Androsia

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Androsia is a type of textile produced by the Androsia Batik Factory on Andros Island, Bahamas. It is handmade and has been manufactured on Andros since 1973 by Bahamians. This type of fabric is considered one of Andros' national treasures and won the Silver Jubilee award in 1998.

Batik type of Indonesian cloth

Batik is a technique of wax-resist dyeing applied to whole cloth, or cloth made using this technique, originated from Indonesia, Batik is made either by drawing dots and lines of the resist with a spouted tool called a canting, or by printing the resist with a copper stamp called a cap. The applied wax resists dyes and therefore allows the artisan to colour selectively by soaking the cloth in one colour, removing the wax with boiling water, and repeating if multiple colours are desired.

Contents

Creation

Stencils are created from locally harvested sponges and fashioned into the whimsical shapes Androsia is famous for. Typically these are shapes organic in nature, for example conch shells, hibiscus flowers, and native coral heads. The stencils are dipped in heated wax and then hand pressed onto the fabric. The fabric is next soaked in dye long enough for the fabric to absorb the color. Typically Androsia is brightly colored, with hot pink and purple being two very common colors. During the dying process the wax prevents the dye from adhering to the fabric. These patches of white retain the shape of the stencils. Finally the cloth is boiled to remove the wax.

Stencil usually a thin sheet of material, such as paper, plastic, wood or metal, with letters or a design cut from it, used to produce the letters or design on an underlying surface by applying pigment through the cut-out holes in the material

Stencilling produces an image or pattern by applying pigment to a surface over an intermediate object with designed gaps in it which create the pattern or image by only allowing the pigment to reach some parts of the surface. The stencil is both the resulting image or pattern and the intermediate object; the context in which stencil is used makes clear which meaning is intended. In practice, the (object) stencil is usually a thin sheet of material, such as paper, plastic, wood or metal, with letters or a design cut from it, used to produce the letters or design on an underlying surface by applying pigment through the cut-out holes in the material.

Conch large sea snail and its shell

Conch is a common name applied to a number of different medium to large-sized shells. The term generally applies to large snails whose shell has a high spire and a noticeable siphonal canal.

Coral Marine invertebrates of the class Anthozoa

Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically live in compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Corals species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.

Uses

Androsia is then cut into various items of batik clothing such as dresses, shirts for men and women, skirts, pareos, tank tops, t-shirts, shorts, and accessories. Androsia is also used in some furniture and in other household goods, or is sold by the yard for dressmaking, quilting, and craft projects.

T-shirt piece of clothing with short sleeves, a round or V-shaped neckline, without collars, pockets or buttons

A T-shirt is a style of unisex fabric shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves. Traditionally it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a crew neck, which lacks a collar. T-shirts are generally made of a stretchy, light and inexpensive fabric and are easy to clean.

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