When I was studying textile design at Tama Art University in Tokyo some decades ago, my obsession was towards Katazome - Japanese technique of sticky rice paste resist dyeing with hand-cut paper stencil. Paper stencils are used repeatedly to make a repeating pattern. Jointing patterns until the patterns cover entire fabric was most mesmerizing thing.
When I started gathering ideas for HITOHA, stencil / stamp was the first element in my head. To find a good, skilled repeatable stamp artisan. Everything followed after.
I met Indonesian Batik for the first time on the family trip when I was little. We took a dye house tour and I still remember the excitement of walking through section to section in the smell of melted wax. Some workers quietly free hand drawing patterns on the fabric, other applying the wax with the copper stamp in constant rhythm.. witnessing beautiful patterns quickly spreading over the fabric by people's hands was fascinating. 27 years later, I came back to where I got inspired in my early age.
Batik is world-famous dyeing technique but please allow me to write down how amazing it is.
Batik is an Indonesian technique of wax resist dyeing, originated in central Java. It is either hand drawing with a tool called CANTING, or hand block printing wax with a copper stamp called CAP. Cap is made with different size of copper plates and dots (sticks) cut into small pieces and carefully bent and arranged to create thin lines, dots, or wide surfaces according to the design. Cap making requires great skill to follow the designs accurately. Every side of the cap has to match with the opposite side to make repeatable patterns. Cap itself is a beautiful piece of art. I sigh every time I see my design turns into a beautiful, shiny copper block.
When cap is made, it is passed to the hand block printing expert. Soaking the cap into the hot, melted wax, putting it onto the fabric and quickly repeating while matching the guide dots on each side of the cap, while making sure not to over stamp or making gaps.
To me, the charm of hand block printed textile is its imperfect perfection. When you look at the textile closely, you could spot the actual size/shape of cap hidden in the pattern and how it was jointed. You could see some part got more wax and some less. It is like a free hand illustration or calligraphy. Each textile gets own unique, lovely character that only human hands could give.