It starts plain.
Cotton and modal, natural fabrics that take dye deeply and soften with every wash. Never polyester.
How batik happensबाटिक, wax and dye
Waxed by hand. Dyed by hand. Made once.
Everything at SOY is real batik, waxed and dyed by a karigar with more than thirty years at the craft. This is how plain cloth becomes your piece.
- 7stages, all by hand
- 10days, cloth to kurta
- 3ways to lay the wax
- 30+years at the craft
First, the basics
Batik is wax and dye. Try it.
Hot wax goes wherever the colour shouldn’t. Dye the cloth and the wax cracks, letting fine veins of colour in. At SOY the wax goes on three ways. Pick one and draw on the cloth.
The cloth is plain. Lay some wax.
Cloth to kurta
Watch one cloth become batik, as you scroll.
Seven stages, all by hand, in the same studio. Plain cloth to finished piece in 10 days.
Every print gets a name.
Each print starts as a drawing on the cloth. Once it works, it’s named and joins the swatch book below.
Where the colour can’t go.
Hot wax goes on by hand, over every line. Our wax was once a candle.
No two crack alike.
The cloth is folded and the cooled wax splits into hairlines. These are why your piece is yours alone.
Colour in every crack.
Into the dye bath. Colour runs into each crack and right through the cloth. Some prints go in [two or three] times.
Day [n]The pattern appears.
The wax is boiled off and the print shows for the first time, veins and all. It dries in open air.
Day [n]Made to fit you.
Cut and stitched with pockets on both sides, and to your measurements if you ask, at no extra cost.
The Crackle Library
Every SOY print, cut from the bolt.
The wax cracks differently every time, so these are the prints, not your piece. Yours has its own.
-
Neel -
Haldi -
Jamun -
Hari -
Gerua -
Shyam -
Mitti -
Kattha -
Peetal -
Lakdi
Every swatch is shot at the same distance, in the same light.
SOY batik
Printed
How to tell
The five-second test
- Turn the cuff.Real batik is dyed through, so the colour is on the inside too. Printed “batik” stops at the surface.
- Find the hairline cracks.The wax split in the dye bath and the colour ran in. Those exact cracks are on your piece and nowhere else.
Now you know the test. Try it anywhere.
Our karigars have waxed cloth for over 30 years. Your kurta gets all of them.
Nothing wasted
The wax was a candle once.
We work in small batches, by choice. Nothing is made in bulk to bring the price down, and whatever batik leaves over goes back round the loop.
Nothingthrown away.
old candles → waxMelted down and used again, batch after batch.
misprints → new printsPrinted over. They often come out better.
offcuts → accessoriesReused the sustainable way, in accessories and more.
Small batches, by choice.
Nothing is made in bulk to bring the price down. Every batch leaves the studio with a lot ticket like this one.
Dye lot, Shades of You
- Lot no.
- [ ]
- [Print name]
- Pieces in batch
- [n]
- Dye baths
- [n]
- Waxed by
- [Name]
Shanaya & Aarushi
Hand
waxed
SOY
waxed
SOY
Honest questions
From the studio notebook.
Something we haven’t answered? Message us and you’ll get a straight answer.
Ask on WhatsAppDoes it bleed?
The colour may soften slightly over the first washes as the dye settles. Hand wash cold, inside out, and dry in shade.
Why does the colour vary?
Every dye bath is mixed by hand and the wax cracks differently every time, so two pieces of the same print are never identical.
Will mine look exactly like the photo?
The print will. The cracks won’t: yours are your own.
Made this way
Pieces from this page.
Each of these went through every stage above.
Chandni
Chandni - Silver Lining Batik Kurta Set
Indigo and silver, cottonRs. 2,999
Crazy in Love
Deewani - Batik Crazy In Love Suit Set Blue
Suit setRs. 2,599
Crazy in Love
Deewani - Batik Crazy In Love Suit Set Lavender
Suit setRs. 2,599
Crazy in Love
Barkha - Blue Breeze Batik Modal Set
Suit setRs. 2,499