I made a scarf by hand painting chiffon using batik and silk painting techniques.
I love how the wax flows, enabling lovely curly freehand lines. The design includes the sea, the sun, moon, a flowering tree and stars.
Here’s the process in pictures as in lateral sections, drawing the design with hot wax and a tjanting.
Helping the wax set with a cool hairdryer, then painting the fabric.
The hot wax smell reminds me of hours spent waxing skis.
When the design was completed and had dried I began to iron out the wax between sheets of paper…
The heat also activated the dyes and could see their “true colours shining through” – to quote Cyndi Lauper.
The scarf could be lovely on the beach or sunbed.
I set up a studio photo shoot with model Lucy wearing the scarf.
I exhibited the scarf in my product range exhibition at The Workstation in Sheffield in June 2017.
Top tips:
- Create a tester section to trial the techniques and products.
- Take care with hot wax.
- Hold at least four thickness folded cartridge paper under the tjanting when moving between the hot wax pot and the fabric.
- Use batik stratcher bars.
- Square and hem the fabric before painting.
- Cool hairdryer to help the wax set and to dry the
- Try using salt, after the wax has dried, to add texture and additional interest to the design.
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