Shopping Batik Unlimited In Ubud Bali

Shops located across the alleys of Ubud ensures you a pleasing and unforgettable shopping experience. Here are a handful of destinations you should try while you are in Ubud.

Where to shop in Ubud?

• 1.Highways

Located just at the start of wacky Antonia Blanco's Museum, Jalan Raya comes to an only near the Bamboo Gallery. This is a great place if you want to shop for artifacts, antique pieces, or artworks. Check out the Neka Art museum for exquisite pieces of art. If you wish to shop for cotton or casual apparels, silvery jewelry, faux designer stuffs, or indigenous handworks, then turn on to the Monkey Forest Road.

• 2. Ubud Market

Moving further down the Monkey Forest Road, you will find yourself in Ubud Market. This place offers quite a lot of admirable stuffs, including fans, fancy handicrafts, handmade jewelry, batik bags, and baskets, and that too at affordable rates. If you are lucky enough, then you could enjoy the market getting live and big. This happens once in three days, when women from the nearby villages come for selling and buying a wide assortment of things, including fresh fruits and vegetables.

• 3. Batubulan

It is time for you to move on Batubulan now. Check out for the cleverly crafted pieces of carved stones. However, you have to be an expert or else you might end up paying handsomely for some cheaper work that would have been "crafted" from concrete.

• 4.Hanuman Road

Located at cross-roads with Jalan Raya, this street is gaining popularity as a shopper's destination in Ubud. Check out the Oasis Bali to pick your favorite women's clothing or if you want a tailor fit, the Buy Made is a great choice.

For crafts and gifts, you can visit Tegun. It is not yet the time for a break. Move ahead to Padang Tegal and make a short halt at Kirta Kaloka, if you wish to spend on expensive and high quality batiks, napkins, and table cloths made from raw silk and cotton. Take a coffee break at Bebek Bengil Restaurant or you can walk further down to shop at Hare Om for trying some simple, yet exquisite cotton outfits.

Where to shop more in Ubud?

• For Wind Chimes, check out Gogo, located near to Puri Padi.

•There are countless destinations for book lovers. For new books, check out Periplus Books, or if you want to try second hand books just to cut through your holiday, then Ganesha Bookshop is the place.

• Crazy about Pashmina shawls and beaded tops? Check out River Valley in Jl Monkey Forest Roast.

• If you wish to enrich your gemstone collection, then Ubud Beads is a great destination.

•For Indonesian antiques, masks, memorabilia, check out Murni's Warung. If you are lucky, you could find your hands on some classic Dutch colonial remnants.

• For the best of the sarongs available in Bali, visit Ibu Repin Shop located almost at the rear end of Moneky Forest Road. A non-descript location, it is the abode of excellent sarongs.

The Meaning of Batik

What is batik? I can safely make this statement that while many people know or have heard about this word, especially so here in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, but many people do not, or rather, have got a wrong misconception of batik itself.

In my discussions with friends and general public, many people have mistaken batik with batik design/ batik designs or even batik fabric.

History has it that batik is an old craft that dates centuries back. Batik is actually a hand-drawn and hand-painted technique, which uses wax.

The wax is a form of 'resist' method, and the purpose of this method is so that when colour is put on a certain spot on the fabric, it does not run to the other part. Let's take an example - an artist is is going to draw a floral motif and he wants the background blue eg. the motif of a flower (a yellow flower with a green stalk). Now, imagine that the artist will be drawing on a white piece of cloth. The artist will first draw the outline of the motif (ie. the flower & stalk) with wax.
And later, he will start to paint, starting with the yellow colour of the flower. What the wax does is to hold the yellow in place, so that it will not run to the green stalk. And when he paints with green next, the same thing applies, that is the green will not flow to the yellow flower.

Finally, he paints the blue background And of course,

the artist will later have to wash the wax off the cloth, hence leaving that part which was originally covered with wax back to its original white fabric colour. Hence, the white outline for the motif. And that is all it is to the meaning of batik. However as mentioned earlier, a lot of people mistake batik with batik design/ batik designs especially if they see a traditional or floral type motif, or patterns on a cloth that have white outlines. These may or may not necessary come from the 'batik' technique, as it could come from modern day print. In addition, just because these prints have the more traditional motifs/ patterns, don't mistake them to come from the art form of batik. In fact, there are modern designs, which actually are made from the batik technique as well. But people do not know it is so because it does not have the traditional look and feel to it.

So my suggestion to you that if you appreciate art, and batik in particular, first be aware whether the fabric you buy really comes from the batik art. And secondly to be open minded to embrace the change in modern times that batik need not necessary relate just to old motif/ patterns.

8 Steps On How To Make Batik

Are you interested to make your own batik? Or you want to learn to create this beautiful art. Or perhaps you are just looking for the tutorial on how to making batik. In this article you find what you want.
Tools for making batik:
Some of the tools here are in Indonesian term but I'm sure you will understand.
1. Mori fabric (can be made from silk, cotton, or a mixture of polyester fabric)  
2. Pencil  
3. Canting (this is for creating design using wax)  
4. Gawangan (this is the place to hang fabric when you are creating design)  
5. Liquid wax  
6. Small pan  
7. Small stove (to heat the wax)  
8. Solvent dyes
Here we go, we are all set to making batik.
1. First on how to making batik, we make the initial pattern or design by using pencil. In Indonesian this pattern in this step is called "molani". For the expert batik makers, they are able to create their own motif. But for beginners, it is advisable to follow the common motifs that are available.
2. After you finished creating molani, the next step is painting with molten wax by using canting by following the pattern that had been made before.
3. Cover the parts that will remain colorless by using wax. Use canting on detailed sections and use the brush on the large areas.
4. The fourth step is the coloring process by dipping the fabric into certain solvent dyes.
5. Drying the fabric that has been dipped.
6.If you want to have several colors, then the step number 3, 4, and 5 should be repeated several times depending on how many colors you want.
7.When the color of whole part of fabric has changed, it is time to boil it with hot water. The purpose of this process is to eliminate the wax so that the motive that has been created can be viewed clearly. In Indonesia, this process is called "nglorot".
8. Of course this batik fabric needs to be washed to be clean. This is the last process of making batik. Wash and dry it.

An Introduction To Batik

Nelson Mandela is often seen wearing an intricately patterned shirt in vivid colors. Most people probably assume this is a tribal design using an age-old African method of dyeing cloth. In fact, the shirts Mandela proudly sports have their origins halfway across the world, on the islands of the Malay archipelago, where the cloth is known as batik. The tradition of producing batik cloth was brought to South Africa by Javanese laborers forcibly transported by the Dutch East India Company to the Western Cape. The Madiba shirt (named after Mandela's clan name) adapts traditional batik using African colors and motifs and demonstrates its versatility and widespread appeal.

Batik is probably the most famous of the resist methods of dyeing cloth. Resist dyeing involves applying a substance that stops dye from reaching certain parts of the fabric in order to create a pattern.

This method can use wax (as in Javanese batik), rice paste (Japanese tsutsugaki) or can tie off a section of the fabric ('tie-dye' or Indian bandhani). In most parts of South-East Asia, the wax is applied using a copper spout allowing the craftsman to create intricate patterns and differing width of line. New areas of wax can be applied and the cloth which is usually cotton or silk, can be re-dyed allowing for greater complexity in design and color. After the design and coloration are finished the wax is removed and the cloth is ready for use. These traditional methods of creating batik are extremely time-consuming and require a high level of skill so various labor-saving devices have been introduced to the process including brushes for the wax and copper stamps that apply the wax. Any hand-produced batik takes a long time and can be very costly, so much of modern batik cloth is in fact batik print, retaining the patterns and colors of batik but without using the wax dying technique.

There are batik making traditions in many parts of South-East Asia, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia, each with varying designs, colors, and cultural influence. Perhaps the most famous and influential however is the batik of Java and specifically that originating in the royal cities of Yogyakarta and Solo. This batik is often produced in the traditional colors of black, brown, indigo and dark yellow, uses patterns representing folklore, tradition, and nature, and is of huge cultural importance to the Javanese. Batik cloth is worn at weddings, funerals, to carry babies, and is integral to Javanese cultural tradit

ions such as dancing and puppetry.

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The vital influence batik has on the cultural life of Indonesia has been recognized by UNESCO which in 2009 declared Indonesian batik as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity: a living, cultural tradition, closely linked with the local community. UNESCO acknowledges Indonesian batik as a craft '...intertwined with the cultural identity of the Indonesian people and, through the symbolic meaning of its colors and designs, expresses their creativity and spirituality.'

In modern-day Indonesia, batik has become a stylish and popular part of cultural life, vital to the creative economy, an important draw for tourists, and a key aspect of national identity. The flight attendants for Indonesia's national airline Garuda wear batik print as part of their uniform, as do those from the Singaporean and Malaysian national carriers.

Young, fashion-conscious people are increasingly turning to batik shirts, dresses and scarves for casual wear, batik is increasingly popular for a number of social occasions such as weddings, as well as retaining its importance for cultural ceremonies, and batik is making its way onto the cat-walks and stores of top international fashion designers. It is increasingly popular worldwide too, and is used for furnishing, decorative purposes, tablecloths, and as a medium for painting and other artworks.

Batik Fabric - Indonesia and Malaysia

 Batik fabric is cloth which normally uses the wax-resist dyeing technique to produce such patterns. However, due to advances in the field of printing, many products are put into the category of batik even though they were not made with traditional methods.

The popular and well regarded Javanese Batik has designs that are based on the the culture and religion of the area. The three main colors that are used in such prints are usually dark brown, white and Indigo. This is because in the old days, natural dyes were usually only found in these colors. The patterns on the Batik also denote the rank and social standing of the individual.

The patterns from Java usually differ from any other area in Indonesia itself or other parts of the world. This is because the motifs and patterns present on the fabric is usually a reflection of the specific areas culture and religion. In northern Java for example, batik fabric is usually brightly colored as they draw on the cultures from a variety of background which include, Chinese, Dutch, Arabic and Javanese. The finest batik fabrics can run into the thousands of dollars.

Price usually depends on the design, complexity, fabric and the type of dyes used during production. Expensive examples also usually reflect the length of time that was needed to produce such pieces.
Traditionally, batik was sold in Malaysia and Indonesia to be used as sarongs or traditional dresses. Since they usually come in simple cloth form, they can be used to create a wide variety of products which include batik sarongs, the batik scarf and dresses and shirts.

While there has been some disagreement over which country in South East Asia first incorporated batik into their culture, it is generally agreed that the best products usually hail from Indonesia. While not far behind, Malaysian batik has never been as intricately designed as some of the Indonesian examples.