Batik

Learning the process of how to do batik was exciting as I hadn’t done it before.

First we stretched the fabric over a grid and then we were allowed to begin drawing with the wax. I quickly realised that you have to work quite fast due to the wax drying quickly. You also have to be aware of the drips, in my first piece their were a few drips and splodges but I worked with them and tried to incorporate them in with my work.

After you have draw with the wax you let it dry for a few seconds then you can begin painting the ink on. I found that painting when painting with the ink I wanted the ink to spread and disperse more but it didn’t so the marble mix affect I was going for didn’t truly work.

To get the wax out of the fabric you sandwich it between newspaper and place in the heat press for 10 – 20 seconds. This allows the wax to melt and go in to the paper.

You can see in the pictures that the white patches are where the wax was. I would like to try covering large areas of fabric with wax then cracking it and then painting on the ink. I would like to see if the ink would go in between the was and create new patterns.

Next time I am going to take designs that I have drawn and work from them when drawing with wax. I want to aim to get more precise drawings that are more intricate and delicate.