A TECHNIQUE DRIVEN Blog dedicated to mastery of surface design techniques. First we dye, overdye, paint, stitch, resist, tie, fold, silk screen, stamp, thermofax, batik, bejewel, stretch, shrink, sprinkle, Smooch, fuse, slice, dice, AND then we set it on fire using a variety of heat tools.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Finally...a Little Time to Work on My Soy Wax Batik

I have been busy working on a wall quilt that has to be finished and photographed before March 9th. It is to a point now that I think I can actually get it finished, so I decided tonight was the night to work on some of my soy wax batik pieces. I have several fabrics waxed but haven't had time to dye or paint them. I only had time to do a couple of pieces tonight.

I really don't have anything new to add to what everyone else has said about working with soy wax. I thought it was pretty easy. The only thing I might mention is that I used a sponge to put some wax on the fabric. It soaked up a "ton" of wax, and it also put a lot of wax down onto the fabric. Maybe I should have squeezed it out a bit more before putting it on my fabric? I can tell you that the sponge is REALLY stiff with dried wax right now!

Here are the before and after pics of the couple of fabrics I got to do tonight.

This first fabric was a commercial piece of fabric with a pattern. I just put wax circles on it.
This is the same fabric with a chocolate brown paint added. I used quite a bit of extender with the paint to make it more transparent. I like the pattern within the circles left from the commercial fabric. 
This was a piece of that ugly orange fabric that I worked with last month. I used the shibori technique on it and just didn't like it at all. This is the piece with the wax applied. I didn't really uses a pattern when applying the wax (as you can easily see).
 Oooooo, I like it much better with the blue added.
I did crackle the wax a bit before adding the paint.

I have several other pieces that are ready for paint or dye. I really want to dye and over dye some of those pieces. I just didn't have time to do that this month.

Hopefully, I'll have a little more time next month to play with the inks I have ordered (although I have trips to New York and Chicago planned). I'm trying to find some clear aloe vera gel to use with the inks, but I had no luck with that today. I can only find blue or green gel. Anyone have any idea where to find the clear gel? I looked at Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Dollar General, Dollar Store, my local grocery store, and Big Lots.

3 comments:

  1. Wow! I really love the second piece! The color contrast is beautiful, as is the random design! Just goes to show... it's always possible to save a 'disaster' with another technique!

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  2. I love that yummy blue and orange.

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  3. I like the effect of the crackled wax.

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