fiberhart

And the Results Are. . .

All five pieces from yesterday have been batched, rinsed, and the wax ironed out. All I have left to do is dry clean them, and then a couple of good washings in Synthrapol.

My first piece, I played with a tjanting, drawing spirals and dots. Mostly they came out ok, except for one where the wax got cool, and I tried to melt it with a butter knife. I didn't do such a hot job with the knife. Love the colors, this will find its way into a quilt.



From this I learned that unless you want all your designs in white, don't do all your waxing on undyed fabric. So then I did a little bit of waxing, dyed, waxed again, and dyed again.



I was excited to see I got CRACKLE on this one!!



This one is probably my least favorite. I dyed it a pale shade of green, then waxed, then dyed. I think I waxed again, but somehow lost track of exactly what I'd done. I do know I overdyed it first aqua, then peacock blue.



The last two, I went crazy with the wax. On this one, I waxed the white fabric, dyed it yellow. Then I waxed again, and dyed it coral. I waxed a third time, then dyed it maroon. And voila, I have a batik plaid, thanks to a potato masher and a toothbrush.



The smallest piece was first dyed yellow, then waxed with a different potato masher and a tjanting. Then I scrunch dyed it maroon. This piece actually looked pretty good after that maroon dye bath, but I decided to go one more step. I coated the entire piece in wax, scrunched it good, and left it in a baggie with navy blue dye overnight. Look at all that crackle!!



I am really happy with the results. I will use all of them in some kind of quilt. And I'm already thinking about designs I can do, and then add threadwork. Batik panels look great stretched on a frame, and if you add threadwork, I think it makes them even more special.

The only thing I think I will do differently is trying soy wax instead of parafin and sticky wax. More environmentally friendly, and much less hassle getting the wax out. My only question is about the crackle, wondering if that is achievable with soy. I have been looking out for Rayna Gillman's new book, since I know she uses soy wax exclusively, but it hasn't shown up here yet. If I don't find it in the next month, I suspect I will be ordering it online. This is just too much fun!!