On the island of St Kitts, our whole quilt retreat group went on a shore excursion to Caribelle Batik, a "factory" and shop where hand-stamped batiks are created. We got a tour, had some fun creating our own batik, and got to shop. I didn't buy any yardage as it wasn't available there, but did purchase some smaller pieces to take home.
Our tour guide took us through the process they use. Large and small stamps are dipped in wax, and then hand-stamped onto the fabrics. Then they were soaked in containers with dye. The next step was rinsing the excess dye out and then boiling them in big pots to get the wax out of the fabric. And finally they were hung to dry. We also saw an interesting piece that was being drawn in wax over simple pencil lines for a detailed landscape.
They let us choose our stamps: such as flowers and turtles. I stamped several flowers onto my fabric. They wrapped us in batik sarongs to protect our clothing.
Then we took our fabric to the dye baths and chose between blue or orange. The wet pieces were put into double baggies for transport home. Mine is rinsed now and dry, but will need to be boiled for 30 minutes to remove the wax. Once that is done I'll decide what to do with my personal piece of batik.
The last thing many of us did at Caribelle Batik (after shopping) was stop at the snack bar and buy a Ting with a Sting. Ting is a local grapefruit soft drink, and the sting was coconut rum added to it. It was by far the best local rum drink I had on the whole trip. I may try making it now that I'm home.
2 comments:
That sounds like fun! I went to a batik factory in Malaysia nearly 40 years ago but didn't have the opportunity to try the process. I'm eager to see your fabric.
That sounds like a fun outing!
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