Author: Grace Kilbourn

Summer is batik time. In middle school, I expanded my Easter egg decorating skills with crayons and food coloring to this traditional Indonesian craft. I love designing, waxing and making a mess. Batik is the art of using wax and dye to decorate cloth. Artists create intricate patterns by applying hot wax with brushes, spouted tools (tjantings) and copper stamps (tjaps) to protect certain areas when the fabric is dyed. The wax is then removed in boiling water and oftentimes the process is repeated with multiple colors. Each year when the school bell rings for the last time, my batik supplies...