Yogyakarta Trip: Day 2

The next day, we started off with a trip to a place where they make hand-made batik. It was pretty amazing to see how it's made and the amount of human time and effort it takes, but I have to say you can definitely tell a difference between hand-made batik and the kind that is not.

First they have someone either draw/trace the design on the fabric or they use a copper stamp dipped in wax to print a design directly onto the fabric.

Then, someone actually goes over the design with a wax pen.

Then depending on how many dye colors they are using, they may dye the whole fabric or they may just hand-dye parts of the fabric. Regardless, there is a lot of hand-waxing, and hand-dyeing going on.

Finally, in order to get the wax off of the fabric they have to soak the fabric in super hot water if it is cotton, or if it is silk, they soak it in gasoline. I asked how they get the smell out of the silk and she said "we wash it a lot".

The finished product is amazing and I just love seeing these types of things because each one is really a unique piece of art. The workers there were all very sweet and just loved the kids. One funny thing that happened was when we arrived and we went to grab a translated pamphlet, the lady asked us if we wanted the Dutch translation. Honestly, it has never occurred to us that people might think that we are not from the U.S., but I guess the towhead thing can be a little confusing!