The craft

It begins as a drawing. It ends as something worn.

Nothing is printed. Nothing is repeated. A sketch, a pot of wax, and a needle.

The batik
The batik
The batik
The batik
The batik
The batik
The batik
The batik
The batik
The batik
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The canting, hot wax drawn free-hand onto silk.
The batik

Wax first, then the dye.

The colour comes from batik, a centuries-old art of hot wax drawn by hand. Wherever the wax lands, the dye cannot follow.

Placement boards, built with graphic design and 3D rendering, decide where the art lands on every panel.

The cut
The cut
The cut
The cut
The cut
The cut
The cut
The cut
The cut
The cut
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The pattern laid by eye, reading the dye before the blade.
The cut

Cut into pattern.

Once the batik is complete, each panel is cut into the pattern of the garment, laid by eye around the art.

The sewing
The sewing
The sewing
The sewing
The sewing
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The atelier, Colombo, late afternoon.
The sewing

The final seam.

The last stage is the sewing. Meticulous, unhurried, finished by hand.

The wax cracks where it wants to. That crack is the piece.

Why no two are ever the same

What you are buying

Not a print of a painting. The painting.

A drawing, days of wax and dye, and a cut made by a person who read the cloth first.