Textiles

I haven't done any Batik for years; decades, in fact. So it was exciting to have a go again, after such a gap.

I asked if I could get straight on to use the tjanting, the tool with which you draw hot wax onto fabric. Once I simply made marks on the fabric, without thinking too much about it, and not being concerned about the blobs and drips that emerge from the tjanting tool, I relaxed. It was a case of getting into the flow of it, and seeing what happened!

The colours are more 'muddy' than I wanted, or intended; the fabric dye wouldn't soak into the cotton as easily as I imagined. In retrospect, I wish I'd dampened the cotton before dye-ing. I'll do that next time.

It meant that the dyes all merged into each other; thus creating the overall brown cast.

It's not quite finished yet; I've not ironed out the wax, so I'll see how it looks then. The turn-around time for working with fabrics, means that patience is needed as you wait for one process to complete, before you move onto the next. And throughout, you're never entirely sure how the fabric will come out. This is part of the magic of textile work; the end result is often a surprise.

This can of course be a pleasant surprise......or not!