mangosteen batik bandana

Mangosteen are my favorite fruit, and are known throughout Southeast Asia as the queen of tropical fruits. I have lots of warm memories of trying it for the very first time while visiting family in Indonesia, and my aunt will always prepare a big bag of mangosteen for my arrival.

There are so many lovely features of the mangosteen—the leaves that form a four-leafed clover on top, the pretty magenta pulp, the white wedges that form a flower with 4 to 8 petals inside, even the way that the flower at the bottom of the mangosteen tells you how many wedges are inside (represented by the scattered flowers in the background of the design)! 

I wanted to show the mangosteen at all angles, top, side, inside, bottom, since all the views are cute and different—kind of like the phases of the moon: full, new, waxing gibbous, quarter. 

Last year, one of my goals was to learn more about batik as part of exploring my Indonesian heritage. I came across The Batik Library and took one of their batik classes, and learned so much about the process of batik, traditional natural dyes, as well as different traditional motifs! We kept in contact, and we ended up collaborating together on this batik bandana design! It's crafted using traditional batik techniques and dyed with natural indigo dye in Mojokerto, Indonesia.

It can be used as a bandana or small tablecloth.