First Journey to Batik-tutorial ever!

As you might have noticed it has been quiet on my blog lately. With everything that is going on in the world I find it hard to write about the pretty stuff. But maybe we need some pretty stuff. And maybe not just to watch, but to make yourself. 

I present my first ever Journey to Batik-tutorial!
As an artist I love making things. Not only Art works, but also little presents and fun sustainable things I spot online. Making things, makes you relax, happy and focussed. We don't need to create big artworks to achieve this feeling, just let your hands create.
With this tutorial I hope to share my joy of making and to stay in theme with this weekend my first tutorial will be about Easter Eggs. And not any kind of Easter Eggs. Easter Eggs based on Pysanky, inspired by Batik. With a Tie-dye finish.
Last year I gave a workshop with Easter creating these eggs. It was a fun day and the results were all lovely. So time to explain how you can make these Easter eggs. And if Easter is not your thing, I'm sure it is a nice way to decorate eggs just for fun or another special occasion like Batik Day.

To make these Batik Tie-dye Eggs you need the following items:

- hardboiled eggs (note: check the label, to make sure you buy eggs from happy chicken)

- colour tablets for Easter Eggs (if you want to make these eggs in another season, make sure to buy some extra!)

- vinegar 

- 5 containers to mix the colours in

- yarn

- crayon (note: you can use any coloured crayon, but with the colourless one you get the nicest Batik effect)

- spoons

- old newspaper / old towel

Step 1

Boil the eggs and let them cool off. Put one tablet in each container (usually you have 5 colours: yellow, orange, red, green and blue), add the vinegar (2 tablespoons) and boiled water (1/4 liter). Stir until the tablet is dissolved. 

Draw on the eggs with the crayon. If you use the colourless you won't see clearly what you draw until you put the egg in the dye. So it is easier to make lines, circles and dots first to try-out the effect. The first drawing you make will stay the colour of the egg. 

Step 2

Dye the eggs a first time. They have to stay in the dye for about 5 minutes. In this time you can draw on new eggs, depending on how many eggs you want to eat on Sunday. 

Use a clean spoon, or a spoon for every container, to take the eggs out. In this way the colours won't mix and your hands stay clean. You can wear gloves to handle the freshly dyed eggs, but for drawing on them the gloves are not so handy. Let the eggs dry before starting with Step 3.

Step 3

For this step you can do three different things. Draw again on the egg with the colourless crayon. Remember that this line will now hold the colour of its current colour. You can play with adding lines next to where you have drawn before. It is easier to see were you started, if you follow the drawing in white. 

Instead of drawing on the egg, create a colour effect with yarn. Wrap yarn around the egg. Don't make it to tight, because you can break the shell. Don't make a knot, this makes it easier to remove and to re-use the yarn. And make sure to add enough layers. 

Or combined these two, draw first with the crayon and then put some yarn around the egg. 

Time for colour layer number two. You can put the egg in any other of the colours.  You can play with matching colours, like orange/yellow-red, or green-blue. Or mix it up with red-blue or yellow-blue.

Step 4

After 5 minutes remove the eggs from the dye. Dry them of, especially the ones covered with yarn. Let them dry a little before removing the yarn. 

When they are dry, repeat Step 3. By adding more yarn or more crayon you keep the colours you put on before. If you are already happy with the effect of two colours, another dye bath is not necessary. 

Step 5

Congratulations you made your own Pysanky inspired, Batik based, Tie-dye Easter Eggs! If you work like me your hands will be now of a festive colour as well. Don't worry the dye comes of with a good scrub. Enjoy this long weekend! And if you do not have a long weekend, still enjoy these eggs! Would love to see your results! Bye!

The rise of Batik

Blue Monday

Blue, bluer, bluest

What is better on Blue Monday then to dive into some blues from the Summer.
Last Summer me & Koen went to a Wedding near Staphorst. On the way back home we visited Staphorst (NL) just to have a look and some eggs. It was a weekday so everything was open, so we made a little walk.
I spotted a sign for the local museum and apparently there was a clothing auction. Well to stick with the blues theme, this happens once in a blue moon. Really.
Only when someone dies in Staphorst it happens that an auction is organized to sell their traditional clothing collection. And it was already two years ago that an auction was held.
Totally unprepared and totally excited I found myself surrounded by clotheslines filled with traditional Staphorst folkwear. Skirts, apron, caps, bags, handkerchiefs & headscarfs with traditional dot stamps and printed patterns. On the last rows where only indigo coloured headscarfs with matching handkerchiefs. Oh nooooo, I wanted one, I wanted all. But I never been to an auction, and I know only a little about Staphorst textiles. So before getting our savings into trouble, we found three ladies in traditional wear kind enough to show us what was what. The Indigo coloured headscarfs were the highlights of the auction and were saved for last. There were some from 1920-1930, some from the 50s. All hand stamped and some newer from 1960 and up, that were printed. They told us the old ones will make at least 120 euro, sometimes more. The one I liked instantly, was old, but not that old, probably from 1950-1960. It was hand-stamped and a very nice example of stippelwerk (dot-work). With mordant ('beits') a white with light blue pattern is made on the cloth. In the outer edge the stamp was maybe dropped onto the cloth, so a part of the pattern is visible in white. The dots created by a stamp made of nails on a piece of cork have such a nice Batik dotted feel to them. I needed this cloth for my collection, so much was clear to me.
The auction started and we were told that we needed to sign up now if we wanted to bid later. I run to the stage and signed up will the first black wollen skirts and Staphorst dot works were being auctioned away.
I was so nervous and didn't dare to bit for anything. A row in front of us was a well known Staphorst dot-artist I know and a row before that a lady with a list who knew exactly what she needed. The ladies in Staphorst bid fearless and I wonder how I ever could make that headscarf mine.
Sticking to my true blue, I kinda squeal when my cloth was going under the hammer. So there went my pokerface and the auctioneer said: "You can offer 50 now and just own the cloth". I was like, no, I want to play, so the bidding begin. A lady in traditional wear behind me wouldn't let the cloth go so easily, but finally kinda let me have it. I was totally in heaven. Only when the matching handkerchief arrived on stage together with another one from a different headscarf, she wouldn't let me have it.

Auction at Staphorst (NL)

Ready for the auction

Clothing lines filled with Indigo coloured headscarfs

1920's Staphorst hand stamped headscarf, beautiful!

Empty clothing line in front, the indigo cloths in the back

The one I wanted

Nice crowd 

Going once, going twice, sold to this lady

My cloth was thrown to me like this too

Bidding number and my headscarf!

Till around 1960, you started wearing traditional folkwear from birth. The traditional wear from Staphorst looked for a boy or girl quite similar. For women the folkwear consists of some layers of skirts with on top a black wollen skirt and an apron. The hair was covered with a headscarf or cap, like a bonnet with the Staphorst dot work and over the shoulders a woven red with blue scarf. For men it was a dark coloured woolen trousers and a long sleeved shirt.  

Today the folk wear is still worn by about 500 women, but not by any men or children. The colours in the clothing show which day of the week it is, or at least on Sunday the colours are less and less bright.  

For mourning blue is worn. They say, how deeper the blue, how deeper the grief. The mourning period was a long one, sometimes for life and sticking to the dress code was partly a reason why traditional wear lost support in the Netherlands. Staphorst is pretty unique for still having so many women wearing folkwear and for practicing their traditional folkart, Staphorst stipwerk (dot-work).

For more about Staphorst see:
- Previous blog post 'Traditional costumes in modern living'
- Short video in Dutch about Staphorst folkwear 'Klederdracht omdat het mooi is'
- Website of Stichting Staphorst Stipwerk

Batik: Pattern vs. Technique

As the title of this post already points out their is a 'pattern vs. technique' debate going on. Or at least when I talk about Batik I noticed that there is a lot of confusion on what is Batik. Is it the technique or the pattern that defines it? And why is there a difference between the two?

When you share your fascination, people will share their interpretation of that fascination with you. It can be educational, confronting and even laughable and it will show you what needs to improve, in your way of sharing or in what you share to make your fascination come across.

The number of times people ask me if I make Mandala's when explaining my work, is equal to the response "Do you make Batik?" to my "I study Batik". When I then reply "No, I don't make Batik, I study the philosophy of Batik", people don't understand why. In their eyes it's a simple technique they practiced themselves when they were younger. The strange and funny thing is, all Dutch people that lived through the Seventies are Batik makers! No really! At least you almost start believing that when sharing your fascination for Batik. But dear people, what you were making in the Seventies was not Batik, yes the technique was similar, applying hot wax to a cloth to make different layers of colour, but it is not Batik! 

But what is Batik then? Well, that's why I'm starting with this post, in which I surely can not explain the complex duality between technique and patterns in Batik, but I will make a start. 

Last week an almost-cry-for-help came from Indonesia with the title 'Indonesia tries to hang onto traditional art of batik'. After being selected as UNESCO heritage in 2009, Batik started as what seemed as a flourishing uprise. But now only 6 years later Batik is still under pressure. New Batik makers are hard to find, the wages are to little to make a decent living, printed cloths flood the market and tourist & locals all keep buying the fake Batiks, because they can't tell the difference. The same problems that made Batik an almost disappeared tradition when I visited Java in 2009. My book 'Batik, a forgotten industry' about this journey is unfortunately still very up to date. Of course, just like the ones I describe in my book, some Batik makers keep on going and try to work with natural dye and re-inventing traditional patterns, but it is not enough. 

Okay, we know the problems, but how to fix them? The government of Indonesia already made a smart choice by getting Batik on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO. But what is protected and how can you protect it? 

I get angry at people who don't know what real Batik is, or businesses that sell printed Batik while marketing they want to protect and preserve Batik. Well, by not selling or buying Batik Tulis, you will not protect or preserve it! But I hadn't read the actual document either and when Renske Heringa pointed out to me: how do they know what to protect if they haven't even informed themselves? I knew there is still a lot of work to be done.

So let's start, what is the heritage everyone celebrates since 2 October 2009:

The techniques, symbolism and culture surrounding hand-dyed cotton and silk garments known as Indonesian Batik permeate the lives of Indonesians from beginning to end(....)Batik is dyed by proud craftspeople who draw designs on fabric using dots and lines of hot wax, which resists vegetable and other dyes and therefore allows the artisan to colour selectively by soaking the cloth in one colour, removing the wax with boiling water and repeating if multiple colours are desired(....)The wide diversity of patterns reflects a variety of influences, ranging from Arabic calligraphy, European bouquets and Chinese phoenixes to Japanese cherry blossoms and Indian or Persian peacocks. Often handed down within families for generations, the craft of batik is intertwined with the cultural identity of the Indonesian people and, through the symbolic meanings of its colours and designs, expresses their creativity and spirituality.(...)

Okay, and an even shorter version, it is a technique that allows you to make patterns on textiles which can be worn during special occasions. 

But when you don't know what the technique is, how it works, what it looks like, what the patterns or colours look like and when, how or what for it can be worn, you will not know what Batik is.

Okay, but do we all have to study Batik to know Batik? Well, I don't know. I've been writing, sharing, talking Batik for 6 years now, but when I got a fake printed Batik this year as a gift, my heart broke a little. This Batik was bought on Bali in a batik workshop. The tourists get a tour of the factory with real people making real Batik Tulis and then they sell them printed Batiks as Batik Tulis. How can this be possible? Maybe all our wooden shoes are machine made as well nowadays, so I'm in no position to write about this, but... Why go through the effort of making something a heritage if you are still going to lose it?

Next year will be all about Batik for me! Starting with a visit to Galerie Smend in Köln (Germany) and hopefully making a great project on Java by end of the year. So hope to see you on my journey to Batik in 2016 and wish you a happy New Year!

Do you see the difference? Front and back of Batik Tulis (my own design from Jeruk), Batik Cap (this brand is for sale at Dierenpark Taman Indonesia), handstamped cloth from Staphorst (NL), Wax print from Vlisco, Wax print from Julius Holland Wax, Java Print from Vlisco, two Batiks motive printed cloths

No this is not Batik! Books & tools from the Seventies to make 'Batik' on Batiks motive printed cloths

Canting pens on Batik Tulis, with these kind of tools a very well trained Batik maker can make a traditional Batik Tulis, like the Batik Tulis (my own design from Jeruk) in the photo

Natural Dye on a chemical dyed Batik Cap, starting at the top moving clockwise: Lerak, Jelawe, Tegeran (yellow) and Tinggi (brown)

Read more on:

- the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO: Batik

- Previous post on how to buy real batik 'The real deal'

New stuff, cheap stuff, mass production stuff & thrown away stuff

Trying for some days now to write a post about the sudden trend in showing colonial goods. In a row, first last years 'Asian Art and Dutch Taste' at Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, now in Rijksmuseum 'Asia>Amsterdam', at V&A 'Fabric of India', at Volkenkunde Museum an exhibition about the Peranakan culture in Indonesia and the 'Levez l'encre !' exhibition at the Museum Royal De Mariemont were they show the cargo of a sunken trading ship found in 2004 of the coast of Java (from before our colonial presence in Indonesia, but about trading routes) and the upcoming 'Catwalk' in Rijks about Dutch fashion from 1625 till 1960.
I'm exited by this trend, but I can't figure out if it is good (making more people aware of our colonial past is good, but when it is focussed on stuff..) or bad (only stuff, not the suffering). So I can't write about it yet, I do try to visit as many of the exhibitions mentioned above and I advices you to do the same. And if you did, let me know what you think (comment below please)!
Why I also can't write about it now is because of my daily worry about our planet. It feels a bit silly to make statements about our past if we should really focus on our future right now.
So before I will write about our stuff filled Colonial past, with in mind that Museums show us now that our past was filled with beautifully crafted masterpieces from abroad, but leave out the costs. Not only the costs on people, but also the cost on nature. If we don't want to talk about our crimes against humanity, can we then maybe share what we did (and are doing) to nature? How our greed changed landscapes, whole islands in order to get the spices, textiles and wooden furniture we longed for in Europe. And that this trend hasn't stopped since?

So instead of dealing with old stuff: How to deal with our stuff in the present and the nearby future? How to deal with our need for new stuff, cheap stuff, mass production stuff and thrown away stuff.
In my previous post about the Dutch Design Week I already wrote about stuff, a lot, and about the question when designers (and artists) stop doing projects based on Save-the-world-stuff and start making it a daily ritual.

In this post some nice examples of dealing with stuff in a "There is a future"- kind of way.
First: Handcrafted, traditional crafted merchandise as opposed to massmassmassproduced merchandise. Populo Batik*, a Jakarta based Batik shop, made a series of products for the Star Wars fans while mixing in traditional Indonesian cultural handicrafts. In their theme-store you can buy black & white hand-stamped (Batik Cap) patterns of Yoda, stars and 'May the force be with you' on shirts, hoodies and kimonos. On Instagram they shared also Darth Vader & Stormtrooper Javanese hand-painted wooden masks.** Brilliant!
It makes me happy to see that entrepreneurs are looking for ways to honour traditions while indulging in popular culture and try to do this in an earth-friendly way. And I'm pleasantly surprised that it is Batik they do this with!! Inspiring stuff Populo Batik! Wish I could pop in the shop!! If you are near Jakarta, make sure to check it out!

Opening of Populo Batik Star wars Store, photo from Facebook

From Instagram

Opening of Populo Batik Star wars Store, Photo from Facebook

From Instagram

Second: Educating Fashion victims about the true nature of their addiction. In the Temporary Fashion Museum you walk through a maze of nicely selected vintage, experimental garments and a killerheel selfiebooth. Fashion is the name, and it is shown in all its colours. In all its colours, you may wonder...Well yes, there is even room, a whole floor, about our wasteful lifestyle and it is so nicely brought that while admiring the colourful carpets being knitted, your conscience can nicely creep up on you. For the installation 'Fashion Machine' countless fleece sweaters were cut up and the polyethylene yarn put on spools again.*** In the video below you see a short impression of that process. But what they don't mention on the website of Het Nieuwe Instituut is the video shown next to this one. In the video you see piles and piles of clothing, our thrown away clothes, getting shipped to India were they get a similar treatment like the sweaters in the 'Fashion Machine'. The women in the video share their theories about western women based on our waste. One of my favorite ones was that water must be very expensive in Europe, because most clothing is still new and hasn't been washed once. Next to these thoughts on "western civilization" you see beautiful women dressed in sari's cutting, ripping, pilling up & stripping our clothing. After 4 or 5 steps in which in different places the clothing gets transformed into this grayish dust-like mass, they spin yarn from it. From this yarn blankets are made, the grey blankets you can buy at hardware-stores, and shipped back to where the clothing first came from, us...
This whole process is a very scary & crazy process and I'm happy that Het Nieuwe Instituut shows with the Temporary Fashion Museum not only the glitter & glamour, but the Art, the Craft and the Waste!

Threads made from sweaters, 

part of the 'Fashion Machine' at  the Temporary Fashion Museum

Knitting with the sweater-yarn, 

part of the 'Fashion Machine' at  the Temporary Fashion Museum

And the last & third: Using waste to address waste. Contemplating our future and how we could ever achieve a way of living without producing waste, trash & garbage, this temporary carpet by Leo Fitzmaurice brightened my week.**** The work from already 10 years ago address our wasteful behavior in a very nice way. Don't know if it was the plan behind this work, but it works very well.*****

'I Knew You All Along', made from leftover flyers, 

2005, by Leo Fitzmaurice

Wished I made this...few weeks back I made a 'partypack' with garlands, confetti and toothpicks with flags in honor of 25 year celebration of IDFX from their old, leftover flyers. It's on display from 17 December till 9 January at IDFX in Breda (NL). Hope I inspired you with this post to think about your stuff. Not only the stuff you own,  but also the stuff you are going to throw away, want-to-buy or get with Christmas!

'IDFX Partypack', made from leftover flyers of their events

2015, by me

* Website of Populo Batik
** Instagram page of Populo Batik
*** Read more on tijdelijkmodemuseum.hetnieuweinstituut.nl
**** Saw it on Pietmondriaan.com 
***** More about Leo Fitzmaurice work on www.thesundaypainter.co.uk

Re-ing is the new designing

But I still feel we are creating too much stuff. 

Couldn't enjoy this years Dutch Design Week. Finally got a blogger-pass, but was in the middle of moving. New city, small home...and a lot of stuff. Last 30 years (turned 31 on 2th of October, so that's just weeks now) flashed by in the form of nick-nacks, newspaper articles (both about me and my interests) and notebooks (which in style and layout apparently didn't change that much). I felt quite depressed while packing my stuff. Not that the last 30 years were not good and fun. They were good and fun. Not all of it, but most of it. It felt depressing because I did so much and have so much,  and yet it never feels like enough...interesting...

This leads me to our stuff problem. What do artists and designers do?

We make stuff!

And what are you going to make when there is already enough stuff? 

We make more stuff!

We are at an interesting point in time. We realize we have to much stuff, we have some solutions, but we still crave stuff. We made consumption our new religion and buying our new ritual of worshipping.*

We know we should make, buy, want less stuff, but that's tough because what are we going to sell, buy and want?

The 'talk' in Tegenlicht this week with the misleading title "Einde van bezit"/ "End of possessing"** (it's not about not having, it is about thinking different about what you have: Do you want a lamp or light? Keep your food fresh or a refrigerator?) made me happy to see creatives are making projects with this subject. But when is it going to stop being projects and start being just, well, just life!

That's why the Dutch Design Week didn't make me happy this year.

I was still surrounded with stuff. Old stuff made new, trash made into stuff and stuff changed into other stuff. If you're surrounded with boxes at home filled with your stuff, you really don't want stuff for a while. 

In my own work I chose 8 years ago that I wanted to create (shared) experiences and that my audience could only own the memory. But this is also a work in progress. I'm moving out of my studio next month and I still managed to create a lot of stuff while making temporary installations. So the circle is not round yet, but there is a start.

And that start is also made in the design world, now we just have to start living it! So continue with the re-ing: Reuse, reduce, recycle, redesign and rethink!

'We somehow have to act like there is going to be a future'

- Brian Eno in 'Einde van bezit'**

'Kassiewijle' by Visser & Meijwaard (flowers by Linda Nieuwstad) at TAC

Newshirt by Jetty van Wezel

Mmm looks familiar...

bri.co.lage 

is a collaboration of Het Ambachtshuis Brabant, Pandor, Studio Jo Meesters with secondhand shops. Apparently 53% of what comes in a secondhand shop doesn't find a second home. By redesigning or up-cycling objects using different crafts, they have a better chance of being bought. 

'Skateboarding Geisha' by Milligan Beaumont

'It's your world' exhibition at Klokgebouw

'Secret garden is a herbarium mirror, it offers you a version of the self filtered by a vegetal layer.'

Using DDW trash to make stuff

'It's your world' exhibition at Klokgebouw

Using DDW trash to make stuff part 2

Loved this project!! Pet it, keeping mycelium as a pet. With toys in which your mycelium can grow & explore. Wanted one, but already have a pet

What drives us to collective [ir]rationality? Was the question MU & KNOL asked themselves, while we walked into a maze like swarms or shoals. Note: I walked straight into a dead end, acted if I was taking pictures till I spotted other visitors and followed them haha

Spotted this poster and think it is amazing, but couldn't find the designer

For More:

* Watch 'Story of Stuff' on YouTube
** Watch 'Einde van bezit' on NPO (in Dutch)
*** I missed Bas Kosters coat project on DDW, but you can see his video on YouTube