In the use of dyes it is necessary to arrange the colour ran_Batiks, and how to make them

into two groups, which we will call the “group of the reds” and the

“group of the blues.” The “group of the reds,” starts with yellow and

its variations and hues, then red and variations of red, and lastly

purple. The main colours of the “blue group” are yellow, green, blue,

and purple. This division of colour will be readily understood by

those who have some knowledge of the subject. It will be clear to them

that red can be dyed over yellow, and purple can be dyed over red in

its turn, whilst it would be impossible to produce a good blue or

green on top of a previously dyed red. This same idea holds good in

the group of the blues.

“Spring,” the panel illustrated facing page 64, designed by Bertram

Hartman and executed by him and the writer, is one of the early batiks

reds were used in the making of it. It was dipped eight times, the

original white of the material making the ninth colour. The waxing of

this piece was done entirely with the brush, no tjanting being used,

and gives a fair idea of the fine work that can be done with the

brush, if one considers that the size of the original panel is only

about forty by sixty inches.

[Sidenote: EXTRACTING COLOUR]

For some designs it may be necessary to use both red and green in the

same piece; in this case the colours of the “blue group” should first

be dyed, until the darkest shade called for in the colour scheme has

been obtained and then the colour can be extracted from the places

where the shades that belong in the “red group” are demanded. With the

strong colour extracted, it is possible to get the opposing colours

quite successfully, starting in with the lightest tones and working

through to the darkest in the manner already described.

This bleaching can be done with a solution of ammonia or washing soda.

Both these mediums have to be used with the greatest care as either

of them will eat into the wax to a certain extent and consequently

allow the next colour to penetrate and affect the previous dyes. It is

wise, therefore, to inspect the waxed off parts very carefully before

re-dyeing and retouch the places where the wax has been destroyed. A

good plan is to keep a strict eye on the wax in any case, in order to

prevent surprise attacks by dye on the material through places that

have become weakened. Naturally the wax is likely to suffer when the

fabric has to be handled as much as it has to be, when being dyed a

number of colours.

Some people, when they wish to have opposing colours, such as blue

and red, in the same design, resort to the native method of removing

the wax entirely after each dipping and re-covering the parts already

dyed. This takes a great deal longer and the wax needs very careful

dissolving, as the fresh dye will not “take” unless every particle of

it is removed from the fabric and even then it is not easy to get a

successful dipping as the gasoline used for the dissolving is more or

less greasy and of course grease has no affinity with water. White

lines, or lines the colour of the original fabric, are apt to show

too, if one has overstepped the boundary when covering up the first

colour, prior to the second waxing.

When dyeing a batik with one colour over the other, the second colour

dyed will always be affected by the tone of the first dipping; for

instance, suppose your material is dyed yellow the first time, and

blue the second, the fabric will not come out as a true blue, but

according to the strength of the blue dye, will be either light green,

green blue, or if an intense blue has been used, a blue-green will

result. It will be found that similar variations will occur when red

is dyed over yellow, which will give shades of orange and gradations

of purple will be obtained when red is dyed over blue.

[Illustration: BY FOLLOWING THE ARROWS IN THE ABOVE CHART IT WILL

EASILY BE SEEN WHICH COLOURS SHOULD BE MIXED TOGETHER IN ORDER TO

PRODUCE A GIVEN COLOUR. THE PROPORTION OF DYE USED IS INDICATED BY

THE CONNECTING LINES; THE SHORTEST LINE SHOWS WHICH COLOUR SHOULD

PREDOMINATE] A careful study of the accompanying colour mixing chart

will give the reader an idea of the way various shades are produced

from the primary colours.

[Sidenote: THE COMPOSITION OF COLOUR]

The three primary colours are red, yellow and blue.

[Sidenote: PRIMARY AND SECONDARY COLOURS]

Red mixed with yellow produces orange.

Yellow mixed with blue produces green.

Blue mixed with red produces purple.

The orange, green and purple are known as the secondary colours and

by mixing either the three primary or the three secondary colours

together, grey is obtained. It would therefore be quite possible to

dye successfully, with a stock consisting of only the three primary

colours, but it certainly would be a waste of time.

For several years the writer worked with five colours, red, blue,

yellow, brown and black, and with these produced the various tones

necessary in a multi-coloured batik. It is, however advisable to have

a few more shades in stock; and with the following selection it is

possible to make the widest range of colour in a very short while,

and the writer has found that the best results are obtained with the

following:

[Sidenote: DYES AND DYE MANUFACTURERS]

Roccelline 2578J, Natl. Aniline & Chemical Co., Inc., 21 Burling St.,

N. Y. C.

Orange extra, 2578J, Natl. Aniline & Chemical Co., Inc., 21 Burling

St., N. Y. C.

Azo flavine, Bachmeier & Co., 438 West 37th St., N. Y.

Chenoline yellow, Bachmeier & Co., 438 West 37th St., N. Y.

Victoria green, Dicks David Co., 299 Broadway, N. Y.

Acid green, Bachmeier & Co., 438 W. 37th St., N. Y.

Indigotine, Bachmeier & Co., 438 W. 37th St., N. Y.

Oxaline black, H. H. Metz & Co., 122 Hudson St., N. Y.

Alphanol brown B, Natl. Aniline & Chemical Co., Inc.

Magenta, H. H. Metz & Co., 122 Hudson St., N. Y.

[Sidenote: ACIDS]

Most dyes used in batiking are set with either sulphuric or acetic

acid. The above list is all used with the latter, which is preferable,

as sulphuric is very dangerous; the slightest trace left in the

fabric will, after a while, rot the fibre. Acetic acid does not harm

the silk, but with some dyes it is too strong and will change the

colour. If this should be the case, either tartaric or oxalic acid can

be used. In most cases the acid is added to the bath of the diluted

dye rather than to the concentrated solution, the exception being

in the case of the Victoria green and the magenta; these have to be

dissolved in acetic acid before they are put in the water. Acetic acid

is obtainable from any druggist.

Some dyes are set with salt and it is used with many of the household

dyes which are always sold with directions on the package. When

buying direct from the manufacturers, their chemists will always give

the necessary information as to which acids should be used with the

various colours.

This book is not intended to be a technical treatise and readers who

wish to know more of the chemistry of dyeing are advised to study

Prof. Chas. E. Pellew’s “Dyes and Dyeing.”

[Sidenote: TERTIARY COLOURS]

The tertiary colours are all in the brown tones and the following

table may prove a useful guide.

Blue + orange + yellow produce gold.

Red + green + blue produce blue-brown.

Yellow + purple + red produce red-brown.

Green + orange + red produce orange-brown.

Orange + blue + purple produce bronze.

Purple + yellow + green produce green-brown.

It would not be possible to give weights and measures of the different

colours, as such specks of colour will change the tone, but any one

wanting to mix colours for matching will find that it takes very

little time to get a colour once he has decided what the nearest

colour is, on the colour chart. By studying this, it is easy to find

out what colour should be added to produce any given shade.

[Sidenote: MATCHING COLOURS]

The most difficult problem in dyeing is the matching of colours when

the materials are different. For instance it is not easy, on account

of the difference in surface, to match a charmeuse to a given plush or

velvet.

For beginners it is always best to start experimental dyeing by

daylight, unless one has a very white light, as the yellow of

artificial light takes all, or very nearly all the yellow out of

a colour, with the result that where one at night has a beautiful

blue, this blue will turn to green in the daytime and lavender will

invariably turn grey.

[Sidenote: COLOUR RELATION]

Yellow is sometimes rather a difficult colour to manage, that is to

say that if, in a batik the original white of the material is to be

used as a background for a design in yellow, it will be very difficult

to see where the white finishes and the yellow of the decoration

begins. While the material is wet the design will show, but when it is

dry, by some mysterious trick of the eye, it has apparently vanished;

it is therefore advisable to use a second colour to offset either the

white or the yellow.

If, however, a second colour is not desired in the batik and

consequently have nothing to offset the yellow, the following hint

will save the situation; a little blue or a little red, mixed with the

yellow solution, will enable the yellow to hold its own on the white

ground. The slightest touch of either of these colours will have the

desired effect.

When the colour scheme calls for a yellow and a blue as separate

colour units in the design, and the blue is wanted after the yellow

dipping, the effect of the yellow on the blue (which produces green)

can be diminished by dyeing first, a very weak solution of magenta,

over the yellow. Rinse the material thoroughly, then proceed to dip in

the blue dye-bath. In doing this, it is necessary to be very careful

with the magenta, as it is a very strong colour and an overdose will

be liable to produce a purple instead of a blue. Of course, if the

original yellow is very intense it is not possible to neutralize it in

this way and the bleaching process will have to be used, in order to

obtain the blue.

[Illustration:

Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3

SUCCESSIVE STAGES IN THE MAKING OF A BATIK]

And this is another good thing to remember in making a multi-coloured

batik which is to have white as part of the colour arrangement. It is

always advisable to dye the original white of the fabric some very

pale shade, either grey, light tan, pale blue or even pink. If the

material is used in its original pure white state, a pleasing effect

will never result, as the white will always stand out as a glaring

hard spot when it is next to colours that are dyed over each other and

consequently blend harmoniously. This preliminary all-over dyeing will

“tie in” the white and make it in key with the rest of the scheme.

The series of photographs shown here represents the successive stages

of a batik in the making. The original fabric is white silk and the

first step is the pouncing on, of the design with charcoal, which

is then strengthened with pencil. With the tjanting this outline is

then waxed (Fig. 1). The spots which are to be white in the completed

design, are now filled in with the brush and the material is given

its first dyeing, yellow (Fig. 2). Now all the parts that are to stay

yellow, are covered off with the wax; when this waxing is completed

the material is dipped in light blue, which being dyed over yellow,

will produce light green (Fig. 3). After drying, all that has to stay

green is covered off with wax (Fig. 4). The final dipping is in red.

The last picture (Fig. 5) is the completed piece after the wax has

been removed by gasolining; this photograph distinctly shows, in its

variations of tone, the different colours that were used.

[Illustration:

Fig. 4 Fig. 5

SUCCESSIVE STAGES IN THE MAKING OF A BATIK]

THE VALUE OF A DYE RECORD

A dye record is an invaluable asset to a batiker; it is very little

trouble to make and the time spent on it will easily be saved when

future work is to be speeded up or samples are being made. A record

book will prove its value in many ways, particularly if the batiks

made are liable to be re-ordered, as for instance, when gowns are

decorated for the trade, or if the making of one batik leads to a

demand for a second, which perhaps is wanted with the same colour

effects although not the same design. It is a good plan, therefore, to

leave an extra strip of material on the piece that is to be batiked,

or to pin a piece to the fabric which is to be decorated and let it go

through all the different baths and processes, each time taking off a

small sample of the new colour to be pasted in the record book.

DESIGN, “SORCERESS.”—DESIGNER, A. CRISP. BATIKED BY P. MIJER AND A.

CRISP.

DATE, JANUARY 2ND, 1918.

===+=======+=======+======+=======+=======+==============================

===+=======+=======+======+=======+=======+==============================

1 |White |105-110|Yellow|20 min.|Acetic |

---+-------+-------+------+-------+-------+------------------------------

2 |Yellow | 110 |Salmon|20 min.|Acetic |

---+-------+-------+------+-------+-------+------------------------------

3 |Flesh | 110 |Light |15 min.|Acetic |

---+-------+-------+------+-------+-------+------------------------------

4 |Grey- | 105 |Strong|20 min.| |Slight crackle obtained by

---+-------+-------+------+-------+-------+------------------------------

4a| Blue | 100 |Bleach| 15-20 |Ammonia|The batik is dipped

| | | | min. | | in ammonia and rinsed

---+-------+-------+------+-------+-------+------------------------------

5 |Grey | 110 |Gold |40 min.|Acetic |

---+-------+-------+------+-------+-------+------------------------------

6 |Gold | 110 |Blue |60 min.|Acetic |

---+-------+-------+------+-------+-------+------------------------------

7 |Bluish-| 110 |Red |50 min.|Acetic |

---+-------+-------+------+-------+-------+------------------------------

9 |Bordeau| 90 |Black |60 min.| |Blue added to improve tone

| | 110 |Blue |60 min.| | of black.

---+-------+-------+------+-------+-------+------------------------------

---+-------+-------+------+-------+-------+------------------------------

[Illustration: THE USE OF BATIK FOR COSTUME]

As will be seen from the record quoted here, every detail is marked

down—the temperature, time of dyeing, price of material and where it

was bought, in fact any little item that may be of help later. A full

explanation of this sample page may be of service to some readers.

The record shows the process of dyeing in the making of the

“Sorceress” panel, shown facing page 78. The silk used for this panel

was a very heavy Japanese crepe and the design was worked out in nine

colours. That is to say, it was dipped eight times, the ninth being

the original white of the silk. The only places where this original

white shows is in a few little flowers in the branches of the trees,

and these, on account of the many times the piece was dyed, have so

much crackle in them that they do not appear as pure white.

The piece was first dyed a very light creamy yellow colour; this tone

being composed of yellow, a speck of blue and a speck of orange. The

mixture of these colours produces gold and a much diluted solution

results in a straw yellow. The temperature for this bath was between

105° and 110° Fahr., and the time for dyeing about twenty minutes.

After having been rinsed and dried, the parts of the design that were

wanted the straw colour were covered in wax, the largest surface being

the scarf of the Sorceress.

The panel was now ready for the second dipping. This was a light

salmon pink, which over the straw-yellow gave the flesh colour for

the face and body; this tone also appears in the light outline of the

smoke and clouds. This salmon colour was made of orange and yellow

mixed and was used very light. Temperature 110°; time, about 20

minutes.

The third bath was blue. This was used in the mountain in the

background and in some of the leaves in the foreground on the piece.

The blue was used pure, but not very strong. With the flesh colour,

this gave a greyish blue. Temperature 110°. Time 15 minutes.

[Illustration: “SORCERESS” BY ARTHUR CRISP AND PIETER MIJER]

The fourth colour was the same blue, only much stronger, and in this

the trees in the mountain, the outlines of the mountain and the stems

of the bigger leaves were dyed. The fabric was in this bath altogether

about 40 minutes. The first half of this period the temperature

of the dye was about 105° and was reduced to 90° for the last twenty

minutes. This difference in the temperature was made in order to make

the wax brittle and obtain a slight crackle to allow the penetration

of the colour.

The crackle effect was not desired all over the design, so a second

covering of wax was applied in some parts, after the material had been

thoroughly dried. The face and body of the figure, in particular,

were carefully gone over, as these parts had to remain as little as

possible affected by the darker colours.

The panel was now dipped in an ammonia bath to extract the colour from

the parts not covered by wax. This took from 15 to 20 minutes with a

temperature of 100° Fahr. When the colour in the fabric was reduced

to a light grey, the piece was transferred from the ammonia bath to a

tub of clear water at the same temperature, and rinsed thoroughly for

at least an hour, in order to remove every trace of the ammonia. After

drying, the whole panel was carefully gone over to close all undesired

cracks that had come during the colour extracting process; these were

mainly in the figure and the scarf.

No grey was used in the panel, therefore after the filling in of the

cracks, the piece was ready for the fifth bath. This was the gold used

for the foreground, and it also makes the high-lights in the leaves

and in the tree-trunks. This gold was obtained by mixing yellow,

orange and blue, with the yellow as the dominant colour. Temperature,

110°. Time, 40 minutes. The sixth bath was the same gold solution,

strengthened up with blue but without the addition of any more orange

or yellow. This colour was used in the leaves, some parts of the

trees, the wings of the parrot and the solid colour of the skirt.

Temperature, 110°. Time, 60 minutes.

The seventh dipping was red (roccelline). This colour was used pure

and over the blueish gold of the previously dyed colours, it appeared

a deep rich red, almost a bordeau. The turban, the vase, parts of

the parrot’s wings, the flowers in the foreground and the borders at

the top and bottom of the panel are all in this tone. Temperature,

110°. Time, 50 minutes. After waxing all these parts, the other

covered parts were inspected once more and all damaged places and

objectionable cracks repaired; this completed, the panel was ready for

the eighth and final bath, black.

At this stage the only parts of the whole design that were not covered

in wax, were, the sky, a small part of the turban, the two panthers

and the three little birds in the centre foreground.

The black was started pure, at a temperature of about 90°, and the

piece remained in this bath about an hour; it was then taken out,

the temperature brought up to 110°, blue added to the solution and

the panel again dipped for another hour. The blue was added in order

to improve the tone of the black. A solid blue-black was obtained in

this way in place of the rusty black that would have been the result

of dyeing straight black over the red. After the required intensity

of tone had been reached, the piece was well rinsed and dried,

preparatory to dipping in gasoline to remove the wax.

The making of this piece took about four weeks, exclusive of the time

taken to prepare the original sketch or the full-size cartoon.

About five pounds of pure bees-wax was used to cover all the surfaces,

and fifteen gallons of gasoline were necessary to clean the piece.

This is not surprising when one realizes the size of the panel, which

was eight feet high and thirteen feet four inches wide; in all, 15,360

square inches.

INDEX

Acids, 70

Application of design, 50

Clean outline, 54

Colour groups, 64

Colour relation, 73

Composition of colour, the, 69

“Crackle,” 37, 62

Difference in methods, 2

Different kinds of tjantings, 19

Dijesselhof, 27

Dutch artists of fame, 25

Dyes, 40

Dyes and dye manufacturers, 70

Dye tubs, 41

European use of batik, 29

Extracting colour, 66

Fabrics, 41

Folding material, 51

Gasoline, 56

Gasoline economy, 58

Handling the tjanting, 54

Head-dress, 4

Heating apparatus, 39

History, 24

Javanese costume, 3

Javanese design, 5

Kains, 3

Lebeau, 27

Matching colours, 72

Native industry, 13

Native process, 15

Painting in colours, 63

Precautions, 57

Preparing brushes, 36

Preparation of material, 50

Preventing the wax from sticking, 53

Price of native tjanting, 20, 44

Primary and secondary colours, 69

Redrawing of design, 52

Removing stain, 40

Rewaxing, 62

Rinsing, 61

Slendang, 4

Streaks in dyeing, 61

Temperature of dye-bath, 59

Tertiary colours, 71

Tjantings, 32

Tjaps, 7

Use of brush, 36

Use of too much dye, the, 60

Wax mixtures, 37

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs

and outside quotations. In versions of this eBook that support

hyperlinks, the page references in the List of Illustrations lead to

the corresponding illustrations.

Illustrations without captions have had a description added, this is

denoted with parentheses.

The index was not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page

references.

Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been

corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the

text and consultation of external sources.

Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added, when a

predominant preference was found in the original book.

Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text,

and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.

Pg 4: “kapale” replace by “kapala”

Pg 16: “houshold” replace by “household”

Pg 57: Added missing word “after” in the phrase “lighted match

immediately after the vessel containing the gasoline”

Pg 59: Removed duplicate “or” from “46° Centigrade or or 36° Reaumur”

In the use of dyes it is necessary to arrange the colour ranges