3 Easy Ways To Tell A Handmade Batik From A Machine Print

Machine printed batik was introduced to the world by Europe during the industrial revolution. As the economic climate of the times improved, people were able to afford what they once could not. This drove the demand for luxury goods at that time such as jewellery, art and textile.
Since the process of handmade batik took months at a time, there was also a premium on its price. With manufacturing however, a higher yield of fabric could be produced in a shorter amount of time, at a fraction of the price. This eventually made Batik accessible.
So how do you tell between a piece of handmade batik from a machine-printed one? With the sophistication of technology today, it is trickier to differentiate between the two.
Here are our three recommended ways to tell the authenticity of a piece of batik.





—
References and credits:
Many thanks to the curators of Batik Museum of Yogyakarta for sharing their knowledge.
Cover photo by Allison Mickel
All other images are our own and subject to strict copyright regulations.
Comments on this post (2)
Hi Mawan, thank you for your comment. That is very helpful. We have never heard of malam print before. How is it made and how does it look like?
— Aqilah
there are 3 technique for making a batics, and one of it is by “malam print”. and our call it not a batics but a fabrics that have batics motif..thankyou very much for this article so good and powerfull to giving rich infrmation about batics
— mawan tri hananto