Batik is a technique used to put patterns and artwork on to cloth. The basic idea is to draw on fabric with something, usually hot wax, that will resist colored dye. The fabric can soak up color, your artwork remains, and the wax gets removed in a final step to leave the finished fabric and pattern.
Hot wax, colored dye, hot electric irons. Danger abounds! Hard as it is to believe, we did this in elementary school art class. It was one of my favorite projects.
We heated up paraffin until it melted, we painted on our pieces of fabric with the wax, then dipped it all in RIT dye. When it was dry, we’d heat up our irons, place the waxed fabric between sheets of newsprint, and would iron the wax out of the fabric. The newsprint acted as a sponge.
Now, people use glue instead of wax when doing this project with kids.
Below are two examples of batiks being created. The first is a more traditional approach. Watch how fast this artist works. He makes it look so easy.
Traditional technique:
And here is a Barbados artist leading a workshop with more of an Island-theme. Same basic approach, but a bit more control over colors by painting the dyes
Batik
One of the things I’ve never gotten around to doing. This is intriguing. Maybe this is the year…
Batikathon
Not hard to do. I think we drew on fabric first to lay out a pattern, then painted with hot wax using brushes. I like the pouring was tools they use in the videos.