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    Chinese Indigo Batik Designs
    Chinese Indigo Batik Designs
    Chinese Indigo Batik Designs
    Ebook158 pages29 minutes

    Chinese Indigo Batik Designs

    By Lu Pu

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Rich in tradition and history, the art of batik has been a deeply integrated facet of Chinese folk art for over 2,000 years. Using molten beeswax, skilled artisans paint patterns onto white cloth, which is then dipped into indigo dye. When the wax is removed with boiling water, unique designs of great harmony and beauty remain. The themes depicted in batik decoration have a strong native flavor, and are distinctive of the Chinese provinces and districts where they were created. In Huangping, mountains, trees, and birds are represented. In the Miao district, the concentration is on flowers and butterflies, while in the Yunnan Province, designs of peacocks, monkeys, and elephants abound.
    In this stunning pictorial archive, more than 110 authentic designs have been carefully reproduced from a rare, early collection of batik art. Collected from the remote areas of China's southwestern provinces, each decorative pattern is rich in beauty and meaning. This royalty-free volume will be an invaluable resource for artists, designers, craftspeople, and any lover of traditional Chinese folk art.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateApr 19, 2012
    ISBN9780486154138
    Chinese Indigo Batik Designs

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      Book preview

      Chinese Indigo Batik Designs - Lu Pu

      Copyright

      Publisher’s Note Copyright © 2007 by Dover Publications, Inc.

      All rights reserved.

      Bibliographical Note

      This Dover edition, first published in 2007, is a republication of designs from Designs of Chinese Indigo Batik by Lu Pu, published by New World Press, Beijing, China, 1981. A Publisher’s Note has been specially prepared for this edition.

      DOVER Pictorial Archive SERIES

      This book belongs to the Dover Pictorial Archive Series. You may use the designs and illustrations for graphics and crafts applications, free and without special permission, provided that you include no more than four in the same publication or project. (For permission for additional use, please write to Permissions Department, Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y. 11501.)

      However, republication or reproduction of any illustration by any other graphic service, whether it be in a book or in any other design resource, is strictly prohibited.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Lu, Pu, 1934-

      [Designs of Chinese indigo batik]

      Chinese indigo batik designs / edited by Thomas Crawford.

      p. cm.—(Dover pictorial archive series)

      Republication of designs from Designs of Chinese indigo batik by Lu Pu, published by New World Press, Beijing, China, 1981.

      9780486154138

      1. Batik—China—Themes, motives. I. Crawford, Tom, 1941-II. Title.

      NK9503.2.C6L8 2007

      746.6’620951—dc22

      2006053464

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y. 11501

      Table of Contents

      Title Page

      Copyright Page

      Publisher’s Note

      Art and Design from Many Cultures

      Pictorial Archive

      Dover Books on Art & Art History

      Art Instruction

      Publisher’s Note

      For many centuries, the peoples of China’s remote southwestern regions of Guizhou and Yunnan have created rich, beautiful batik fabrics using an age-old wax-resist technique. From early childhood, girls of the Miao people of Guizhou and the Bai and Yi of Yunnan province, learn embroidery and batik from their mothers and grandmothers. Batik designs become a part of the fabric of life, decorating a wide array of household items: kerchiefs, bedsheets, quilt covers, curtains, wrapping cloths, sleeve trimmings, baby carriers, and many more. In the mountainous, inaccessible provinces they call home, the women are surrounded by natural splendor. Thus, they draw on familiar and beloved plants, birds, and animals of their native regions to create designs of remarkable beauty and ingenuity, steeped in the natural elements that surround them on every side.

      Among these native folk artists, the technique of creating indigo batik has been developed to a high level of refinement. Molten beeswax is used to paint patterns onto white cloth. After dipping the cloth in indigo dye, the wax is removed in boiling water, resulting in fabric designs of great harmony and beauty. The indigo used as the dye in batik work is made from local plants that supply a dye of remarkable purity, depth and brightness of color. Filtered through the imaginations and creative abilities of the artists, the designs formed by the white lines and dots against the blue background provide the onlooker with a rich and vibrant visual experience. After the dyeing process, the undyed fabric remains clear white, though there are fine blue lines in the white areas, a characteristic feature of batik. These ice lines are created by cracks in the wax through which the blue dye seeps during the dyeing process, and they help give the batik its unity and coherence.

      Composition is an important part of batik design. Nearly all compositions stress harmony and balance. The placement of compositional elements is also governed by the traditional Chinese love of decorative elaboration and intricate surface pattern. In addition, many compositions feature decorative borders that outline the space in which the design is enclosed, while others opt for open borders, in which only the edges of the fabric being decorated define the pictorial shape and the field for decoration. Where borders enclose the design, the borders become graphic devices in themselves, relating to the other elements in the design, and uniting its various features.

      Although they enhance and embellish a

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