At first batiks which reached Jambi came from those batik centers along Java’s north coast, mainly Cirebon, Lasem and Tuban. The motifs were always geometrical with very restricted colors, dark blue, dark red and colors having yellow tint.
Batik from Jambi depicted ornaments influenced by many cultures, Javanese, Indian, Chinese and Islam. Beside ornaments derived from the Indian Patola, there were also calligraphic designs depicted on selendang (= scarf) and ikat kepala (= head cloth).
Motifs from Palembang hand-woven cloth were sometimes used. Formerly Batik Jambi was always hand drawn batik and some of them are sarongs. But since 1980 Batik Jambi has been produced using the Cap (= Copper stamp) to speed up the production due to the increasing demand. The copper stamp is made to order in Yogyakarta.
