I Guess I Wasn’t Ready… Perfect!
Those who know me well know that I’m a bit of a hyper planner – obsessed with details and with a very active mental check-list. I had a good laugh at myself last night when someone’s Facebook post in the group for my next retreat alerted me that I may have made a mistake. It turns out that I’ve successfully gotten into holiday mode – my days were all mixed up in my mind. I was actually booked to stay at the ashram one more day/night, so the title of my last post was wrong. Bonus! So perhaps all that talk about transitions in yesterday’s post was meant to help me realize it simply wasn’t time to go yet. I must really be mellowing out for me to make such a mistake… I seem to be making more with the years – a sure sign that I’m learning to relax. 🙂
So what did I do on my last day?
First thing, I checked to see how the baby bird was that another guest and I pulled out of the pool last night. I got to call on Saint Francis of Assisi again. Thanks to Google (a modern day miracle?), we learned that it was only 3 days old (eyes open, but no feathers yet) and that the mother would come and feed it and take it away if we put it up in a little nest. Had it had feathers, it would have been on the ground on purpose for supervised life training 3-4 days before it could fly. This one was too young, so we knew it had fallen out of the nest by accident. When I went to check on it this morning, though, our whole make-shift nest was gone. We found out that Yuda had found 3 other chicks and thought the mother had been killed, so had them in a box by the kitchen. Herny succeeded in feeding them bits of tiny wet noodles today (they refused the worm). Their plan is to let them go free in 3 days. Supposedly, the rice paddies are filled with these apparently orphaned chicks.
After that, I made it to meditation/ fire ceremony / and yoga at 6am. Yay!
At 8am, I had another great breakfast! Yay again!
And then I decided to join 2 Edmonton gals staying at the ashram to spend the day at the neighbouring Wydia Batik Studio for some creative fun – it took me 7 hours instead of the usual 5, but I had nothing else planned so that wasn’t a problem. Oh, we weren’t offered lunch, so yesterday’s student must have pre-arranged that. Just so you know, it’s not part of the 400,000 Indonesian Rupiah (about $40 Cdn) cost for the day. No matter. I really wasn’t hungry anyway and drank 2 liters of water with sports minerals (sugarless Gatorade, basically) – great in this heat, even though there was a breeze in the shade of the studio. I’ve had heat and sun stroke a few times in my life and have to be careful. Overall, I’m thrilled with my experience! My piece has its obvious flaws, but I did most of it myself. Still, I’d say it was a collaboration as the team there all pitched in at one point or another.
So here’s how you create a batik:
1. Choose a design or make your own and trace it on a cloth. I really liked this Balinese dancer and a bird, and so I combined those and free-handed roots and spiral tree branches to make it yet another tree goddess. Had I had more time, I may have ventured my own design, but for today, I was very happy for the pre-made designs to choose from.
2. After practicing with the “chanting” (wax drawing tool) on a scrap piece of cloth- dip, wipe, keep at 45 degrees angle, left to right, repeat after 10 seconds, etc. – I then waxed my entire design. Note: this is where you can decide how much involvement you want in the process. The 3 artists there did most of the wax work for the others. I was like a 2 year-old … “I can do it! I want to do it!” and so they were happy to coach me and I had to live with the consequences of hot wax drips on my toes and on my design, etc. This also meant that I was much slower in my process, but that’s OK. I got the experience I wanted.
3. Use the stamps and hot wax to create a border.
4. Choose your colours and paint them in using bamboo sticks. The colour wheel with numbers helps here as the colours you see when you apply them are not what they’ll come out as. Everyone did their own colours. Unfortunately, these tools aren’t very precise and although the wax stops the colours from running, it won’t do that if you don’t paint within the lines or splatter drips all over the place. I’m so used to free intuitive messy stuff – still need practice being precise and careful …. is that a description for patient?! Unfortunately, it’s that sloppiness that I wish I had avoided because the blotches on the final design really catch my eye. Unlike with acrylics, you can’t just paint on top of them… Oh well…
5. After that dries in the sun (long enough for the colours to dry, but not for the wax to melt), re-apply wax designs on top of the coloured parts to protect those. That takes a long time and I’ll admit that after 5 hours without a break and my mind starting to wander, I did about half and handed it over for the guys to finish. I was starting to make silly mistakes.
6. Dip in the fixative to set the colours and rinse. I think this is where the blues and greens actually turn blue and green.
7. Dip in the yellow and then orange (which oddly makes red) and rinse. Repeat that process twice to get a deeper red (or whatever colour you choose).
8. Dip in the fixative again.
9. Put in boiling water to melt the wax – the original lines become white and the next layer remains the colours you’ve chosen. The rest combines with your background colour.
10. Rinse and hang to dry. If the sun has disappeared behind a building by the time you’re ready, you can also blowdry it.
I don’t guarantee I remember all that correctly, but know that the batiks you see in stores may have had 4-5 layers of wax and colour on them. We did the fast and easy process. I think I may use gold paint or 3-D paint to add to it and to hide some of those obvious defects… I’m still thrilled with my day and totally recommend the experience. It may not be a Balinese art (it’s from Java), but it’s a great thing to do while in Ubud.
I became a huge fan of batiks in the late 80s when I started collecting clothing by Kaliyana Artwear (in the days when she was more into that) – she still comes to Indonesia to work with the locals to make her more upscale line today though – beautiful clothing that I’ve been happy to wear for over 25 years. I still have some of the original pieces from the early era and they’re perfect to wear here in Bali’s heat. Here are a few that have traveled the world with me during the years – a blast from the past. See Kaliyana’s online shop to see what she’s up to these days… inspiring!
I now feel completely ready for the next chapter of my trip. Spending a creative day near the ashram was just what I needed to help me transition to the next workshop and bigger crowds. Ah – the gecko in my room just squeaked in delight at my obvious personal and spiritual growth. Yes indeed: good job Dominique! Hee hee. Now I just need to learn to be a mellow, go-with-the-flow gal while not losing those effective organizer skills I’ve come to count on (as have others..). This time it’s true when I say that I’m leaving the ashram tomorrow…
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