From Soil to Cloth
Galeri Batik Jawa works with batik painters throughout Yogyakarta, mainly in ten villages in Imogiri District. The painters sells painted batik clothes / jarik that are not yet dyed. After the purchase, Galeri Batik Jawa will process the batik clothes using natural dyed indigo, a technique that was revived from Javanese tradition, however, forgotten and left behind after the discovery of synthetic chemical dyes.
Here’s the process from soil to cloth:
(Photos courtesy of Galeri Batik Jawa)
Indigofera tinctoria seeds ready for planting. These seeds are dried before planting.
It takes 3 months for indigofera tinctoria to mature and ready for harvest.
Workers cut the leaves into smaller pieces to assist with fermentation process.
Worker soaks and submerged leaves in water for 24 hours
Lime solution is added, and the oxidation process begins.
Worker dissolve the paste with brown sugar, lime and water to create dye vat.
The transformation process from yellow to blue
Workers weighted the leaves before fermentation. The amount of leaves determined the weight of indigo to produce.
Worker filters water, ready for fermentation process
The blue color is achieved
The color of cloth after the first dip is yellow. They will turn into blue
After several dips, the cloth is ready to be boiled to remove wax.