Cloth
Indonesia is famous for some of the special fabrics that it makes. Two of the most famous are ikat and batik. These are traditional cloths made by hand in Indonesia.
Ikat cloth is made by weavers who create patterns in the cloth by weaving different-coloured threads into it. It usually uses a dark colour as the main part of the cloth and a pattern is made from lighter-coloured threads (see image 3).
Batik cloth is made through a complicated dyeing process. Batik artists start with a length of white cloth and carefully work a pattern over it using a special wax, this pattern needs to be done on both sides of the cloth. Once the wax is set, the whole cloth is dyed except for the pattern that the wax covers (see image 4).
Artists will then remove the wax and create another pattern of wax and dye the cloth again with a different colour. This can be done many times over until the complete pattern is finished.
Ikat and batik cloths can be worth a lot of money. Today there are some factories that use modern technology to make similar cloth without using the traditional methods that take a lot of time. This results in cheaper cloth but many people feel that it is an inferior product when it is not made by hand.