Batik explained

Amy asked what batiking was after I mentioned it in the previous post. So I decided to show you some examples of mine. The heart and swirl patterns are done with a traditional batik method.
First hot wax was painted onto the fabric where I wanted the fabric to remain its natural color. Then the fabric was vat dyed in one color, like pink or yellow. Then more wax was placed over what you want to stay that color, then the fabric is vat dyed again. In the case of the heart, in blue to make purple, in the swirls it was in blue, to make a light green. Then the swirls received another coat of wax, dyed in a darker blue for more green. Finally both of them were coated solid with wax, and then scrunched up to creat the veined pattern in the wax. They are then dyed one last time in the darkest color, such as black, or purple, or dark red. This is what gives batik its unique cracked look. Then all the wax is removed, first by ironing, then by soaking the fabric in paint thinner and finally washing.

The picture of the blanket was done differently. First hot wax was used to make all of the white lines and outlines of the pictures. Then the pictures were colored in by a concentrated dye that was painted on by a paintbrush. Then the whole fabric was rinsed, coated with wax, crackled and then dyed for the batik finish. For this batik I then backed it with blue chambray, and quilted it to make a baby quilt for Gabbie. The colors in this picture is what it looked like before rinsing out the dye. Autofix on my photo program made the colors a lot more intense.

I also have a beautiful piece that I did on silk, but I will have to dig that out at another time. Hope you enjoyed it.