No grey was used in the panel, therefore after the filling in of the cracks, the piece was ready for the fifth bath. This was the gold used for the foreground, and it also makes the high-lights in the leaves and in the tree-trunks. This gold was obtained by mixing yellow, orange and blue, with the yellow as the dominant colour. Temperature, 110°. Time, 40 minutes. The sixth bath was the same gold solution, strengthened up with blue but without the addition of any more orange or yellow. This colour was used in the leaves, some parts of the trees, the wings of the parrot and the solid colour of the skirt. Temperature, 110°. Time, 60 minutes.
The seventh dipping was red (roccelline). This colour was used pure and over the blueish gold of the previously dyed colours, it appeared a deep rich red, almost a bordeau. The turban, the vase, parts of the parrot’s wings, the flowers in the foreground and the borders at the top and bottom of the panel are all in this tone. Temperature, 110°. Time, 50 minutes. After waxing all these parts, the other covered parts were inspected once more and all damaged places and objectionable cracks repaired; this completed, the panel was ready for the eighth and final bath, black.
At this stage the only parts of the whole design that were not covered in wax, were, the sky, a small part of the turban, the two panthers and the three little birds in the centre foreground.
The black was started pure, at a temperature of about 90°, and the piece remained in this bath about an hour; it was then taken out, the temperature brought up to 110°, blue added to the solution and the panel again dipped for another hour. The blue was added in order to improve the tone of the black. A solid blue-black was obtained in this way in place of the rusty black that would have been the result of dyeing straight black over the red. After the required intensity of tone had been reached, the piece was well rinsed and dried, preparatory to dipping in gasoline to remove the wax.
The making of this piece took about four weeks, exclusive of the time taken to prepare the original sketch or the full-size cartoon.
About five pounds of pure bees-wax was used to cover all the surfaces, and fifteen gallons of gasoline were necessary to clean the piece. This is not surprising when one realizes the size of the panel, which was eight feet high and thirteen feet four inches wide; in all, 15,360 square inches.
INDEX
- A
- Acids, [70]
- Application of design, [50]
- C
- Clean outline, [54]
- Colour groups, [64]
- Colour relation, [73]
- Composition of colour, the, [69]
- “Crackle,” [37], [62]
- D
- Difference in methods, [2]
- Different kinds of tjantings, [19]
- Dijesselhof, [27]
- Dutch artists of fame, [25]
- Dyes, [40]
- Dyes and dye manufacturers, [70]
- Dye tubs, [41]
- E
- European use of batik, [29]
- Extracting colour, [66]
- F
- Fabrics, [41]
- Folding material, [51]
- G
- Gasoline, [56]
- Gasoline economy, [58]
- H
- Handling the tjanting, [54]
- Head-dress, [4]
- Heating apparatus, [39]
- History, [24]
- J
- Javanese costume, [3]
- Javanese design, [5]
- K
- Kains, [3]
- L
- Lebeau, [27]
- M
- Matching colours, [72]
- N
- Native industry, [13]
- Native process, [15]
- P
- Painting in colours, [63]
- Precautions, [57]
- Preparing brushes, [36]
- Preparation of material, [50]
- Preventing the wax from sticking, [53]
- Price of native tjanting, [20], [44]
- Primary and secondary colours, [69]
- R
- Redrawing of design, [52]
- Removing stain, [40]
- Rewaxing, [62]
- Rinsing, [61]
- S
- Slendang, [4]
- Streaks in dyeing, [61]
- T
- Temperature of dye-bath, [59]
- Tertiary colours, [71]
- Tjantings, [32]
- Tjaps, [7]
- U
- Use of brush, [36]
- Use of too much dye, the, [60]
- W
- Wax mixtures, [37]
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs and outside quotations. In versions of this eBook that support hyperlinks, the page references in the List of Illustrations lead to the corresponding illustrations.