Imagine a fabric so artistically pleasing in design, so imbued with meaning, so adaptable that it can be worn, appropriately, to every occasion by anyone--young or old, male or female--or one so unique and beautiful that it is hung as fine art in a gallery.
In Indonesia, the magic material that lends itself to everything from wedding apparel to wall hangings, haute couture to bedcovers, is batik.
Considered an art form of great antiquity, batik is thought to be over a thousand years old. Its origins have been much debated. But if experts still do not agree where batik came from--China, India, Egypt, and Turkey are all considered possible sources--they do agree that the art of batik reached its highest form and finest hour in Central Java.
Today, Iwan Tirta is one of Indonesia's most recognized batik artists and designers. His designer collections of ready-made clothes are well-known, as are his boutiques, glitzy fashion shows, and fabric designs. He is often credited with helping to save Indonesia's batik industry. Even his critics admit he has worked for the past twenty-five years to bring Indonesian batik to the attention of the rest of the world.
An unlikely candidate for the distinction of batik savior, Mr. Tirta had originally studied law at the London School of Economics and Yale Law School. When he returned to Indonesia, it was supposed he would follow in the foot-steps of his father--a supreme court justice. But, to his friends' surprise and his family's dismay, Mr. Tirta became interested in the world of fashion, design, and art.
"It was quite a departure, and the family was horrified," Mr. Tirta remembers. "Of course, today…," he trails off with a small, satisfied smile.
His mother had a collection of old batiks. Intrigued, he began to study them, researching their designs and cataloguing them. He is fond of saying he rediscovered his heritage through this interest in the art and process of batik.
When people speak of fine batik, they are referring to batik tulis, or batik that is hand-drawn and hand-stenciled in molten wax and resist-dyed. Many believe, and Mr. Tirta is among them, that this type of batik is an art form that is becoming extinct. Its production is time consuming and tedious, requiring infinite patience, years of training, an inner eye for beauty, and a memory for design. There are only a handful of such artisans left--generally bespectacled old women, now bent from years of laboring over their demanding craft. It is a difficult art, and few young people are willing or capable of taking up the tools of batik tulis.
To create batik tulis, the craftsperson, usually a woman, draws a design freehand on white cloth. This design, which can be exceedingly intricate, is then painstakingly traced over with fine lines and drops of molten wax. She uses a special tool called a canting (chan-ting). A Javanese invention, it is basically a wax-filled pen that looks like a small pipe. It has a short bamboo handle with a brass bowl on the end that tapers downward to a tip. It is through this tip that the molten wax drips onto the cloth. Once the artist finishes tracing the pattern in wax on one
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