Batiks

Since, it is pretty much just my sisters (and the occasional visitor from another blog) that read this blog, I will first explain what batiks are and then explain why I love them. 

Batiks have risen in popularity over the last 15 years and where they were once exotic, now they are everywhere.  Batiks originate in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, India, etc) and are hand-dyed fabrics, but they also have a pattern dyed into them using wax impressions.  I know this sounds weird, but trust me it's pretty amazing.  Here's a couple examples of a batik fabric:

I've always been curious as to how they make this fabric, but yesterday one of the designers I like a lot posted a video from Moda (a fabric manufacturer) that showed the process.  Here's the video from Moda:

**WARNING: the video is about 20 minutes long and has weird music, but it is so worth it and I watched without the sound on.**

Isn't that amazing? The scrunching seems both random and specific.  The video did kind of make me laugh a couple of times because it was so obvious they had stopped all regular work/processing so this video could be filmed.  I mean, seriously, who makes one piece of fabric at a time?  Also, there are clearly times where the workers stop what they are doing (which is also clearly a process which is second-nature for them) and look directly at the camera to make sure everyone is on the same age.  But all in all, it's a great video. I've watched it a couple times.

Some of the most beautiful, intricate quilts I've ever seen have been made with batik fabrics and I'm considering changing my fabric club from Christmas (which I've been getting for a few years and certainly have a decent stash of) to Batiks (which I think are a bit more valuable as far as being inserted into a variety of kinds of quilts).