Eat, Pray, Batik

I recently went to Bali, Indonesia — known to Americans as the place where Elizabeth Gilbert/Julia Roberts found love in the book/movie "Eat, Pray, Love." Instead of looking for romance, though, I traveled with a group of quilters to see how batik fabrics are made and to try my hand at this ancient art technique.

The batik process originated in Indonesia centuries ago and uses wax and dyes to create lovely patterns and scenes on cotton and silk fabrics, paper and other materials. "Batik has a magical quality that no other process offers. That's why I love it so," says Rosi Robinson, a batik artist and author of "Creative Batik," as well as vice chair of The Batik Guild, an international organization that is trying to raise the profile of batik around the world.

Quilters are major fans of batik fabrics emanating from Indonesia and quilt shops often dedicate large sections of their stores to these fabrics. As a destination, Bali was a big draw for me and my fellow quilters partly because we had the opportunity to buy lots of fabric at about $2.50 a meter, which is slightly longer than a yard, versus $14 a yard in the U.S. for the same product. We all brought extra suitcases with us to haul home up to 50 lbs. per suitcase, as allowed by the airlines, and indulged in a buying frenzy

We also got to try our hand at creating our own batik fabric under the guidance of highly skilled Balinese artists. While they made the process look easy and did all the prep work for us, it was actually quite challenging to do well, largely because the wax can drip and it requires good manual dexterity to create solid lines.

During one workshop, we were invited to select from a variety of images – flowers, lizards, butterflies and frogs among them  – that had been drawn onto pieces of cotton. The cotton was mounted onto a wooden frame and we were instructed to dip a tool called a tjanting (also called a canting) into a pot of heated liquid wax. The tool has a little reservoir that you fill with the melted wax; once collected, you apply the wax through the tip of the tjanting to create a resist line. This line prevents dye from spreading from one area of a composition to another, which would ruin the design.

After the wax has cooled, the cotton fabric is dyed in a vat or painted. The wax is then removed, either by dipping it in boiling water or ironing it off onto newsprint paper. More wax can then be applied to shield certain areas of the composition so a different dye color can be used; this process can be repeated many times to create multi-colored images.

During another workshop, we were invited to select from hundreds of large stamps, called tjaps (or caps), featuring different motifs. We were then taught how to use the tjap to apply the wax and make repetitive designs on cotton – a process similar to the one used to make the batik fabrics quilters love to buy.

This technique was easier than drawing with the tjanting tool, but it required more room to work in and extra care so we wouldn't get burned by the wax; it was also tricky to apply the stamp in just the right spot to continue the design. After waxing, the whole cloth was dyed in a color bath of our choosing and hung to dry.

While quilters' fabric is a large part of the story of batik, a customized art form has also evolved over time and is actually quite different from the traditional practice. Contemporary batik artists use many different types of wax, dyes, techniques and tools to achieve patterns, scenes and even portraits on cloth.

Lisa Telling Kattenbraker, a self-taught, award-winning batik artist living in Olympia, Washington, creates whimsical, colorful compositions on cotton that often feature faceless stick figures. She uses the stick figures to tell stories from her own life and doesn't put faces on them so people can bring their own experiences and interpretations to the scenes.

According to Jonathan Evans, chairman of the Batik International Guild and owner with his wife, fellow batik artist Beth Evans, of the Shalawalla Gallery, located in La Veta, Colorado, "batik is not a well-known art form in the United States."

To raise its profile, the Guild has launched "The International Year of Batik," which runs through May 2025 and is focused on promoting batik-themed exhibits and workshops. Evans' own work tends toward the botanical and nature, with great attention to mood, detail and color, while Robinson batiks fine-art figurative images onto cotton fabric that many people mistake for watercolor paintings.

Robinson says that she finds the batik process magical, as well as challenging. She loves the vibrant colors the dyes can achieve and how the colors spread and mix together. She also loves that it is a meditative process. "It slows you down," she says. "You can only go as fast as the flow of the wax."

Kattenbraker suggests starting with a simple hand-drawn or traced design onto cotton, a tjanting tool and just two or three colors. She recommends viewing videos on her website and YouTube (search for "how to batik") to get a feel for how to approach the art. "Batik is not a very linear process, so it can be confusing if you are just reading directions," she says.

Both Dharma Trading Co. and Pro Chemical & Dye sell batik starter kits online that will allow you to experiment with the process and see if you like it. If you do, you can purchase electric wax heating bowls and an electric wax pen that makes it less likely you'll spill drops of wax on your composition.

Since it's a messy endeavor, find a spot in a garage, porch or basement to work in with access to electricity (so you can heat the wax) but that also has air flow.

You can use cheap paintbrushes to apply the paint or dye, says Kattenbraker, and if you don't plan on washing or wearing your batik composition, you can use watercolors or watered-down acrylic or textile paint. For items you plan to wear like T-shirts or other types of clothing, try Ritt or Procion dyes, which won't wash out.

Kattenbraker cautions that experimentation and patience are the keys to success. "There is a very steep learning curve with batiking, so have low expectations and just have fun," she advises.

If you'd like to take classes, the Evanses offer in-studio workshops ranging from one to three days for students to learn how to batik. Robinson also offers batik workshops and exhibits her work throughout the United States, Nova Scotia, the UK and Scotland.

"I love teaching batik workshops where I introduce the process to people young and old," Robinson says. "Students come back again and again. Maybe it's the calming process, the camaraderie, the creativeness, the different ways you can adapt your ideas. Batik offers so many possibilities."