love it if you all would join me for this fun craft session.  Email me, call the library, or come in to register for this program.

Batik Fabric Design & Dye

Saturday, July 23rd

2:00-4:00pm

Ages 10-18