fiberhart

Batiking!!

Oh my gosh, I am tired, my legs ached- but Saturday in Salt Lake learning to batik was FABULOUS. The group was small enough so everyone got individual attention, but big enough we could see very different ways of working and results. Anne Munoz, our teacher, is a local batik artist who has been doing this since the 1970's. Her work is gorgeous!

She had us set up in her backyard, with two separate stations. The waxing station was two long tables set up with four wax pots, and lots of tjantings and other tools to use. I never knew there were so many configurations of potato mashers! Kathleen scoured the antique shops in northern California recently, and brought some treasures for us all to try. Here's a shot of the waxing station-



You can really tell with the wax when you get it right. You don't have long with the tjanting before you have to heat it up again. If the wax is too cool, it just sits on top of the cloth rather than soaking into it.



On the other side of the yard was the dye station. Anne had lots of dye colors for us to choose from, most of which I'd never used since I tend to order the primary single shade dyes and mix my own colors. I had a ball trying colors I'd never used before. Suzanne is getting ready to dye her waxed cloth, and Kathleen is looking on.



Here's another view of the dye station, later in the day. Look at all those pieces drying!!



We batched pieces in the sun, then went to work on another. You quickly learned time management- have a piece batching, one drying, and another to work on. These four pieces are mine and Suzanne's, baking under plastic.



By the end of the day, everyone had at least one piece for show and tell. Suzanne is filling in gaps in her stash, and now has the perfect medium light orange yellow she's wanted. The marking on this piece was done with a toothbrush.




There was some wonderful work produced, and also learning about what works and what doesn't, depending on the effects you want. But I don't think there was a single dog, if a piece didn't work as a whole, it would still be great to cut up for a quilt.

I only ironed out one piece at Anne's, the rest I brought home to batch overnight. I'll post pictures of them later, after they are dried and the wax ironed out.