Batik

A collage of Batik work completed during a weekend course at West Dean college a while ago.  I worked on good quality calico cotton and used a simple hot wax resist applied mainly with an artists brush and a canting (or tjanting).  For broader washes I used a sponge and a basic dish washing brush for stippling.  Almost anything heat resistent can be used to apply the wax to create different effects.  Each design was worked from light to dark by applying colour to the image and then masking out areas with wax before applying the next darker shade.  This process being repeated as many times as necessary to achieve the desired level of detail and depth of colour.  

The most detailed example here is the red geranium.  My source for this image was a greeting card and I became totally absorbed in creating the lights and darks in the flowers, the mixture of colours in the leaves and trying to capture the effect of back lighting from a window.  

The pattern sample was created in the same way, allowed to dry and then ironed to melt the wax into the fabric, which is the usual method for sealing a batik and has a stiffening effect.  I then scrunched the fabric lightly to randomly crack the wax and pushed the whole thing into a dark blue dye mix.  The colour was allowed to seep into the cracks creating a pleasing crazed effect.  This can be seen clearly in the detail of the sailboat and is just one technique that can be used to add interest and texture.