Place: Southeast Asia

These panels from Indonesia or Borneo show the fourteen stages of the batik method required to make this relatively simple design of a beetle using blue and brown dyes. A more detailed design and wider range of colours would add many more steps to the process and require even more patience and skill to create.  […]

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The elaborate pattern and vibrant colours of this Malaysian batik sarong would have required a great deal of skill to create and the finished garment would have been a status symbol for the wearer.  The complex design features peacocks as well as other birds, butterflies and a variety of floral motifs. At least six different […]

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This intricately patterned sarong from Indonesia is a beautiful example of the batik method. The complex design features birds, spiders, beetles and other insects worked in shades of deep blue and brown. Each colour would require a new layer of wax to be laid over the relevant sections of fabric, dyed, then washed free of […]

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