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