On Tuesday, June 16th, Ruth from Icicle One and Elizabeth from Labaraque and I met at 8:30 am in the marina lobby to await our prearranged taxi. We might have taken the 3 ringgit water taxi and then the free bus, but the bus schedule is somewhat erratic and the taxi was only 8 ringgits apiece so we splurged on the taxi to save time. The complex opened at 9 am and we wanted to be there in the cool of the morning, before the crowds of tourists arrived. www.noor-arfa.com is the web address and you can see the beautiful material they make.
Most of the crafts people we saw were trained at the complex. Traditionally men do the brush painting and the block printing and women do the songket weaving. At least that’s the way it was in the Noor Complex in Terengganu. www.batikmalay.net is another wonderful web site about Malay batik. Most of the printmakers were men.
Batik tools. Some are done as a block print.
Preparing the cloth for the color. We thought the women were using water just too wet the cloth to absorb the paint.
Both women walk around the cloth adding color. They have done this enough to have an idea how to apply the color and work well together. Then the frame is tilted first one way and then the other to let the paint run. A lot like doing watercolor!
Then more color is added and allowed to run.
This was a piece that was ready to have additional design added. Unfortunately we didn’t learn what would happen next exactly though we did see a similar piece with a gold design running through the cloth. The white design was woven into the cloth prior to the painting.
Using paintbrushes this young man had painted the back of this shirt.
Songket weaving has gold and silver thread woven into it. This woman had learned the process from her mother.
I would not have the patience to do this at all.
You can see how intricate the pattern is and how time consuming it is to create this material.
According to the woman who has the batikmalay site there are some small local shops and maybe I can see some of those when we return here in about a week.
“Pulled tea” is poured from one pot to another adding air….like cappuccino only without the machine. We had a late morning snack and then went back for a late lunch.