Batik Painting

If you hear a voice within you saying, “You are not a painter,” then by all means paint…and that voice will be silenced. – Vincent van Gogh


There’s this Malaysian Handicraft center at Balok, about 15 minutes from Kuantan town, where you can paint your very own batik bandana for RM15 - RM20 depending on the size. My son chose a Hibiscus pattern and my daughter chose the Malaysian ‘Wau’. Hubby helped son with his painting and I helped my daughter with hers.

Daughter and I quickly decided what colours to use.

Hubby and son arguing about which colour to use.

Hubby: Let’s use purple
Son: I don’t like the ‘Barney purple’ (referring to the dinosaur)
Me: Ya, I think he would prefer to paint everything black! Then it'll be finished in 5 minutes!(my son doesn't like painting)

After 10 minutes, we girls are halfway painting our wau.
Hubby and son still disagreeing….sigh…men!

After 30 minutes our wau is completed and we go wash our hands.

Daughter: Mum, the paint won’t come off!

Ooops! Didn’t realize the fabric paint needs to be washed off immediately….now our fingers look black and blue!

Hubby and son finally finish their hibiscus and the lady-in-charge comes to put them in the sun to dry. She explains that the bandanas need to be washed to get rid of the wax on them. We can only collect them later in the afternoon.

not too bad,eh?