We recently had an exciting opportunity to visit the Island Batik Distribution Center. We love batiks & sell a lot of colorful batiks in our shop, so we were really looking forward to seeing how these lovelies come to us from so far away.
This incredible piece greeted us as we walked into the Distribution Center Office.
It's a much smaller operation than I'd imagined, especially since they have so many gorgeous fabrics to choose from. We were greeted by Caleb Willis, the President/CEO, Maureen, one of my favorite salespeople, & this beautiful sparkly quilt, by P.J. Anderson.
Kristen & Katie were busy as bees, keeping the office humming smoothly.
The Indonesian artists in Bali create the vivid colors & designs for which Island Batiks are known. Batik is a way of
life for the Indonesian people, practiced for centuries.
The colors don't show up as vividly as I'd
hoped in my photographs, because everything is already wrapped in plastic to protect the
fabric. It arrives in plastic from Indonesia. Caleb shared with us his
vision of providing more opportunities to the locals in the small
village in Bali where his manufacturing facility is located.
This provides that consistent, quality product we are inspired by & love to create with.
Local artists transform
the white base cloth into the spectacular designs and colors for which
Island Batik is known. All of the fabric dyeing is done in Island Batik's own
manufacturing facility in Bali.
Men and women of the community perform the management of the plant, as
well as all of the production processes. Men perform the stamping of wax
onto the fabric, dyeing, washing and drying. The fabric is left out in
the rice fields, where good sunlight is essential to ensure strong color
and color fastness. The women are in charge of quality assurance,
folding, bolting and packaging of the cloth. I have to say, they do a darn good job!
The batik fabric is rolled by hand onto cardboard bolts, which are manufactured by
families in the surrounding district on the island. Island Batik produces 100% recyclable bolt boards utilizing local island raw materials. I think that's awesome!
These bolts are stacked & ready to be boxed.
We Mermaids are picky about how our fabric is rolled onto the
boards, & we're very unhappy when our bolt boards are wimpy, bendy or
loose. These are some of the best!
Kudos to the villagers in Bali.
These boxes are ready to ship all over the world - we even noticed some familiar quilt shop names. We thought we might just offer to deliver them on the way home ... but our car was already packed with our own new batiks!
This is my BEFORE shopping cart. ;)
Many thanks to everyone at Island Batik for such a wonderful morning. You all do an amazing job. We enjoyed seeing your facility, learning about the batik process, & ...
PICKING OUT NEW BATIKS!
We'll be back. ;)
