Ida Strawn Baker

“ THIS beautiful and fascinating art of textile decoration, applied to draperies and articles of dress, has been practiced in many countries for centuries. Old pieces have been found in South America, in Peru and Bolivia. In the Philippines and in provinces of India the work may still be seen, the art having been handed down from generations unknown.
The essential process consists in dyeing the cloth in a dye-bath after having wound parts of it more or less tightly with string or cord, which serves as a resist to prevent the color from reaching those parts of the fabric. ”

“ The value of applied art to home and community rests upon the test, whether the pupil who works out the problems becomes by virtue thereof a more useful and cultured individual in the home and in the social and industrial life of the community.
A problem which satisfies this test becomes a basic problem. To a pupil who has once bound a book with its cover design, end papers, etc., a book is a different thing ever after. He becomes a more intelligent and cultured member of the consuming public so far as books are concerned. ”

“ Books issued by the Dutch Government to promote the batik craft, picture Javanese women and girls seated upon fiber mats before a vertical frame upon which the material is hung for the execution of their art. Men too are at work printing and dyeing these fabrics. Housewives in staid processionals display the occupation. Princes and fine ladies disport their gorgeous costumes. Priests climbing the steps of their temples past the long rows of their sacred gods are resplendent in batik array. Their oldest gods are clothed in sculptured batik. ”

“ It may be added that the leading firms carrying school art supplies offer dyes in suitable form especially adapted for the problems in pattern dyeing.
Perhaps a few suggestions to the less experienced of our readers will prove helpful. All of the good dyes manufactured today are in a very pure form. The use of one dye alone often gives results that are crude without any subtle beauty. It is frequently necessary to apply the principle well known to all workers in color, that colors are softened and beautified by small admixtures of their compliments ”

“ Here we must take special steps to get the dye well into the fiber and secure the results obtained from the large dye-bath in all-over dyeing.
The fabric must be prepared for pattern dyeing in the same manner as for all-over dyeing. It is just as essential that it be clean, free of sizing, with its fibers soft and absorbent. Attention has been called to the pains taken by the Orientals in the preparation of their fabrics for decoration. We must not jeopardize our success by omitting to boil out new raw material and to clean old material. ”

“ Batik decoration is free from limitations that restrict mechanical printing. In designing fabrics for the ordinary methods of mechanical reproduction, where great yardage is produced, the designer consults an average taste; whereas in batiks each piece is definitely designed with a particular setting or [Pg 22] individual in view. There is no necessity for much repetition of any design, nor indeed can exact copy ever be made.
The first enthusiasm of the worker in batiks is apt to find expression in a burst of color run riot, of “crackle craze,” with too little attention paid to design. ”

“ Just as our granules of sugar have displaced the sweetening of former days; just as our modern medicines have succeeded the herb-teas of our grandparents, so also have come our dyes. All are achievements of science. ”

“ It follows that a knowledge of the principles of design must underlie good batik work as well as a knowledge of dyes.
In taking up the other ways in which school children are using dyes, it is well to place emphasis upon the design elements involved. All dyeing as done by craftsmen and in the schools involves design. Even all-over dyeing is carried out with the idea of the dyed piece becoming a part of some larger whole.
The earliest use of dyes in the schools is in stick printing, and here begin the first lessons in pattern dyeing. ”

“ Stick tying is not only a good craft problem but also splendid for the school room for both boys and girls.
It is best to lay out the design on the cloth by stick printing with a very light tint of the color to be used in the first dyeing, and using, of course, the end of the stick over which the cloth is to be tied. ”

“ The American method is to dye the lightest colors first and build up the deeper colors. Between dyeings the old waxing is repaired and additional areas waxed.
The “sarong,” worn by Javanese natives, is a skirt-like piece of goods about the size and proportion of a window curtain. This garment falls from the waist, or above it, to the feet. The fabric is cheap cotton manufactured in Holland or England. The color and decoration of the sarong is influenced by caste and religion. The feudal framework of Javanese society has given much significance to rank. ”

“ Taupe is a gray thrown off, usually with purple, but sometimes with red or yellow or blue.
Salmon is formed by adding to yellow some orange and a tinge of brown.
Any dyeing over old color must be considered as a mixing of the new color with the old, which manner of thinking will help in choosing the dye necessary for a desired effect. For example, a green cloth is to be dyed black. There should be two dyeings, the first a red to neutralize the green, the second a black to intensify the neutrality. Likewise a red cloth becomes black by dyeing first green and then black. ”

“ Hand decoration is done by women. The material is hung over an upright frame. The hand supports the goods, and the molten wax is applied to the design. They use a funnel-like cup with a bamboo handle. The wax trickles slowly through the slender tube, and with this the outline is made. This instrument is called a “tjanting.” There is no right or wrong side of this fabric, as the waxing is done on both sides. To cover large surfaces with wax, they use a brush. These women have acquired a high degree of skill through repetition of the same design on the same kind of garment. ”

“ Tie-dyed work depends upon tightly wound string or yarn to resist the dye. It also has the advantage of the dye-bath. Though less versatile than batik, it has a time-honored place as a method of beautiful and charming results. The introduction of sticks over which the tying is done, such sticks as are used by the children in stick printing, has opened new problems with added variety and much interest. ”

“ As concrete illustrations of textile decoration in schools we present some of the results of two class problems in high school, the one by a first and second year class, the other by third and fourth year pupils with a few who were posting.
First and Second Year Class. The pupils used the method of paper cutting to secure motives for their designs. Each pupil was supplied with enough white silk to make a collar, or a tie, also with color, wax and a frame upon which to stretch the silk. The method was that of outlining in wax, painting in color, and dipping for the ground color. ”

“ Since all parts of the fabric must have equal opportunity to be dyed, in order that a level dyeing be obtained, it is absolutely necessary that the goods be worked as long as they remain in the dye-bath. ”

“ It should be high enough above the table to keep the wax or dye from touching it. When the wax touches an obstacle before it is cold it sticks. The wax is apt to break when pulled away from the [Pg 58] object. Color penetrates by accident and the result is disappointing. Some artists work on a table upon which smooth or glazed paper is spread. Here again the wax may also suffer. When dyes are painted on the fabric, if they touch the table or other objects they spread and mar the definite outline of the design. ”

“ It corresponds to the excess color in dyeing, which we take pains to remove by rinsing. The very purpose of the steaming, or other “setting” process, is to incorporate the dye into the fiber. This is never perfectly accomplished. There is always some excess adherent color to be removed.
OLD JAPANESE STENCILS
How often we meet the following experience: A [Pg 136] craft worker in decorating a fabric applies color until the eye is pleased, takes little or no pains to incorporate the color into the fiber, and ignores altogether the fact that some of the color is only adherent. ”

“ Some sizing prevents the extraction of color from the dye-bath. In other cases the sizing itself absorbs a large share of the color, and later when the sizing is removed by washing this color goes with it. Vigorous washing with soap and hot water, followed by rinsing, will remove most sizing. A fabric which suffers injury by the removal of its sizing is not suitable for dyeing. ”

“ Very early in the child’s training, while the stick printing is unfolding the elements of design to him, he applies his designs to enrich his construction work. It is the time for the child to begin through concrete efforts to get rooted into his thinking that designs are made to be applied and that everything [Pg 127] which contributes to his comfort, happiness and well-being exists because a design has been applied.
HINDU BLOCK PRINTED DESIGN
Then is also the time for the child to see some printed textiles in which the pattern is geometrical like his stick printing. ”

“ Many dyes, while most successful at high temperature, work very well in moderately warm, or even cold solution. This is of very great advantage in pattern dyeing, as in batik work, where the wax forbids a high temperature.
The composition of the dye-bath is not often as simple as we have indicated. Usually the dyer adds one or more other chemicals to assist in dissolving the dye, to control the rate of absorption of the dye by the fabric, or for some other purpose. ”

“ There is the endeavor to establish each little theater group as a means of community expression. The use of color in its relation to the play and lights, as scenery and in costumes, is so obvious and necessary that it needs scarcely more than mention. As experimentation is necessary and desirable, there must be at [Pg 102] the bottom an actual foundation and knowledge upon which to experiment and build.
MINIATURE STAGECRAFT
“School plays and pageants could be improved many hundred percent if the knowledge of color and its application were made more general. ”

“ The flowers and spots are purple, the leaves and stems blue.
Spraying liquid dye with an atomizer permits not only of the usual direct coloring of the design areas, but also of resist stenciling, in which a light design is produced on a dark background. A small dark design on a large light background is stringy and thin. The light seems to eat into the edge of the design and minimize its importance. On the other hand, a small light design on a large dark background is magnified in importance. ”

“ That cause is the Democracy of Art, the ennobling of daily and common work, which will one day put hope and pleasure in the place of fear and pain as the forces which move men to labor and keep the world a-going. ”

“ A slow dyeing is generally more level and successful in every way. In cases where the fiber absorbs the color greedily the dyer sometimes puts other ingredients called “assistants” into the bath to retard this absorption.
[Pg 41] Frequently the craftsman does shaded dyeing, such as a scarf with deep blue ends grading to a light blue center. The following directions will accomplish this: Hold the scarf in the middle with one hand, dip the ends into the dye-bath and work them thoroughly with the other hand. Then lower the scarf into the bath very gradually without interrupting the working. ”

“ The decoration for the border was drawn in wax, and the background for the dogs was also waxed.
In developing a pattern where so much drawing is needed, pains should be taken to retain the original outlines of the drawing. If the design is too much obscured after successive dippings, the drawing should again be transferred. The outline for the dogs and spacings for borders were saved by waxing. The green decoration on the border was not painted until after two dippings.
The crackle, tying the whole decoration, is even and adds beauty to the design. ”