JAKARTA: Indonesia's hand-painted batik is synonymous with the country and it has been an integral part of its people's dressing for centuries.

But environmentalists have warned against the excessive use of chemical dyes in batik production. Some batik lovers are heeding the warning and seeking solutions.

Batik has been an art and craft in Indonesia's Java island for centuries. Natural dyes from tree barks were the primary source of colouring. But the age of mass production have seen factories turning to synthetic dyes to produce stronger colours and cut down production time.

Environmentalists have raised concerns that the waste water from the dying process is harmful to the eco-system and human health.

To make matters worse, small batik factories cannot afford a waste water processing plant, so the unprocessed water is simply dumped into rivers and lakes.

But Madam Sancaya Rini, a batik lover, hopes to change that by returning to Mother Nature.

For the past four years, she has turned her backyard into a laboratory, to experiment with extracts from tree barks, leaves and fruit peels, to colour her batik fabric.

Sancaya Rini, owner, Creative Kanawida, said: "I was using chemical dye until my husband, a chemical technician from Bandung Institute, told me that I was destroying the environment. It's damaging the ground water. From then on, I was determined not to destroy the environment but continue producing batik."

In the course of her experimentation, Madam Rini discovered that natural dyes actually generate colours which cannot be artificially duplicated. These include mangosteen peels which creates three different colours - yellow, maroon or brown.

She said: "I've once been to a batik centre in Pekalongan to share my experience. I introduced to them natural colours which they considered tough. But after we tried it together, it proved successful. We used the leaves we picked from the surrounding. They immediately changed their minds to switch to natural colours."

Madam Rini believes that every plant, leave and fruits is able to produce their own unique colour and so she has not stopped experimenting. Her latest experiment is using grass from the lawn that has been mowed just a couple of days ago and she hopes to turn a scarf green.

Madam Rini's products are also beginning to catch the eyes of batik lovers who are willing to pay a higher price for fabrics that use natural colours.

She next plans to catalogue her colours. She continued: "I'm still considered home-based. I colour according to my instinct. I colour what I want. I have several buckets of colours and I just dipped the fabric.

"I believe I have to start cataloguing because in future there'll be requests for me to produce certain colours and I won't be able to remember. So I've to start cataloguing the colours or a combination of colours that I have produced."

The enterprising artist has already won an award from for her effort, but she said her biggest objective is to allow Indonesians to continue to love their batik while protecting their environment. - CNA/vm