Pekalongan design

Most of these batiks were sarongs, perhaps because Dutch settlers found them easier to to wear. In this group of batiks we find the buketan motifs, depicting flowers and fruits thet grew in Holland, like chrysanthemums and grapes, and flowers arrangements in European style.

Solo design

Solo was one of the two sultanates, with all the traditions and customs of their courts, and the center of Hindu-Javanese culture.

The Kraton (or court) was not only the residence of the kings, but also the center of government, religion and culture.this was reflected in the art of the region, especially in its batiks: in the motifs as well as in the colors, and its special rules governing the wearing of batik. In solo there were special rules about wearing batik. These had to do with- the social position of the wearer

- the occasion on which the batik was worn or used, in connection with the meaning and hope or wish symbolized by the motif.

Yogyakarta design

Yogyakarta the capital city of the most powerful and respected Kingdom of Java, is also at the heart of the Batik art.

All the old Traditions and customs are observed, as well as in Solo, and one can still find many symbols that are related to Hindu-Javanese culture.

The combination of motifs in Yogya batik is unique, and there is a tendency to combine a number of large geometric motifs.

Foreign influences

Because of Indonesia's location on the trade route between North and South as well as from West to East, the North coast of Java was often visited by foreign vessels.
It results in a lively exchange of a variety of goods including ceramics and silks from China and the cinde or silk with the patola motif from the west of India.The foreign art and culture were absorbed and fused with the existing javanese one, resulting in new works of art with their unique beauty.Merchants from all over the world came to the Indonesian archipelago: Chinese, Indians, Portuguese, Arabs, Dutch, and British.

Technics

Finely detailed designs are first drawn freehand with a pencil on the textile. Then hot liquid wax is applied.

Here above, a Javanese woman applying wax in the intricately involved patterns with a canting (tjanting), a small copper container with a long slender spout. From time to time she blows on the tip of the canting to secure an easy flow of the wax. Areas not slated for coloring are filed with the wax. the cloth is then passed through a vat of dye.The wax is removed with hot water, scraped from the portions of the dried material still to be dyed.

Next, other areas are waxed over. this is repeated during each phase of the coloring process, up to four or more times, until the overall pattern and effect are achieved.

A canting with more than a spout (it can be up to seven) is used for patterns with dot forms.

Basically, as an art, batiking is painting. The canting is used to produce the picture; its size depending on the type and degree of fineness of the lines or points desired

Origins of Batik

The word "batik" is Indonesian in origin, even if the concept was known by Egyptians and Indians.

It is known to be more than a millenium old, and there are evidences that cloth decorated through some form of resist technique was in use in the early centuries AD in several West African, Middle-Eastern and Asian communities.The word Batik is originally an Idonesian-Malay word and means to dot .This art of textile is spread in the hindu and malay world, but Indonesia is certainly the heart of the Batik.This way of painting and coloring textile has reached its higher degree of excellence in the Island of Java , in cities like Solo, Yogyakarta, Pekalongan or Cirebon. From Java this 'batik' cloth was exported to other islands of the archipelago and to the Malay peninsula.

During the past two or three centuries batik has become one of the principal means of expression of the spiritual and cultural values of Southeast Asia.