Batik

I've always been fascinated with the Batik process but haven't made any consistent attempts to figure it out. Over the weekend I pulled out my soy wax, hot plate and found objects to see what would happen.

In the past when I dabbled with the technique I realized that soy wax was much easier to clean up and doesn't smell as strong as typical wax. I bought the wax already flaked which melts quickly in this form. I was mindful of never putting a pan of wax directly onto the heat source and created a double boiler from thrift store purchases, (no need to ruin my good pots!).

To apply the wax I used either a carved wooden block, a round sponge, a manipulated sponge or a paint brush. The details in the wooden block were lost and I didn't care much for the end results. That fabric went back onto the pile for a "do over" at a later date! I liked the round sponge as it created a mysterious pattern that could be used in many different projects. The manipulated sponge was interesting. I was thinking about the shape of grasses when I sliced up the sponge... not sure the design reads that way but I don't dislike it. When I painted the wax onto the fabric surface I used a light tough and wanted to create a fun free flowing design.

Here are the end results:

 

Round Sponge
Blue on white fabric



Round Sponge
Multi colored dyed fabric over dyed with lavender

Round Sponge
Raspberry on white fabric

Manipulated Sponge
Multi colored dyed fabric over dyed with purple



Paintbrush
Raspberry and blue on white fabric
I might continue manipulating the surface of these two pieces - what do you think?