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By Jill Heffner
Drawers in the kitchen stuffed with white paper designed with black permanent magic marker are crammed almost closed. A box of 100 percent white cotton t-shirts sit in the corner, each shirt waiting for a wax design, waiting for color. Michelle Howell, 33, chooses the tjanting(with a silent 't' or sometimes called canting) with a slower discharge for outlining large raindrops on the border of a little girls dress. On the front of the dress, Howell already traced a Piglet. "I didn't dare to just guess what Piglet's face looked like," Howell said. Tjantings are tools with wooden handles and copper reservoir caps to hold hot liquid wax and spouts (varied in size), which let the wax flow like ink from a fountain pen. Five are lined around the double boiler, waiting for use. She holds the spout against her right hand, palm up, as she carries the tjanting from the stove to the ironing board. With her left hand, she draws freehand with the wax. This is how batik starts. Batik, dye resistant patterns on cloth, is an art found as early as 500 AD in Egypt, according to the Batik Indonesia website; www.indonesia-batik.com. The website describes two types of batik, the canting or drawing style and cap style, patterns on blocks. Cap style, developed in order to supply the poor with clothes closely resembling batik, is less time consuming. In Indonesia the "difference stands out clearly which distinguish the social class of its owner." Artists can draw with the canting and create images of detail, enhancing the art of batik. "This is the most time consuming part," Howell says of her wax drawings. Diip, draaaaaw, diip, draaaaaw. Repeatedly Howell immerses the tjanting into the wax well and draws the pattern on the dress. Layers of paperboard in-between the cloths prevent the wax from leaking through to the other side. The wax on the cloth begins to harden and creates an edge. The cloth underneath the wax will remain white Howell said. The wax is a combination of 85 percent paraffin wax and 15 percent beeswax. Howell said the paraffin cracks more when it is dry and the beeswax is very hard and sticky. She said she likes a little bit of cracking in her creations to make the piece look more interesting. For Howell, this is old hat. She has created batik for over 10 years. Howell said her first encounter with batik was at a Grateful Dead show. She found a tank top that she really loved. "This is what made me want to batik," Howell said of the violet tank top with a sunburst pattern filled with yellows and blues and a face right in the center. The border along the bottom has an alternating pattern of stars and triangles. Howell said at festivals the batiks are usually tank tops and not very many t-shirts. Howell makes her batiks in a variety of sizes and styles. From onesies for babies to dresses for women, Howell tries to make something for everyone. "I'll even make the same pattern on several different sizes and styles," Howell said. After the wax is dried on the material Howell retreats to her basement. The door to the basement is next to the stove. The stairs lead to an unfinished basement. Six stacks of painted batik shirts, dresses and tank tops wait for dye. Past the clothing and through a door, a room with a single light bulb is home to acrylic paints and mason jars filled with paint grayed water. The room is crowded with a 5-foot tall table and just enough room to walk around it. The paints are scattered around the tabletop. The paint pallets are paper plates, shaped like animals and most of the animals have just one ear left, the other ear has been torn off so the paint can easily be moved to the next piece of clothing. Little girls' dresses are lined around the table and Piglet joins the lot. Howell starts painting on a toddler dress near the light. The main design is a tree frog and the border on the bottom has lily pads and flowers. The frog comes to life as Howell adds green paint to the frog's limbs and the lily pads. The pads of the frog's feet are painted orange as well as the heart shape Howell had waxed into the frog body. "This is my favorite part," Howell said. "I love bringing clothes to life." She moves to another dress, this one with a flower design with a similar flower border around the bottom. Howell walks around the table looking for just the right turquoise. She uses watered down acrylic paint to make a more even and less raised looked on the clothes. Howell says oil paints build up and don't look as even. Once the painting is complete and dry, Howell fills in the designs with wax. This is done so that part of the shirt won't absorb any more color. "This is a very time consuming way to do this," Howell said. Another way is to envision the design on the clothing and figure out what remains white and wax in those areas, starting with the lightest dyes first, say yellow. Then wax in everything you want to remain yellow and dye the next color. Howell said when doing batik this way it is important to be good at using a color wheel otherwise the main color isn't going to look good. Although painting isn't the quickest method, Howell is sure to get colors right in her design. She said she has to be careful though because sometimes she gets really detailed, especially on dresses, and that becomes time consuming and costly. "I made this dress," Howell says while holding up a burgundy tank top dress with a sunflower design on the front and along the bottom, "and it took so long, days, that I decided just to keep it." The sundresses start at $16 to begin with and adding time and materials they usually sell for over $50. For anyone who has tried batik this is cheap Howell said. "Other times people will say 'I am not paying $50 for a tie dye'," Howell said. "I wish I was talented enough to tie knots in shirts and have them come out looking like sunflowers." After the designs are all waxed in, Howell will dye several batches of clothes at one time. She says she is going to use colors like eggplant, periwinkle (her favorite crayon color), and forest green. Dyeing the clothes, Howell said, is her least favorite part. She wears a mask because the dye powders get everywhere. Once the clothes are dyed the wax can be removed. Howell said dry cleaning is best way to remove the wax, but boiling the clothes works too. Howell said she uses a washing machine, and make sure the water is really hot and has good pressure. "When the washer spins, it whips the wax off the shirts and then you can peel the wax off the sides of the washer," Howell said. Once this step is complete Howell is ready to sell the clothes. She puts some on consignment at Earthly Awakenings, a local shop where people can buy hand made goods. Mostly she attends music festivals and art fairs to sell her originals. "I usually make enough money to pay back the cost of what I put into it," Howell said. This batch cost $700, which consists of about 15 dresses and 150 different styles of shirts. Howell says from start to finish this batch will take approximately a week. Howell says the best part about batik is "The design looks totally different from what you've painted when you're done."
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