20 Jan 2009

Another place we found on the internet was the Museum Tekstile which holds classes for the one thing we were really hoping to do while in Indonesia, Batik. Since it isn't open on Mondays, we opted for the next best day, Tuesday of course! Starting the day slightly later than planned, we decided to have lunch at the restaurant just below the apartments.

Imp had to go for Ayam Penyet, while I opted for noodles instead. I wouldn't say that the food there is the best when you have really good stuff for less than $2 on the street, but if you aren't adventurous or just can't afford to ruin you holiday, then this place could be a good choice.

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Once we finally got our bellies full, we got a cab to take us to the museum, which was a chore, since the driver didn't seem to know where the place was. After rounding the city centre a few times, we finally got to the museum and paid to take a look inside. Seriously, unless you're really nuts over fabrics, I don't see a point in going into the museum as almost everything is in Bahasa Indonesia, and there isn't much to look at. Just tell the guy at the counter that you want to learn to do some Batik, choose the size of the masterpiece you're about to create, then pay for it and head to the last building to get waxing.

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Once in the little Batik school, you're told to choose a design, copy it onto the fabric, and then they'll show you how to start applying the wax layer with all the technical details. Well, it's not really that hard, all you have to do is keep your wax flowing, and your canting (that wax filled pen-like instrument) at a 45 degree angle. Easy peasy, until you actually start doing it and make big giant drops on your cloth!

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So once you've done both sides of the cloth and added in all the details, you hand your masterpiece too the guy who will magically turn your plain white cloth into a really beautiful colour of your choice (though limited), and the wax layer just stands out looking like gold. He then boils the cloth to remove the wax and it should then be dried.

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My Monster Looks Like It's Salivating

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We didn't have the time to allow it to dry at the museum and just brought it back to the apartment. With the cloth being so thing and small, it dried by the time we returned from dinner.

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