How to Tell Handmade Kelantan Batik from Printed Fabric

In markets and online shops, machine-printed fabric with a batik look is sold next to handmade batik, sometimes under the same label. From a metre away the two can look alike. Up close the difference is easy to see once you know where to look. This checklist comes from what we show customers at our counter in Bazar Buluh Kubu, the craft market in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, where D'Rose Batik has traded since 2001.

What counts as real batik

Batik is cloth coloured by wax resist. Hot wax is applied to the fabric, then the fabric is dyed. Waxed areas refuse the dye, and that is where the pattern forms. The wax is then removed in hot water.

In Kelantan, on Malaysia's east coast, wax goes on in two main ways:

• Batik tulis (hand-drawn batik): the wax is drawn by hand with a canting, a small pen with a copper spout. Every line is drawn one at a time.
• Batik cap (block batik, pronounced "chap"): the wax is stamped on with a carved copper or brass block. The same block is stamped again and again along the cloth.

Printed fabric never touches wax. The pattern is printed straight onto the cloth by screen or by a digital printer.

Why real batik shows colour on both sides

This is the quickest test. Turn the cloth over.

On batik tulis the dye soaks right through the fibres, so the reverse is almost as bright as the front. The pale lines left by the wax usually show clearly on both sides too.

Batik cap is also immersion dyed, so its colour penetrates the cloth as well. What gives it away is the regular repeat of the block, covered below.

Printed fabric is usually pale or nearly white on the reverse, because the ink goes on from one side only. Very thin cloth may show a shadow of the pattern, but rarely at the same depth as the front.

Signs of handwork in the pattern

Wax crackle. When hardened wax is folded or flexed it cracks, and dye creeps into the cracks. The result is a fine web of veins inside the pattern. Printers sometimes imitate crackle, but printed veins repeat in exactly the same place in every repeat of the design.

Canting lines. On batik tulis, line thickness shifts with the pressure of the hand and dots vary in size. Two flowers from the same design are never quite identical.

Block joins. On batik cap, look where two stamps meet. There is often a slight overlap, a small gap or a motif that sits a little off line. These small faults show the block was placed by hand. They are not defects.

Screen and digital prints are uniform: every repeat is identical, colour edges are razor sharp, and nothing drifts at the joins.

Smell and feel

Freshly finished batik can carry a faint smell of wax or dye. It fades after a few washes, so treat it as a minor clue.

Feel is more reliable. On real batik, patterned and plain areas feel the same, because the dye sits inside the fibre. On some printed fabric, the printed areas feel slightly stiffer or slicker than the plain ones, because the ink sits on the surface.

Price as a clue

A piece of batik tulis takes days to draw, dye and finish. Batik cap is faster because the block can be stamped repeatedly. Printed fabric comes off a machine by the roll.

Our shop's current range is about RM 35 to RM 120 for batik cap and RM 150 to RM 800 for batik tulis. If cloth labelled "batik tulis" costs far less than block batik, check the reverse before you pay.

A short checklist

• Turn the cloth over. Full colour on the back points to wax-resist work.
• Look for wax crackle, and check that the veins do not repeat in the same spot.
• On block batik, find the joins and the slightly uneven repeat.
• Compare the feel of patterned and plain areas. They should feel the same.
• Match the price to the kind of work being claimed.

Buying from D'Rose Batik

We sell both kinds and label them clearly. Our 2.5 metre cotton satin shirt lengths, for example, come in a hand-drawn version and a block-stamped version. D'Rose Batik has been registered with Kraftangan Malaysia, the national handicraft agency, as a batik craft entrepreneur since 2010.

If you want to see the reverse of a cloth before buying, visit the shop at Bazar Buluh Kubu, Saturday to Thursday, 10:30 am to 6:00 pm (closed Friday), or ask for photos on WhatsApp at +60 12-679 7137. Current pieces are in our batik catalogue.