How does a custom batik get made?
Hello from Estes Park,
We have a lot of wildlife in Estes, but in the winter, a lot of it goes underground…literally … to hibernate, to burrow under the snow, or to just lay low. The big animals are out and about and, with less traffic at this time of year, are often more visible. This morning, three moose traipsed across my driveway. What is unusual about that is that moose, while prevalent on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park and south down in the Wild Basin area of the Park, have not been seen too frequently near Estes, especially in a subdivision.
This past week, Debi, my shop manager, and I had a first look at the “strikeoffs” of our new custom batiks (more on our custom printed fabrics in a later newsletter). The process of designing custom fabrics has been a learning experience that I want to share with you. Special thanks to Karen Gibbs of Banyan Batiks for helping to make batik dreams a reality!
The first step way back in the fall was to send an idea in the form of a picture or a sketch to Karen, the lead designer for Banyan Batiks, followed by conversations about what we think the final product should look like. There was a lot of discussion because what we thought would look great and what a true artist thought would look great and what could be done with a tjap were all different things.
example of what I originally sent to Karen
Step 2 involved the back and forth of sketches and layouts of images on a square to simulate a tjap – you don’t want the tjap to be too full nor the individual images to be too small. An example of this is the first formal drafts of our flower batiks. The design that came back for “orange-red flowers of the Rockies” was a bouquet. We all decided the flowers would be better separated so they could be individually identified and each design could be appreciated in its own right. Back to the drawing board, literally. More iterations occurred until we had a good design which was sent to be made by a tjap maker.
Step 3 involved determining the appropriate color combinations for the design. There are two components for most batik fabrics – the color of the “motif” (the design created by the tjap) and the background color. I say most because in the case of multiple tjaps, there are obviously more colors. Choosing a color was done by looking at existing colors used by Banyan Batiks to determine would look best with each design. These color-design combinations were sent to the dye master.
Step 4 involved the strikeoffs. A strikeoff is a fabric sample about 1 yard in length made with the new tjap from Step 2 using the dye master’s interpretation of the color ideas he was provided with from Step 3. The dye master also has the ability to select other colors as well, so multiple strikeoffs come in beyond the color-design combinations requested. Some of the new combinations were easy to eliminate right away because they were not in line with our thinking or the colors did not allow the motif to “pop; others were obvious “yesses” (aspen leaves); on other combinations we requested an additional combination that would be the reverse coloring of the original motif-background combination (watch for the hiking trail set); others required more color tweaks (red flowers of the Rockies); and others we decided to hold for next year’s set of fabrics. Lots to think about!
can't see the motif 
original and reverse 
Step 5 involved a crystal ball. How does a new store like ours predict how much fabric you, the customer, will want to purchase in the next 9 months? This is where Debi and I relied heavily on Sandi Kline (Northcott’s national sales manager) and Karen’s knowledge. Time will tell if we predicted correctly or not!
Step 6 is creative – this is the step we are in now. While we are waiting for the batiks to come in, we are working with Karen, Sandi, and other designers to identify patterns and products that will showcase the new designs. Once we settle on those, we will then choose blenders and get those ordered in. One bolt of each new design will arrive in mid to late March so that we can confirm our choice of patterns, batiks, and blenders, and start kitting. All of the bolts will arrive in mid-May and we will get them out to you as soon as we can. At last!!!
There are a lot of additional steps that went on behind the scenes, but this gives you an idea of the complexity of the creative process in making a new batik fabric. It is truly a multi-national effort because we are here in the states and the batiks are made in Indonesia.
On another note, be sure to check out our new classes that have been posted on our website. If you are local and can come by and pick up the kit, we have openings in our Mystery Quilt zoom workshop next Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon (it’s too late to ship). The Learn to Knit and Learn to Crochet classes begin in March and skill building and more advanced knitting classes begin in April. In May, we have a learn to quilt and piece class for all of you out there who want to know what quilting is all about.
There are also some new kits and new lines that came in this past week.
Take care! Catherine