Starter Kit. Idea 69 of 500. Cluster 3
Batik in contemporary design, not only the tourist palette
The mechanism, from the book
The Zermatt water bottle. Sigiriya has not got a stone with its own name on it.
The first step
Work with a batik maker on two contemporary designs, in colours outside the usual tourist palette, and produce a small run of cushion covers or wall pieces. Show them to an interior designer in Colombo and to a concept store, and ask for an order. Their order, or their changes to the design, is the proof.
- Who pays first
- Interior designers, concept stores and design-conscious buyers who want batik that belongs in a modern room.
- What leaves today
- Batik is sold as a cheap tourist souvenir; contemporary design sells the same craft into homes at design prices.
Ask first
- National Crafts Council. Ask which batik makers want to try new designs and sell beyond tourist shops.
- Sri Lanka Export Development Board. Ask which markets abroad buy contemporary textiles from small studios.
Check before you spend
That the designs are original and not copied, that dyes meet the rules of countries you sell into, and that makers are paid fairly.
Find out these three numbers
- What do design shops abroad pay for a batik piece?
- How many pieces can the studio make in a month?
- Which designers would work with batik makers on new patterns?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.