Friday June 13th: Learning how to make Batik fabric

A few of the youth living at the centre know how to make batik prints. Maria and Alexi have followed a course, and I am not sure how Aurelia learnt to make Batik but she is the most knowledgeable. They sell them to generate income for the centre and I previously bought one, which I got a vest and bag made with. It’s really beautiful and in some of my favorite colors: pink and grey.
I find out they have run out of supplies. And I am also really interested in learning about this ancient and traditional African technique of making prints.
With some of the money donated (thank you Dolores), Maria, Aurelia and myself went to get Batik supplies. We walked quite a long way to where Maria and Alex used to study with a Batik teacher. She sold us dyes, wax and caustic sodas and we set off back to Amani. Then the teacher walked us to where we should get fabric at a wholesale price and we bought 30 meters.
The rest of the day Maria and Alex showed me how to do different tie-dye effects using pleating techniques. Then we designed some batik using wax. The wax is used onto the fabric almost like paint except it’s wax and it dries within a few seconds. You can paint different shapes, letters with the melted wax. Afterwards, you dip your fabric in dye and where the wax is, the dye does not take.
Some of our designs didn’t take because the caustic soda we bought was not working so it was trial and error but over all it was a learning experience for me. One of the batiks came out looking beautiful. Maria spent a lot of time making the pleats perfect. Once the fabric was pleated into a tight bunch, she placed it into a bucket of hot water with dye and caustic soda. After it had sit in the solution for about 5 minutes, she undid the pleats and the tie-dye design appeared. It was definitely the highlight of the day.