THE CRAFTS 
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Dutch batik on linen pillow (the cracking of the wax, letting the color show through 
the cracks, is quite characteristic of batik dyeing.) 
THE BATIK 
Theo. Neuhuys 
THE art of "batiking", originally and characteristically 
Bast Indian, has now been practiced in Holland for some 
time. The principle of batiking is the application of wax 
to textiles or parchment, so that the parts covered by the 
wax will remain intact when the textile or parchment is 
steeped in the dye, and will show the original color after 
the wax has been removed (by melting, dissolving or 
scratching) . 
It is well known that the decoration of woven materials 
by means of the interweaving of threads of various colors, 
dyed before being used, is a very old process in Western 
countries. The application of a pattern to ready- woven 
materials, however, is of comparatively recent date, and 
it is not before the r; middle of the 17th century that we find 
mention of "print works," that is, the printing of textiles 
in colors by means of stamps covered with dyes. 
After languishing for a long time, this printing industry 
was revived during the 19th century, partly as a result of 
great improvement in the implements, partly because of 
the enormous progress made in chemistry, which allowed 
a number of new dyes to be adapted to practical use. In- 
deed it developed so rapidly and extensively that it went 
far beyond its original purpose, that of beautifying by 
decoration. Beauty was entirely overlooked for the sake 
of over-decoration. Bowers of roses have been printed 
on our curtains, while elephants in a mountain landscape, 
adorning the comforter on our bed, are supposed to watch 
over our night's rest. Quantities of these tasteless and 
senseless factory products are turned out every day, and 
even when the decoration is in better taste, these products 
always bear the indefinable character which is well ex- 
pressed by the contemptuous term "factory-made", 
and makes them so inferior to the products of the early 
periods of Industrial Art. Fortunately there are a few 
people, artists, who, always searching for beautiful, well 
thought out forms, for good proportions and combinations 
of color, bring thought, judgment and taste to whatever 
they produce, and to these people we owe some good 
printed fabrics. 
The difference between printing and batiking is as 
follows: in the former process the surface of the fabric 
only is treated; it is a mechanical process, subject to def- 
inite rules and patterns, while batiking is a perfect com- 
bination of textile and color and is a free, individual art. 
The beautiful batik products, which have come from 
Java to Holland and have met with more and more appreci- 
ation, induced some people to study the technique of the 
craft, and to make it one of our own industrial arts. 
It was from the beginning easy enough to develope a 
wax mixture suitable to batiking, but another important 
part of the work, the most important perhaps, was not 
so easily mastered, viz., the dyeing of fabrics on which the 
wax was applied. This point is of great importance, be- 
cause the batiked products acquire their durability and 
consequently their value, not only from the quality of the 
material used, but also from the quality of the dyes. The 
first batikers found a few recipes which gave good results 
on parchment, although the proportions in which the 
various ingredients had to be mixed, were at first guessed 
at and learned by constant experimenting, with a conse- 
quent great loss of time and material. With woven tex- 
tiles, which are much more difficult to dye than the animal 
product, parchment, experiments were much less success- 
ful. Many simply tried the aniline dyes for their batiks, 
but it was soon found out that the colors faded, and this 
dyeing process had to be abandoned, as batiked textiles, 
being very expensive, must answer the high requirement 
of being perfectly proof against the influence of both light 
and air. Artists as a rule are not very familiar with prob- 
Dutch batik on silk curtain. 
