In this workshop, students will learn about traditional Indonesian textile motifs and learn how to transfer designs onto silk. Then students will and paint their designs onto specially prepared fabric with unique silk dyes. Oksana Danziger, an experienced textile designer working in the industry for over twenty years, creates designs for apparel and home furniture textile. She uses different techniques to explore a colorful world of batik in her artwork and textile designs.

The Serti (closing of fence) technique is the silk painting technique where designs are outlined with gutta or water-based resists, which are applied to white silks that have been pre-washed, dried, and stretched. Once the gutta has dried, it acts as a barrier for the dye or paint keeping the color within the outlined areas of design and allowing you to achieve sharply defined borders. After the dye or paint has been properly set, the clear gutta is removed and a defining line the color of original fabric remains.This technique come to us from Indonesia and originally uses a natural wax as a resist.

Many Indonesian batik patterns are symbolic. Infants are carried in batik slings decorated with symbols designed to bring the child luck, and certain batik designs are reserved for brides and bridegrooms, as well as their families. Some designs are reserved for royalties, and even banned to be worn by commoners. Consequently, a person's rank could be determined by the pattern of the batik he or she wore. Enjoy engaging with this unique practice of silk dye in this one of a kind workshop!

$20 materials fee payable to the instructor.