Painting with Dye

Back to work now that spring vacation is done! Spring has arrived so I can work outside!
Here are the photos of the next steps of the batik process. I am painting on the dye today. Here is the waxed fabric before I start to paint.





I have started to paint with yellow paint that I will mix with some blue to create green.







Adding some green paint now to fill in the leaves.









Now I am painting the back ground with the bright blue paint.









Here is a close up of the finished piece of fabric. After drying for 24 hours I will rinse it out with hot water to remove the soy wax and excess dye.










The finished fabric. More steps to come soon!

Painted with Wax

Here are some more photos of the waxed fabric featuring design number two.

Next Steps

As promised, here are the next steps in creating a batik.

Here is my work station: tools, melted wax and cotton fabric.








Getting ready to paint with the melted wax.






Here I am painting the fabric with a sumi brush and the melted wax.











More progress.











This piece of cotton is ready for dye!








Check back soon to see my progress.

What is Batik?

It's hard to believe, but I first tried out the batik process as a teenager, which was a long time ago! I was inspired by a magazine article... and my desire to create something cool for my dorm room. I figured it would be fun! What I created was a big mess and a love for the process that continues today.

When I do shows, there is a real mix of customers who know the process, those who want to hear more and others who, like me, are inspired to learn how to batik themselves. I am currently working on a new design today, so this seems like the perfect opportunity to answer the questions so often asked: What is batik? How does it work? How do you get the beautiful colors and what creates that crackling effect? Is it hard? You get the idea.

So over the next week or two, I will try to answer some of these questions and illustrate the process of batik.

Here is my description....Batik, an Indonesian word meaning, “wax writing,” is a process in which an artist “writes” or paints on fabric or paper. The wax creates a resist that protects the fabric from the dye when the fabric is either immersed in or painted with the dyes. A new waxing and dying process must be repeated for each color and layer of the design. Wikipedia describes it as "a wax- resist dyeing technique used on textile." The key components being wax and dye.

For me the process starts with the design, which is created with paper and pencil or pen. Here is step one: The design. Check back later this week to see step two.

Happy Monday!

Peace

Wishing the world a peaceful weekend!

Reuse, Recycle! Book Sale?!

I love books - especially children's picture books and coffee table books with great photos or art! My husband and kids love to read novels and interesting nonfiction. If you are anything like us, you could go broke buying all the books you want, even when you can find them.

So every year we look forward to the annual book and music sale sponsored by my daughter's dance/ theater studio, Elm Street Studio in South Portland, ME. This is a major deal! Thousands of books and CDs and DVDs of every description. We always walk out with armloads and I love the idea of recycling and re-using. Of course, I love the idea of saving a bundle, too!

Here are the details for those in the southern Maine area! Hope to see you there!

Elm Street Studio's
6th Annual Used Book and Music Sale
Saturday, April 4th
8am-2pm
Elm Street United Methodist Church
168 Elm Street
South Portland, ME