Batik

While learning about new textile techniques in art school and practising them i discovered batik was the one I was probably best at and absolutely loved experimenting with. The result swould often even surprise me! My favourite Batik creation is the screen I made for a project in the picture above. It features chinese temples. Since it is an oriental technique I felt an oriental theme would do well with it.

Many people would find this technique hard to work on as it requires alot of skill and practise to handle wax ...I realised that after burning my hands many times and also by usage of different kinds of tools to apply it (like brushes, tjanting etc) but once you have mastered the art of handling wax then there is no end to the different kinds of things you can come up with using this technique. There is tons of work being done with this technique all over the world. The photos featured in this blog were taken by a friend in a Sri Lankan Batik workshop. You can see in these pictures the process in its differnet stages. When speaking of the history of Batik one can't tell extacly where it originated from some say India and some say it originated from Java, Indonesia. The work "batik" (bateek) however, means "wax written" and its simplest description would be that its a way of producing a pattern on a fabric by making the design on part of the fabric with melted wax and dyeing the cloth. The wax which acts as a resist here would then prevent the dye from penetrating into the design and hence produce interesting results.

People have different formulae for the composition of wax. It is basically a mixture of Parafin and beeswax wax in a specific ration which helps the wax in holding the cloth and not give way to the dye. My favourite mode of handling it is basically with a brush but i tried my hand at the tjanting tool as well. As shown in the above picture it is a tool especially designed to hold small amounts of wax and keep it warm while let out only a streak of it through the attached snout. Interesting.! and also sound easy but i couldn't really manage to keep the wax constantly flowing from mine so I had to stick to the same ol' sable hair brush (which by the way is the best one to work with....don't even think of using a nylon one!)

A vat of melted wax

"Cold dyes" are basically used for this technique as your usual hot dyes would melt the wax. The concentration of the dye in the water and how strong the color is, also effects the design. It is often the brighter colored designs that look best in Batik.

A Batik artist in the above picture shows pretty good skills with tjanting.

Usually you will find Batik used in apparels and home textiles and also being sold as souvenirs. In SriLanka the batik designs usually depict the culture and their beliefs.

It is usually the brighter colors that make the most impact in batik designs.

A Batik shops selling different products.

Depiction of Holy dieties is most common their designs

The "Batik" technique is appealing to many but can be tried by only those who have the patience and don't give up too quickly as it require many tries before coming up with something you like!

For starters, the link http://www.craftown.com/batik.htm can prove to be helpful as it provides details of different steps of the process.

The book "Batik Inspiration" is so far the best book i've come across on this topic as it feature the most beautiful and inspiring designs by top Malaysian Batik designer and three traditional techniques on this process. You can purchase it online at http://www.batikinspirations.com/order.htm

Note: Apart from the first picture which shows a Batik screen made and photographed by me the rest of the pictures have been taken by a friend who visited Srilanka recently. You can view more of his photography at http://scorpion2kpk.deviantart.com/.

Mohatta:The pink palace

It was a rainy sunday afternoon when I had decided to grab my camera and head towards 7,Hatim Alvi Road,Old Clifton. Once there, the giant facade of the Mohatta Palace greeted me like an old friend. Having come here on many occasions I am quite familiar with probably every corner of the place. As a child ,during my school years when the palace was newly restored and opened to the public as a museum, i was awed by its grandeur and beauty. It was there that I discovered my love for the Eastern archictecture ,having previously only been familiar with the colonial buildings of Saddar. From then onwards I would frequent the place on numerous

occasions. Sometimes on my own or sometimes bringing foreign relatives. However this time I was well equipped with my camera and went about clicking.

The history of this place dates back to the year 1926(some sources also say 1935), the year it was completed. Built by a rich hindu businessman Shivrattan Chandrattan Mohatta from Marwar,India as his summer abode. Little did he know that after only two decades of savouring it he would have to make a hasty retreat home where he belonged leaving his palace alone beside the sea , now in another country.
The Mohatta Palace , a Rajput style building, was designed by architect Agha Ahmed Hussain. The Pink Jodhpur stone used in it, brought all the way from Rajasthan, gives it its unique pinkish tinge. The Palace has nine domes and one temple made for the worhsip of Lord Shiva. Its arches have spandrels made of skillfully carved stones and Bullustrades adorned with floral motifs. The windows have blue and green glass and the brackets have florals patterns engraved on them, all a reminiscence of the mughal art.

Apart from the museum exhibits being an attraction, once you are inside you cant stop Ooh-ing and Aah-ing at the Teak wood interior,the intricately carved pillars,the mosaic flooring , door knobs and handles. There are certain areas that are however out-of-bounds for the ordinary public and my wild imagination doesnt stop me from conjuring tales in my mind about its hidden portions and I would often end up poking my nose into the basement vents opening outside. This was specially after I discovered while researching the Palace that it has a secret tunnel built in it leading all the way to a hindu temple less than a kilometre away. Apparently it was built to safely transport the wife of Shivratan Chandratan Mohatta to the temple for worship. Some sources especially the museum guides have claimed that the palace could be haunted owing to the strange activities occuring inside it.

Haunted or not the palaces' grandeur and glamour are enough to attract the attention of tourists and locals alike. There is certain ambience of peace and serenity once you enter the premises,one which transports you to another place entirely away from the Metro's busy sights and sounds.

The failing textile export of value-added goods

My concern for writing this entry is basically about the falling status of our value-added textile goods. You see as a designer our concern is with value addition. From choosing the color of the yarn to the final packaging everything depends on how the designer wants it done.Thefore any further developments taking place after the formation of yarn is called value-addition. This includes research, innovations and development in technical textiles, yarn quality, clothing products, process performance, fabric finishing, coloration technology, cuts, stitching, packaging and marketing.
When we study the economy of the least developed and small developing countries what we see is that they have built a huge dependency on the textile sector which often accounts for more than 90% of industrial exports and more than 50% of total employment. Due to increased global competition, many sectors within the textile industry are increasing production efficiency by Value-addition which can bring significant advancements in the textile sector and market supremacy In Pakistan the export of raw materials has been a great contributor to the economy and responsible for a generating a huge amount of revenue. However, Pakistan is fast becoming the major exporter of “semi-finished” goods but what we need to understand is that the export of value-added goods plays a key factor in improving the economy of the country. In every area of the economy value-addition is always advantageous to the exporter as well as the government. The reason for it can be understood in this way that when an exporter exports a raw good to any buyer , the buyer, after the further value-addition will sell the product using the right strategy and marketing and hence get much more out of it . In this case the raw material costs much cheaper to the buyer and gives more gains, even though what must be remembered here is that the strength of the finished product lies in the raw materials involved in its making. This is something our exporters don’t realize presently and should follow the example of mills like Afroze and Gul-Ahmed which started off as horizontal units i.e. only spinning or weaving, but however moved forward with time to develop in to well established vertical units catering to importers looking for value-added goods. Apart from this another important factor the exporters and the Government should keep in mind is that with the huge amount of competition existing in the Post-quota environment, the buyers of Raw goods who are obviously only concerned with their own interest, will vest their investments in who ever is providing the least cost and better quality as well as other things. Where a cash crop is concerned it is something given to us by nature. If our future hangs in the life of that particular crop then we are probably putting too much at stake. The point I am trying to make here is that with increased global warming, a very serious issue in the whole world right now, the weather conditions are getting unpredictable and natural disasters can strike anywhere at any time, like hurricanes and storms. My thought here might seem to far-fetched to many but what we need o remember here is that our Government is presently taking steps for long term planning in textiles. But what if , say in 15 years the weather conditions are completely unsuitable for the crops then where do you think our future lies? The whole concept of Value-addition represents to me an idea of being more and more independent in terms of our needs. If we face a crop deficit in the future years our foreign buyers will turn their backs on us in no time. Then where do we think our economy will go? What will rescue us from this mishap? This of course would be value-addition which by that time should be strong enough so that we can rely on our own manufactured goods and brands, or even be at a position to be a buyer of raw goods ourselves.