Batik Experiments

During my second year I began to look into Batik and in the posts from early 2012 contain the research that I had gotten up to. Thankfully the studio's were pretty much empty today which meant I got to get very messy. (Currently still have dyes all over fingers....and it's not coming off) 

Today was just an experiment day using reactive dyes which turned into me finding the wax. Which resulted in Batik. The designs on these images are the beginning stages but for what I'm trying to do, batik could be one of the most effective techniques I could use. 

The skull shape isn't great but the wax is a lot harder to control when you're trying to be particular. Images taken from the studio, I didn't know how any if it would turn out and by splattering water onto cotton and then reactive dye on top, it gave a great effect. Very pleased how it came out!

 

This design was a quick drawing of another i had previously done in my sketchbook. I was trying to focus more on drawing lines with the wax the way a pencil would and almost try to add shade to the surface. This design involved more water that the previous one and still worked great. But random blobs of wax can make the how thing look off, so if I'm going to use this technique for final designs I'll have to learn how to control the wax better.....

With a silk fabric there is the potential for me to use the batik and dye process and begin to produce a collection of scarf designs. So thinking of this I began to look at the textile art the Henry Moore produced. Silk scarves were a number of his designs. This is the direction I want to go in for a range of silk scarves. A static image on a scarf and the skulls on this page are the type o design I want to do along with the biro drawing in my portfolio.

I decided to see how some of my other design ideas would show in batik, this is experimental type of pattern from the biro skull drawing. I allowed all the wax to dry and then once again, flicked water and dye all over the fabric. This is how it looked with just the red.

 Then added the blue and water........

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Overall i think today has been a very successful day in the studio, now to look further into Henry Moore's work, Batik and begin designing patterns with Batik in mind. Maybe a stencil to control the wax???