Breathtaking Bales of Batik

 Back in late-September (how quickly time flies), our friend Ildica Boyd came to Singapore for a visit. Debbie, Susan, and I had a wonderful time taking her to various places of interest. Ildica was here for just two and a half days, but boy, did we pack in as much activities as we could!

One of the places we visited with her was the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM). At that point in time, ACM was having a special exhibition titled, "Batik Kita". It was a beautiful exhibition that explored the history and culture of batik and batik making. The designs shown ranged from traditional ones and also modern designs that we see today.

There was much inspiration to be found, and I thought you'd enjoy seeing some photos that I took at Batik Kita...

At the start of the exhibition, we saw the tools used to make Batik prints, and different cloth cuttings. 

Doesn't this design remind you of Bales:

And this one resembles Pangea!

These were more traditional designs.

This one was a very large piece:

Here's a photo that shows the tiny and intricately drawn details of the cloth:

Modern batik featuring words! This reminded me of the tangle, Vermal.

I loved how dynamic this piece looked. The colours and patterns were a feast for the eyes, and I wanted to create a tile inspired by it.

It just so happened that Ildica had gifted to us her handy little guidebooks. They are foldable accordion-style pocket guides that contain different types of enhancement and shading techniques. They were so handy to have as I worked on my tile.

If you think they're absolutely adorable, too, you can buy Ildica's extendable pocket guides here!

On my tile, I used some stickers that I got from the Batik Kita exhibition to create a Whatz-Its, and then used some tangle enhancers and shading techniques that I found in Ildica's pocket guides. The colours were added using Derwen't Coloursoft coloured pencils. This was lots of fun.

If you'd like, you can also download some batik prints from ACM's website on this page. They're great fun if you'd like to learn more about the history of batik making, and also for getting tangling inspiration.

It was great fun having Ildica come to visit and we were sad when she left.

Team 7F5R also recently gifted Ildica this postcard:

Because, truly, we as Certified Zentangle Teachers, are better together. :)

Happy Chrismahanukwanzakah to you!

Warm Wishes,

Stephanie Jennifer, CZT 21

Singapore