Sarong

Each tiny dot and fine line of this textile was carefully hand-drawn with a stylus filled with hot wax. Each color was produced by a separate immersion in a dye bath. Cloths as intricately decorated as this one could take months to make. (See the textile in the adjacent gallery for an illustration of this technique of resist patterning called batik.)

Batik textiles decorated with large floral bouquets were made in workshops along the north coast of Java and were especially popular with the Indonesians of Chinese heritage. Pastel colors and commercial dyes are also hallmarks of these studios.