Batik: 26th of Dec. '13

The Final Result of My 2m Batik Cloth

What I did today:

• Dyed the cloth to its second color, dark blue
• Took off the wax by boiling the cloth in a large bucket

What I felt and feel:

• Today is my last Batik lesson. I feel proud of myself because I am able to go through the entire course successfully. I didn't get left behind the schedule too much. I can finish the three cloths (handkerchief, tablecloth and 2m cloth) in 16 meetings, which are the number of meetings per course. I am able to persevere through the challenges that this course provides. There are times when I was really bored and stressed out because of the lesson but I finally could overcome those feelings. 
• I feel relieved after today's Batik lesson because I now know that making Batik is hard and energy consuming. So I'm relieved because I will not be doing that every single week again. Even so, I also feel sad because I can't express my creativity through Batik Art anymore. I now have a higher standard for myself when making Batik but I cannot achieve or even try to achieve that standard because I do not have a chance to make Batik anymore. I don't have the materials and tools to make Batik at home.
• After I finished dyeing the cloth, I felt quite disappointed because I wanted navy blue as the second color of the cloth but it turned out that the second color of the cloth will be sky blue.
• During today's lesson, I felt interested because today's activity was something new to me. For the previous cloths, the handkerchief and the tablecloth, they all were dyed by the people who work in the place where I have my Batik lessons in. I didn't get to dye them myself. So today was a pretty interesting day for me. I get to learn new things and I get to stand up, unlike those dreadful days when I had to sit down on a small short chair waxing the cloth one ornament at a time. Even so, I was quite scared during the process of dyeing because we were using HCl solution and HCl solution is dangerous to the skin. It can burn and make your skin itches. Even though I used gloves, I was scared if the solution will accidentally splash to my skin. 
• After finishing the last cloth in the course, the 2m cloth, I feel happy because it doesn't turn out as bad as I expected it to be. The ornaments that I created look pretty even though they can be neater (see pictures below). The lines that I thought would be very thick before the wax was removed turn out to the best sized lines in the entire cloth; they are thick enough to be clearly seen from afar. Even so, I feel like I can improve myself especially in creating the ornament that will be the center of attention, the focus of the cloth. I feel like if the focus of the cloth is prettier then the whole cloth will look a little bit better. I think I can also improve in the choice of color because dark and light blue are very soft while the ornaments used for this Batik cloth are quite edgy (the triangles on the sides of the cloth and the lines striking out of the focus ornament). 

What I learned today:

• My supervisor told me that all of the cloths I made my Batik on are made 100% from cotton. This is an organic material, thus maximizing the result of the Batik's color because organic materials have a high ability of absorbing dyes and can absorb evenly.  
• I learned that there are two types of dyeing in Batik, one that uses Napthol and second that uses Indigosol. Today I used Indigosol. So to dye, there needs to be 3 buckets. The first one is for the normal water, the second one for the warm Indigosol solution, and the third for the cold HCl solution. The cloth will then be dyed into the buckets accordingly to the order that has been just stated before. To make sure that the cloth is fully soaked in the solutions, a bamboo stick is used and placed above the cloth to hold the cloth down in the solutions.

The left part of my 2m Batik cloth

The right part of my 2m Batik cloth

In overall, I feel grateful that I chose Batik as my Creativity activity. I got to experience something new, situations that evoke varying emotions and learn new knowledge about my country's rich culture.

Batik: 24th of Dec. '13

What I did today:

• Continue applying wax on the 2m cloth using canting
• Added more ornaments to fill up the blank spaces on the cloth
• Added wax to the part where the wax didn't go through the cloth
• Covered and decorated the mistakes that I did in the previous meetings

What I learned:

• I noticed that the Batik artists that worked in the place I have my lesson in are not as boring as I thought Batik artists in general are. I thought Batik artists would be very calm and slow but the Batik artists that I met today actually liked rock music. They listened and sang to it. I shouldn't have prejudices about Batik or any other things.
• I soon begin to understand and have the feeling of when the wax is not in its ideal temperature and when I should change and re-scoop the wax in my canting. 

What I noticed:

• I noticed that the ornaments that I made looked like snowflakes, which suits to the occasion this week because it's Christmas holiday! I should've finished it today so that I can use the finished cloth tomorrow, for Christmas! I should've used red and green dye colors too! Too bad I colored the cloth with light blue already.

What I felt:

• Quite excited to see the result because the 2m cloth is the last cloth I will do for this Creativity activity and first cloth to try applying wax as a base. Almost all of the ornaments I used on the cloth are of my creation so I'm pretty excited to see how it will look like. After adding more ornaments and filling up the blank spaces, the cloth looks pretty good, and that's another reason why I am excited for the next meeting where I will dye and boil the cloth myself to take the wax off the cloth.

Batik: 23rd of Dec. '13

The Final Result of My Tablecloth Batik

What I did today:

• Continue applying wax on the 2m cloth

What happened:

• The tablecloth is finished! It has been dyed into a black colored dye and the wax has been taken off through the boiling process.

What I feel and felt about the activity:

• I feel happy and proud of myself because the tablecloth looks better than I expected 
• Interested because I did something new today. Instead of applying wax (nembok) inside the ornaments, I applied wax outside the ornaments as a base color of a part of the cloth. I blocked and so maintained the first dye color as the base color of a part of the 2m cloth.
• I was confused at some points when I was applying the wax on the 2m cloth because I didn't know what else to do with it, I don't know where else I should put the wax on
• When I was applying wax on my 2m cloth, I felt hopeless because the ornaments looked very ugly. I can't imagine how the cloth will look like when it is finished

1. The black dye that creates a cool uneven
effect in the small white triangle
2. The vague white outline of the big triangle

What I learned:

• On the finished tablecloth, I saw that the part where I thought I blocked it with wax completely isn't actually blocked completely. The dye seeped into the thin layer of the wax. Even so, fortunately, it doesn't look as bad because of the dark colors used (black and dark brown). It actually creates a cool effect (see the picture on the right)
• On the tablecloth, there are also some parts that should've been white but because the wax applied was so thin it detached during the dying process and got colored in (see the picture on the right)
• There should be repetitions in the ornaments because if not, it will look weird. It will look like a mistake has been done instead.
• When applying wax to the cloth, the lines should be thick so that it can be visible in the final result. The lines that I thought would look very thick when I was still applying wax on the cloth  turned out to look normal at the end.
• I shouldn't feel hopeless for my 2m cloth because like my tablecloth it turned out to look better than expected. So, I should not assume that my 2m Batik cloth will turn out horrible. Instead, I should focus on learning from the previous mistakes, improving and giving my best.

Batik: 18th of Dec. '13

• What I did today:
• Continue applying wax using canting on the 2m cloth
• What happened:
• The 2m cloth is dyed into a light blue dye
• How I felt:
• Bored and frustrated because the process of applying wax never ends
• Confused because I didn't know how else to decorate the cloth 
• What I encountered today:
• The owner of the Batik place who is also the father of my supervisor advised me to add some more ornaments because my 2m cloth at that point looked really plain and uninteresting
• What I have to do:
• Formulate an idea on how to fill up the blank places on the cloth. Come up with some more ornaments to put on the cloth but since the cloth has been dyed I cannot make the new ornaments multicolor. 

Batik: 11th of Dec. '13

• What I did today:
• Continue applying wax using canting on the 2m cloth
• "Erasing" the unwanted wax on the 2m cloth by putting water on the area where the unwanted wax is in, attach a hot iron on the wax on the cloth, rub the wax off the cloth (using detergent if necessary)
• How I felt:
• Interested because today is the first time for me to try to "erase" the wax from the cloth
• Devastated because "erasing" the wax from the cloth is harder and more time consuming than to apply wax
• What I think about the activity:
• I think today's activity is important because after all the mistakes that I made I think it is necessary for me to fix some
• Today's activity was important because it teaches me a different skill, different than the previous ones I have learned. Slowly I'm understanding all the steps needed to make Batik, which is important because I should learn something wholly and not partly.
• What I learned from the activity and how this learning (for example, a change of perspective) might apply more widely.
• It is harder and more time consuming to erase wax than to apply wax on the cloth. This teaches me to be more careful and serious when doing something. I should not depend on the ability to erase and redo what I did. I should not underestimate the first step of a process. Even in my classes at school, I should not underestimate and do poorly in rough drafts because it is better to start right and finish right.

Batik: 4th of Dec. '13

• What I did today:

• Continue applying wax on the 2m cloth using canting
• How I felt and what I thought about the activity:
• Today's activity was infuriating because I did the same activity as I did before (nothing new) and I kept on facing the same problem (wax accidentally dripping to the cloth). Even though I tried to push back the part of the cloth that is underneath the part that I am trying to apply wax on, doing that is time consuming, complicated and sometimes doesn't even help.
• At some points I was so stressed out because the wax kept dripping from the bottom of the canting to the cloth, making the patterns on the cloth not neat and full of unwanted drops of wax
• Today's activity was quite boring because I did the same thing that I did previously
• What I perceive:
• Do Batik artists feel bored because they are stuck on doing the same routine everyday?
• What the activity means to me and what the value of the activity was:
• Valuable because I get to experience the life of being Batik artist, including the moments when they feel bored and tired of making Batik.
• What I learned from the activity:

• I learned that the wax usually drips from the space between the bronze plate and the wooden handle of the canting. When I take the wax with the canting, the wax creates a small puddle in the space between the bronze plate and the wooden handle, which results to it dripping undesirably to the cloth. So next time, I should pay more attention to that part of the canting before getting the canting near the cloth.
• After all the frustration I encountered when making Batik, I now appreciate Batik artists and Batik Art more because I now know that Batik artists have to be very skilled, careful and most importantly patient.