A detail of a rare Javanese Batik in the American Museum of Natural History, New York
Detail of a Javanese Sarong. Property of A. B. Lewis
Some means of keeping the wax hot must be produced. Anything that will hold the wax at an even temperature will do, an electric stove, gas burner, or alcohol burner. A bowl of wax may be set in the top of a tea-kettle of boiling water and will remain hot enough to use for half an hour without reheating the water. All danger of burning the wax is eliminated by keeping the wax in a bowl set in a pan of water. If the water is kept just below the boiling point, that will give sufficient heat.
In covering a large space, it is sometimes better to begin waxing in the center and working outward toward the edge.
When the woman is ready to start her work, she sketches in the main outlines and more complicated parts of the design with charcoal; then she hangs the cloth over the little upright frame and sits down on a little mat before her work. She fills her tjanting with hot wax by means of the cocoanut-shell spoon, and, holding the cloth in her left hand, draws the design in with the tjanting by resting the tjanting lightly on the cloth or moving it gently around the outline. The small parts of the design are generally done without first drawing the design in charcoal. The cotton swab is used as a brush to wax the larger places.
The more we study the designs of the Javanese the more we realize the influence of their tools. The dots on leaves and flowers, the use of the light outline, the kind of line, the beautiful line designs used—all have been worked out with this characteristic tool and in certain ways are suggested by it.
After one side of the cloth is waxed, a good piece will be turned over and the design very carefully followed on the back. In doing this there are generally small differences in design between the back and front, which give one a means of determining whether a piece is real Batik or a print. After waxing all parts of the design not to be dyed with the first color, the piece of goods is ready to be dyed. This work is done by men. The dye is, of course, used cold, and to render it permanent the cloth must be left in the dye for several days; in the case of indigo often as long as two weeks. When removed from the dye the cloth is first hung out in the air until the color is oxidized or “fixed.” The wax is then removed by steeping in hot water and is saved for use again.