INTRODUCTIONS OF BATIK,STYLES and CATEGORIES of BATIK

INTRODUCTIONS OF BATIK BY LEE CHOR LIN

Batik is resist- dyeing technique used to decorate finished fabrics. The process is simple though laborious : on a piece of plain fabric, motifs are drawn using paste like substance derived from rice, beans, mud orwax. The clean space arpund this paste- covered area is now the background of a motif. When immersed in dye bath, the outlined motif on the fabric willresist the dyeing, while the clean space the n absorbs the colour of the dyestuff. Once the paste is ceaned off, the motif is delineated by the undyed negative spaces on the whole processof waxing is repeated on those areas where the second colour is desired. The process has tobe repeated as many times as there are colours required.

STYLES and CATEGORIES of BATIK

-          THE CLASSICAL JAVANESE STYLE : This group of patterns used on batik from the courts of central Java in Yogyakarta and Surakarta ( Solo ), which since the mid – 18^th century had set the artistic and aesthetic standards of J avanese high culture. Batik in this category uses indigo and soga brown ( extracted from the root of the peltophorum tree ) to form paterns that interact with the undyed whit space on the cloth. Batik – makers of the two centres use different clour intensities to interpret a basic repertoire of geometric- dominant motifs. Depticion of life forms is usually stylized, mostly limited to representations of mhythical and symbolic animals that symbolize the power of the rulers. Some of the most zoomorphic elementsinclude the naga ( serpent ) sawut and lar ( bird ), pohon hayat (tree- of – life ), as well wayang kulit characters. The standart batik format is the kain panjang or kain lepas ( a term more commonly use in the Malay contex ), sometime also called sinjung.this is a 2.5 –metre long fabric of continous patterns, where the differentiated section called the kepala in kain sarung absent.

Classical style batik are generally classified into four groups :

1.       Garis miring, diagonally running motifs such as the parang rusak

2.       Nitik, motifs composed of small dashes or dots.

3.       Ceplok, motifs formed on the basis of the five cardinal positions ( north, south, east, west and centre ) and inspired by the cross – section of fruits

4.       Semen, motifs that are inspired by life forms, but renderedin very stylized manner on a more free- flow non grid format.most of the semen motifs symbolize fertility and power, and the winged motifs belong to this group.

Source  BOOK of BATIK CREATNG AN IDENTITY, BY LEE CHOR LIN

CLASSICAL BATIK

Banji Pattern

 

Banji is probably the oldest type of ornamental motif used for batik. Its basis is the swastika, a simple cross with arms of equal length, each arm bent at right angles pointing in the same direction. In amore complex form Banji designs are built up from geometrical patterns consisting of simple ornamental elements of a series of lines interconnected at angles of ninety degrees, always bearing a resemblance to the original swastika.

The use of the Banji in the ornamemal art of Southeast Asia certainly dates back to the Hindu – Buddhist period, evidence suggests it may have appeard even earlier. It is interesting to note that Swastika  is a wordcoming from Sanskrit, meaning well being, but that the word  banji is of Chinese origin. The Chinese symbolic meaning of the ornament is similar to the Sanskrit version: happiness, longevity and wealth.

Banji often appear as a less prominent decoration in batiks of the Pasisir.

sample banji pattern, source teks from BATIK DESIGN, Pepin van Roojen, picture from Batik Semar