Hi everyone,

Glad that you all are here. As I had mentioned in my first post, here on I will talk about the topic I have chosen for research which is Resist Dyeing.

Resist Dyeing is, of course, a dyeing technique. You must be wondering why a dyeing technique should be called “resist”. Actually, manipulation of fabric prior to application of dye is called resist. They partially or completely prevent dye from colouring the fabric. This technique helps in creating patterns and motifs by either using some type of paste (wax, rice paste, mud, etc) or stitching or tying the cloth to create designs. The best resist dyeing techniques now a day are batik and tie-dye.

Resist dyeing has been in use since ancient times. Its traces can be seen in Egypt where the linen fabric was dipped in wax and scratched with a stylus and then was dipped in blood and ashes. Resist dyeing has been popular in Asia since 6th century.It uses canting tool, cooper stamps, brushes, needles, thread, bamboo frames, etc. In the ancient times natural dyes were used like turmeric was used for yellow colour and berries were used for red colour but now synthetic dyes are widely used.

Batik: It is a form of wax resist dyeing. It is used for creating motifs, designs and patterns. In this first we make the planned designs by pencil or chalk on cloth and then we apply wax where we want to resist the dye and then we let it dry and then we dip it in the dye.You can dye multiple times to get the design needed. The only thing to remember is that where you will apply wax the cloth will not get dyed from that place. Till this time we can see a little bit how the pattern is coming out but the final pattern will be seen only after the removal of wax. Wax is removed in hot water. You can see the following image for better understanding.

Batik Process

Batik is said to be originated in 6th or 7th century by India or Sri Lanka. Batik is best done on muslin, cotton and silk cloth which are quite thick. Wax which is used the most are beeswax which is extracted from honey hives and paraffin wax which is synthetic. Most countries use bright colours for batik but places like Japan uses indigo and white colour. 

Tie and Dye: In Tie and Dye patterns are formed by folding, twisting, pleating and crumpling of fabric. Tie and dye mostly uses bright saturated colors with bold patterns like mandala, peace sign or spiral. Nowadays, A variety of dyes is used for colouring the fabric like food colouring, fibre reactive dyes and Vat dyes.

Different countries have introduced different tie and dye techniques. Like Japan has introduced Shibori which in itself has 6 different kinds of tie and dye techniques.
Check my next blog for more detailed information on all this and how they are done.

References:

Resist dyeing (2017) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resist_dyeing (Accessed: 7 January 2017).

Kent State university (2017) Available at: http://www.kent.edu/museum/resist-world-resist-dye-techniques (Accessed: 07 January 2017).

There are many things in life that we enjoy and for some people like me, they love knowing and experiencing new things. Well here am also a simple person who likes knowing new stuff and mostly about things that can be done on fabrics. I study in a fashion college and as I wrote ‘fabric’ above I think you might have guessed that I am doing Fashion Designing. Well you’re not wrong!

I am in first year of college and of course I am learning stitching and even simple pleats, etc. excites me.

Well, we got an assignment in our college in which we have to read different crafts or designs movements and even folk and tribal art. A detailed research though! To help us in this assignment our college took us for several trips like to the Craft and Hand loom Museum, Delhi and Dilli Haat, where we saw a lot of new things like Warli paintings, Rajwar Hut, Patachitra painting, Chamba Rumal, Bandhej work, we even saw flowers made of seashells!

Well in all this I found a topic which has always interested me that was Resist Dyeing, because I had prior knowledge to it and moreover I always love to learn more about it. Batik and Tie-Dye  is quite popular nowadays. Moreover, as a Fashion student it will surely one day help me in pattern and motif making.

I created this blog to help people get a clearer picture of what these techniques are like. For example, how they were invented to how they became popular, I would try and share with you everything I learn during my journey in this module. After all, Knowledge is better shared then kept!

Please check this page for more information and knowledge. Following is the collage made by resist dyeing techniques.