First the artist paints the outline of the motif in hot liquid wax onto the cloth, using a special hot wax applicator. It requires great skill to apply the wax evenly, with no drips!

Next each color is painted one by one onto the stretched pareo. The natural wicking action of the fabric serves to blend and shade colors. The wax outlines prevent different colors from mixing.

Now the pareo must hang to air
dry. Pray for sunny weather!
 

Then the workers soak the
pareo in several baths, to fix the colors and to melt the wax out of the fabric.
 

Finally, the pareo is dried again, sewn, ironed, checked for for flaws, packaged, and then shipped.