27 May 2010

Batik Thursday

Today Rosalita and I got together to batik. We tried PFD fabric that had been soda soaked and dried on the line. The tjanting tools (all sizes) didn't transfer enough hot wax to penetrate the cotton fabric. We now think tjanting tools are for silk or other thin fabrics. I ended up using a paint brush to paint the hot wax onto the cotton. I used a strip of yellow cotton I had painted with ProFab fabric paints. I blotched wax onto the yellow, my least favorite color, and used thickened dye in black to over dye it. I also painted this hand onto a piece of fabric I had parfait dyed while at the ProChemical dyeing class taught by Vicki Jensen (see my favorite blogs).
It came out great. We found that running the fabric under cold water and scrumbling it between your hands helped get some of the wax off prior to ironing between paper towels. We had fun.

2 comments:

  1. I use a tjanting tool for batik, they work fine on cotton fabrics (the higher the thread count of the fabric, the easier the wax comes out when you're done). If your wax isn't hot enough, it won't penetrate all the way. 225 degrees F is perfect--and I highly recommend the book "Color Your Cloth" by Malka Dubrawsky for lots of tips & great instructions on batik!

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  2. Thanks Laura. I am about to try batik again with hotter wax this time.

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