The render shows the wax craquelure, the signature of the resist.
- First documented
- Antiquity
- Origin
- Java, Maritime Southeast Asia, Indonesia
- Fiber
- cotton
- Weave
- wax-resist dyed, plain weave
- Family
- motifs
Plate No. 065 · pattern
Batik
Batik is pattern made with hot wax: the design is drawn onto finished cloth with a spouted pen called a canting or stamped with a copper block, the cloth is dyed, and the waxed areas resist, holding the old color. Repeated waxings and dye baths build multicolor designs. The signature veining of batik comes from the wax itself, which cracks in the dye bath and lets thin lines of color seep through, the craquelure this render shows. Javanese batik is the deepest tradition, inscribed by UNESCO in 2009, and where ikat patterns the threads before weaving, batik patterns the woven cloth.
Named for
From the Javanese, related to the word for dot or to write: batik is drawn on the cloth in wax.
In the record
- 2009Indonesian batik was inscribed by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.