Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Batik

I recently acquired some batik. 

A friend from work was travelling to Indonesia on vacation to visit family and I had the nerve to ask him to purchase some fabric for me while he was there. He brought back three pieces in red, dark blue and green. 

They're gorgeous not just because of the vibrant colors and intricate designs, but because of the skill and time it took to make them. 

If you’re not aware, Batik is a handmade cloth native to southeast Asia. Indonesian Batik was recently designated as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

The technique for creating it has been passed down for thousands of years. First the artisan draws the design on the fabric. Then, hot wax is applied to the design. After, follows layers of wax to fill in the negative space of the pattern so that multiple dye colors can be applied to the fabric. 

When it’s finished, the cloth is rinsed in hot water to melt the wax away, revealing a beautiful and delicate pattern. 

Here are a few pictures of one of the pieces that my friend brought back for me, and a video showing the process.

Seven Wonders of the World

Nature can be pretty awesome.

From the tiniest organism to galaxies millions of light years away, our world contains some amazing sights and creatures.

The terrifying and the adorable.

The inspiring and the familiar.

One of the beautiful things about the internet is that we can all experience them regardless of where we live.

Here are seven of my favorite recent nature and/or science videos. Enjoy!

1. Squeaky Frog on the Defense

2. Cephalopod’s Coat of Many Colors

3. Water in space: How do they shower??

4. Cat, Eagle and Fox Conferring

5. Baby Otter’s First Swim

6. 86 Year Old Who Puts Me to Shame

7. Hubble Space Telescope Images: Thus Spake Zarathustra

The Lost Little Mermaid

Somewhere in my belongings there is a picture of me as a mermaid.

The grade school I attended, Hallsville Elementary in Manchester, NH, produced a musical theatre extravaganza every year.  

One year, the play was based on American music through the decades.  I was in the third grade and after auditioning was selected to sing a solo of a song featured in the movie Flashdance, “What a Feeling.”  

Another girl who had auditioned, who was in fifth grade, was not happy that a baby third grader was given this solo and was looking for a fight the day the parts were announced. She called me a slut, which is inappropriate in more ways than one, since I was 8 or 9 years old at the time. Luckily, my best friend and bodyguard Jill, (she’s 3 years older than me) threatened her with swift retribution so she backed down.

For the performance, I wore black leggings, a large sweatshirt and leg warmers. With my curly permed hair pulled up into a high ponytail, I was the picture of 80’s cool.

While I sang "What a Feeling," a sixth grade girl performed a dance solo, mimicking choreography from the famous Flashdance scene, minus the chair and bucket of water splashing down on her. This was a grade school production after all, not a strip club.

My fifth grade year was the mermaid year.

The theme for the production was Disney movie music. The Little Mermaid had been released recently and every young girl wanted to be Ariel, myself included. I was surprised, but very excited when I was picked to sing my favorite, and now requisite Disney heroine ballad of yearning, “Part of Your World.”

For modesty’s sake or because it was the only option, my mermaid costume was one piece; flesh colored matte Lycra on top and sparkly green woven plastic material on the bottom, with a zipper down the back. The bottom was like a skirt, but had a very pronounced flipper at the end. The outfit was designed for a woman or girl with a longer torso, so the pearlized purple seashells sewn to the bodice portion ended up hanging over my rib cage, rather than my nonexistent bosom.

When it came time for the performance, I was wheeled onstage in a wagon by young sailors. I stood up, hobbled in front of the microphone (walking was difficult) and sang Ariel’s song.

I also remember standing on a boat constructed mostly of cardboard and chicken wire, where I was almost kissed on the cheek by a prepubescent Prince Erik during the “Kiss the Girl” scene. We were surrounded by children dressed as various sea creatures—starfish, oysters, lobsters, crabs, snails and fish.

There are two photos documenting this. One by myself, in all my goofy mermaid splendor, and the other of Prince Erik, all the sea creatures and I, standing on the cardboard boat.

But I can’t find them.

I’m pretty sure they're hidden somewhere very safe in my things. I’d like to rediscover them, and if I do, dear reader, you will be the first to see them.

Neil Gaiman at the MFA

Fairy tales, myths and heroes have captured our minds for thousands of years. From Gilgamesh to the Avengers, we've been drawn to epic stories of good versus evil, and thrilled at the fantastic journeys of Odysseus, Arthur and his knights and Huck Finn.

The content of stories and the collective experience they foster were part of the subject matter Neil Gaiman addressed in his lecture titled "Myth, Magic and Making Stuff Up" at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston I attended yesterday.

Gaiman is the current poster child for storytelling today. Rightfully so. Over the past two decades his stories have crossed multiple genres and formats--graphic novel, picture book, television, radio play, and film. With the rise in popularity of fantasy and science fiction, Neil's stories have risen as well.

As he illustrated in the lecture, Gaiman showed that at heart people are captivated by stories. My favorite moment was when he shared a new story he's working on. It will be part of an anthology of retold ancient myths. Tentatively titled, "Freya's Unusual Wedding" it tells one of the famous tales surrounding Thor, the Norse god of thunder; where Thor must dress in women's garments in order to reclaim his stolen hammer and ultimate weapon, Mjollner from the ogre Thrym.

Neil is a great reader.

As he read, the inflection and multiple voices he used showed his love of the characters he created and the joy he had in sharing them with an eager audience. Coming from a background in theatre and oral performance, I could see a little bit of Neil the actor coming through. It was great fun to be part of.

But what is it that makes stories so intriguing? More clever minds than my own have explored this question. Joseph Campbell in The Hero's Journey is one series of note.

I think that a large part of why stories are so important is that we live through them. Gaiman shared a G.K. Chesterton quotation (which by the way is my new favorite), "Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."

I would take it a step farther to say that all stories, not just fairy tales, are true (i.e. beautiful) in some way because of what we learn from them. We put ourselves in the hero's position and see our lives as a story. One that we hope will have a happy ending.

I also got to ask Neil a question about his newest book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane during the Q & A session at the event. I wanted to know who the Hempstocks are. The mysterious trio of women in Ocean are powerful, enigmatic and at the core of his story.

His answer was clear but vague at the same time. He mentioned that he'd had the idea for the Hempstocks since he was 12 years old. He read a story as a child titled, A Pile of Trouble by 1950's sci-fi writer Henry Kuttner about mutant hilbillies that got him thinking about people who were much older and stranger than they appeared. What if Gram Hempstock really had been around when the Big Bang happened? He also mentioned more scientific possibilities and the almost too obvious female archetypes of maiden, matron and crone.

I found his answer satisfying, but I still felt like there was more than meets the eye. Were the Hempstocks angels? demi-gods? or perhaps the Trinity itself, disguised and living in a old farm house at the end of the road?

But the more I think about it, maybe he really didn't know. It's more likely they are probably a combination of all the above. And from what I've learned about his writing process it's an organic thing, rather than a tightly woven diagram of plot points. He doesn't always know how the story will end when it begins.

I guess I have to learn to be comfortable with the mystery.

After all, what's a good story without it?