Get to Know your Sarong - The Batik Tools

So if you're well informed, you'll know that Batik is a traditional art medium and methodology for creating designs on cloth. It is a technique of applying wax to portions of the material and then dyeing it with colors, followed by removing the wax. We do realize that there's a lot of intricate craftsmanship being put into each sarong piece!

Now the question is, how exactly are they applying wax to the cloth? To answer this question, we'd like to introduce two traditional instruments in the art of Batik making - the Tjanting (Canting) and the Tjaps (Chops).

A 'Tjanting' is a hand drawing tool that functions as a wax pen. This ancient Javanese gadget is used to hold hot wax in a tiny copper bowl attached to a wooden handle. This gives an artist better control and precision when hand crafting batik pattern lines or dots onto a sarong material.

The 'Tjaps' are Batik stamps which are made of copper, where each stamp consist of patterns or designs that are cut out and shaped in detail. The tool is then dipped into wax and used to stamp onto the sarong material to get the best results of aligned and accurate repeat patterns or design borders.

As we continue to run about and meet all the amazing people behind the scenes while sourcing and researching for the best sarong selections, we also like to understand and share knowledge of the production processes as well as cultural references. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Read more about 'What is Batik' or shop for an Indonesian Batik Cotton Sarong!

Inspired by The Sarong Girl: Dorothy Lamour

Island fashion is timeless. While most would think that sarong fashion is a modern trend in the Western world, you’d be surprised to find that the art of sarong wear has been around for decades and is a pop culture that never goes out of fashion.

We are so star struck by this beautiful American actress and singer from the 1930s. Her trademark image of the girl next door with exotic Polynesian features has contributed to her film career where she typically played most of her film roles clad in a sarong. “Lamour appeared in a sarong in 11 of those films, meaning that fully two-thirds of her roles during that ten-year span did not call for her to wrap herself in any manner of South Seas attire”.

The biggest impact of her Hollywood career would be her famous role as "Ulah" in classical film The Jungle Princess (1936). “She publicly burned a sarong, the skimpy South Seas garment with which she had been inseparably associated since her first starring role, in Paramount’s 1936 tropical romance The Jungle Princess (Wilhelm Thiele) (Head and Calistro, 67)”

Looking at these vintage photos, we find her to be very fitting and attractive in a sarong. It’s almost like that everlasting advertisement of all time to show what a sarong represents on a woman’s body. “There was something indelible about the connection between Lamour and her trademark garment: audiences seemed to remember her not for the variety of roles she played, but for those roles in which she appeared in a revealing sarong.”

This South Sea heroine is a reminder to our love and passion for Sarong fashion and as the saying goes, “You Can’t Go Wrong with a Sarong!”

So tell us, what do you think about this sarong beauty icon?

(Text source: http://sensesofcinema.com/2002/22/lamour and note: these images does not belong to us)