Batik is a wax resist fiber art. Hot wax is applied to fabric in a design. The entire cloth is then dyed a single color. The wax serves as a resist, preventing the dye from reaching the fabic where it was applied. If you remove the wax at this point , you will have a dyed piece of fabric with a white design on it. Or you can leave the wax on and put another design of wax over the areas just dyed and dye another color. Where the second color goes over the first, you get a third color. You can keep adding wax and dyebaths as long as you like. In the end all the wax is removed. The Batik effect is unique in that the wax cracks during handling, either intentionally or not. (Parifin wax cracks a lot, maybe too much, Bee's wax and synthetic Bee's wax called Sticky wax, dont crack at all, so usually a mixture of the two is used to get the "right" amount of crackle). In each dye bath, the cracks in the wax allow the dye to reach the fabric creating the unique batik effect. Batik can be done on any natural fabric with cotton being the most common. Procion fiber reactive dyes are the dye of choice for batik on cotton because they are used with cold water."