Canting Electric

Last Saturday, I went to my previous senior high school because I invited  by one of its extracurricular, Youth Science Club or Kelompok Ilmiah Remaja (KIR) in bahasa. They asked me to teach them about how to make canting electric. Canting is a traditional tool to make batik. We use canting to draw the pattern on the cloth before we soak the cloth in dye. We draw the pattern with hot wax so the one with hot wax pattern on it will not colored by the dye.

Canting and Wax

Stove to Make Hot Wax

In the traditional way, we need to boil the wax to become hot liquid wax and then we scoop it with canting before we can draw the pattern. This traditional way can be harmful to the batik artist because they will repeatedly inhale the gas from hot wax. That can cause the plaque in lungs. Moreover, the power source for the stove that used to make hot wax usually use kerosene. That will be expensive and not energy efficient. So, at the end of 2010 my friends and I participated in competition held by Directorate General of Intellectual Property, Ministry of Justice & Human Rights Indonesia with Canting Electric as a topic. We became finalist and the only team come from undergraduate student in Electronic Section. We competed against older people even some of them have PhD, and we lost :P

Scooping Hot Wax With Canting

Drawing The Pattern

I told the story to Youth Science Club in my senior high and they asked me to teach them. I taught them last Saturday with more simple version of canting electric based on Jogajakarta student's prototype. Its very simple, we used metal bottle of vitamin C, we disassembled solder as a heater, and chopstick for the canting handle. We put it together with iron wire.

Making Canting Electric Together

When I taught them, and explain how its works, they looks like full of curiosity. They asked many questions, something that we think simple and need to explain it in simple words. I realized, its feels amazing how we can inspire younger generation and make them more interested in science and engineering. I think I want to came by again and teach them something next time :))