Someday, Son, If You're Really Lucky, You'll Inherit All My Tjap

I could not resist taking my first step into the world of batiking using Indonesian copper tjaps. They are a tool used in batiking. I thought they would be pronounced "tajap" or perhaps "jap", but it turns out they are pronounced "chop". Go figger.

The tjaps come in a variety of designs. Dharma Trading claims they are hard to come by, so they created a special mailing list, and whenever they get a pile of them, they send out a note and the crafting world goes wild. They say the last round sold out in 24 hours, and I'm not surprised. They must have a lot of interest, because their website heaved and whined when I got my mailnote and tried to look at them. In the end, I bought just one:

It will either end up being well utilized, or simply an interesting piece of decor. I am not sure which. I am not overly fond of working with wax, as I am messy and end up getting wax everywhere. But this does look interesting, and I certainly have a ton of different dyes that could be used. So we'll see.

This is a better idea of what they look like, from a site that has some really lovely ones, Batik Timbal:

They have a handle on the back to make dipping into the wax and then pressing onto cloth easier.