How Kelantan Batik Is Made: From Hand-Drawn Wax to a Finished Garment

Batik is a way of colouring cloth with a resist: hot wax is laid on the fabric, and wherever the wax sits, dye cannot reach. Kelantan, on the north-east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, is one of the two centres of Malaysian batik, alongside neighbouring Terengganu. Batik tulis, literally "written batik", is drawn by hand. Batik cap (said "chap") is stamped with a metal block. The method decides how long a piece takes and what it costs.

D'Rose Batik, the shop Datin Nik Rosmawati binti Nik Yusoff opened at Bazar Buluh Kubu in Kota Bharu in 2001, sells both. Its 2.5 metre cotton satin lengths, for example, come in a hand-drawn and a stamped version. Here is how each is made.

How batik tulis is made

Batik tulis is drawn with a canting: a small copper cup with a fine spout, fixed to a handle and used like a pen that flows hot wax.

1. Prepare the cloth. Plain white cloth is washed to remove factory starch so the dye soaks in evenly, then dried and stretched on a wooden frame.
2. Sketch the design. The pattern is drawn in pencil. At D'Rose Batik the main motif is the rose, drawn by the shop's own workshop. Five of its rose designs, including Ros Kembang Tiga and Ros Asmara Dana, are registered for copyright with MyIPO, Malaysia's intellectual property office.
3. Draw in wax. Hot wax runs from the canting along the pencil lines. The wax lines keep one colour from bleeding into the next. A drop in the wrong place cannot be rubbed out.
4. Colour. Dye is brushed into the areas enclosed by wax, one colour at a time. A fixing agent then sets the colour so it does not run, and the cloth is left to dry.
5. Boil off the wax. The cloth is boiled until the wax melts away, leaving fine pale outlines between the colours.
6. Rinse and dry. The cloth is rinsed to clear leftover wax and dye, dried in the shade, then ironed.
7. Cut and sew. The cloth is sold by the length or cut and sewn into baju kurung (the Malay tunic and skirt), kaftans, jubah (long robes) or shirts.

How batik cap is made

Batik cap uses a metal block, usually copper, shaped into the pattern.

1. Prepare the cloth. As for batik tulis: washed, dried and laid flat on a padded table.
2. Stamp the wax. The block is dipped in hot wax and pressed onto the cloth, then moved along and pressed again until the whole length is patterned.
3. Colour. The cloth is usually dipped in a dye bath. For a second colour it is waxed again and dipped again, or extra colours are brushed on by hand.
4. Boil off the wax. The cloth is boiled to melt the wax out.
5. Rinse and dry. It is rinsed, dried in the shade and ironed.
6. Cut and sew. It is sold by the length or sewn into garments, including men's cotton shirts in sizes SS to 5XL.

Which steps take the longest

In batik tulis, drawing the wax and colouring take most of the time. A 4 metre length with a fine pattern can take several days of work. Dye also has to dry before the next stage, and rainy days slow everything down.

In batik cap, the slow work happens earlier, when the block is made. After that, stamping a length is far quicker than drawing it, and one block serves many pieces.

Why batik tulis costs more

The difference is hours of labour, not materials. Cloth, wax and dye cost about the same for both. Batik tulis needs a skilled artisan holding a canting for hours on every piece, while batik cap spreads the cost of one block across many.

D'Rose Batik's current price range reflects this: batik cap at around RM 35 to RM 120, and batik tulis at around RM 150 to RM 800, depending on the fabric and how fine the pattern is. The shop's batik tulis also follows a rule of one design, one owner, so each pattern is sold only once.

Telling tulis, cap and printed cloth apart

Real batik, tulis or cap, shows colour on both sides of the cloth because the dye soaks into the fibres. Fabric printed with a batik-style pattern is usually pale on the back. On batik cap the motif repeats at a fixed spacing; on batik tulis the lines vary in thickness and no two flowers are exactly alike.

See both in person

The D'Rose Batik shop is at Lot 1-40, Bazar Buluh Kubu, Kota Bharu, open Saturday to Thursday from 10:30 am to 6:00 pm and closed on Fridays. You can compare batik tulis and batik cap side by side. From abroad, send a WhatsApp message to +60 12-679 7137 or browse our batik catalogue.