History
Batik (là rǎn 蜡染) is a wax-resisting dyeing technique used on textile. Chinese Batik is also called La Ran (là rǎn 蜡染) in China. Research shows batik originates from ancient China. It was then called La Xie (là xié 腊缬). As early as in the Qin (qín cháo 秦朝) and Han Dynasties (hàn cháo汉朝), people in southwestern minority regions of China, finding that wax can be prevented from dyeing (rǎn 染), proficiently mastered the craft of batik.
They used bees wax (là 蜡) and worm wax as material for preventing dyeing. There is an interesting story about how the batik was invented in Guizhou province (guì zhōu shěng 贵州省). The story relates that long, long ago, there was a girl living in a stone village called Anshun (ān shùn 安顺), now a city in Guizhou Province. She was fond of dyeing white cloth blue and purple. One day, while she was working, a bee happened to alight on her cloth.
After she took away the bee, she found there was a white dot left on the cloth, which looked very pretty. Her finding led to the use of wax in dyeing. By the time of the Dong Han Dynasty (dōng hàn 东汉), the batik skill was rather mature.
By the Xi Jin Dynasty (xī jìn 西晋), a dozen of color batik products could be produced. In the Tang Dynasty (táng cháo 唐朝), batik prevailed. The batik skill has been passed on generation after generation in the minority regions of Guizhou province and it has been spread widely across different regions.
Features
Design of traditional Guizhou batik is based on realism. The artistic language is simple, pure, straightforward and powerful. Especially, its design pattern is free from confinement of details. Bold variation and exaggeration are employed. Such variation and exaggeration are out of the simple but wide imagination and is full of charms. Batik designs are quite rich and colorful. Most of them are taken from actual life or stories, typical of the traditional culture.
DyeingMaterials
Fabrics: Natural or vegetable fiber fabrics, such as cotton, linen and silk, are the ones to use for batik. Charcoal or pencil: for making a preliminary sketch. Wax: Wax can be used from candles or beeswax. Boiler: for melting wax. Brass knife: to move the melted wax to fill designs. Cold water: to dye and fix the wax.
Procedure
The main process of batik making is delicate: first draw some designs or contours of images of a flower, bird, fish or insect on a piece of white cloth, then use a special brass knife to scoop melted wax to fill in those designs or contours as it hardens on the cotton cloth. The cloth is immersed completely in a jar of indigo dye bath so that the unwaxed parts take on color.
The dyed cloth is boiled to melt off the wax and to leave clear patterns in white on a blue ground. Since wax is easy to crack, the dye penetrates fine cracks naturally formed in the solidified wax, leaving hair-thin blue lines on the undyed white designs and enhancing the charm of the final product.
