Time: 9.00—13.30, Monday-Friday
Included: This half-day class is held in a working natural dye studio and offers a hands-on experience of batik making and indigo dyeing, as well as a unique insight into the botany, dye processes and practice of Indonesia’s textile traditions.
• During a walk through the dye plant botanical garden, you will learn about the plants used by traditional weavers across Indonesia to make natural dyes.
• During the class you will be taught to use the traditional batik tools of canting (drawing pen) and cap (stamps) using wax to create resist designs on cotton.
• After you create your wax design you will apply natural indigo to create your patterns and learn how the indigo dye is made from the plants in the garden.
• Threads of Life only uses sustainably sourced dyes either from our own gardens or from communities that are sustainably harvesting dye plants.
Class Location: The class is held at the Threads of Life natural dye studio and botanical garden, 4 km from central Ubud.
Meet at 9:00 AM at the Ubud Palace crossroads, Ubud: The class includes transfers before and after class between the Ubud Palace and the class location.
How to Book: This class may be booked online via threadsoflife.com or in person at the Threads of Life gallery, Jalan Kajeng 24, Ubud. In both cases, payment in advance is required to secure your place.
Age Limit: This class is not appropriate for children under 12 years old.
The Teachers: This class is led by staff from our gallery and dye studio. Gallery staff draw on their knowledge of Indonesia’s textile traditions and Threads of Life’s field work to guide the class’s visits to the dye studio and dye plant botanical garden, and to introduce the traditional natural dyes of Indonesia. Dye studio staff bring their batik experience and skill with indigo to the class’s dye work. Since 2000, our dye team has worked across the archipelago with natural dyers who are still making traditional textiles using ancestral recipes. These recipes must adapt as landscapes are changed and plant supplies alter, and would be lost without our work with communities to develop the sustainable cultivation and harvesting of dye plants.
Class Details
09.00 – 09.15 Participants meet at the Threads of Life Gallery in Ubud from where you will be driven 4 kilometers to the workshop location at the Threads of Life dye studio and dye plant botanical garden in Petulu, Ubud.
09.30 – 12.30 The class starts with an introduction to Threads of Life and the work of the natural dye studio, with a guided walk around the dye plant garden and an introduction to the traditional natural dyes of Indonesia. After instruction in how to batik, you will create the first part of your personal batik design on a 50×50 cm piece of cotton. You will then apply indigo dye to your personal batik and, while you are waiting for cloth to dry, there will be a demonstration of making indigo dye with leaves harvested from the garden. There will then be time to apply another layer of batik wax to your design before a second round of indigo dyeing generates two-shades of blue on your final piece.
12.30 – 13.00 Staff remove the batik wax from your piece.
13.15 – 13.30 After the class you will be driven from Petulu back to the Ubud Palace at the crossroads in the centre of Ubud.
Cancellation and Refunds
There is a 100% refund for cancellations more than 24 hours before the start of class, and a 50% refund for cancellations less than 24 hours before the start of class.
