Raja Zarith Sofiah watching students applying the canting method for batik during the Batik Canting Workshop at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. — ABDUL RAHMAN EMBONG/The Star
JOHOR BARU: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) wants to continue promoting and popularising the hand-painted batik drawing or canting among its students to ensure the art remains alive.
Vice-chancellor Datuk Dr Wahid Omar said the batik canting workshop was organised by the Faculty of Built Environment for its architecture students.
“It is good exposure for them as hand batik painting requires a high degree of patience with each of the art work reflecting the artiste’s ideas and creativity,” he said.
Dr Wahid said the interest of young Malaysians in batik canting should be nurtured to ensure the continuity of the traditional handicraft despite modernisation.
He said hand-painted batik materials were not only popular among Malaysians of various races but also among foreign tourists visiting the country as they made good souvenirs for them.
Permaisuri Johor Raja Zarith Sofiah Sultan Idris Shah, who is also UTM pro-chancellor, was present to see the 40 batik art pieces on display.
Architecture students Ho Wen Han and Lee Siew Jing, both 21, said they decided to enrol in the workshop as they want to learn something new.
“We found that it is quite interesting but hard when we first started as you have to have a steady hand when outlining the design of the batik using wax,’’ said Ho.
She said the most difficult part was mixing the colours and painting the white cloth as the colours might not turn out well when applied on the cloth.
Ho said the right temperature was also important as the melted wax should not be too hot or too cold as otherwise the end result of the batik will not be good.
Source: TheStar