Fiber Junkies Pt 1 - Working with Soy Wax

Yes, Fiber Junkies again, we work around everyone's schedule and this was the best time with the holidays coming up so fast. This month we did soy wax printing/batiking and it was great fun and a new experience for many of us. My friend Mary has some great pictures on her blog of this technique along with a good explanation. These first 2 pictures are from Mary as I neglected to take them, thank you Mary.

 Several of us had the small electric fry pans which is important for controlling the temperature. Wax has a very low melting point and can ignite easily so it's important to keep it just above the melting point. After stamping fabric with objects dipped in wax, we painted the area with Dye na Flow paint.

 There was a very creative assortment of tools that were "heat friendly" and could safely put put in hot wax.

 Everything from potato mashers to corks, spools and paint brush coiled cleaners were used.

 The wax dries almost instantly so you can start painting.

 This is one of my marbled prints and perhaps too busy for this technique as the waxed image areas seemed to melt into the fabric print.

 This has Dye na Flow added.

 Kates with the wax on..

 and painted.

 This tool that kate is using made such a fun mark...not sure what it was, but gave great results.

 Kates painted. Once the paint is dry, the pieces are ironed between pieces of newspaper to remove the wax the and original fabric shows through, so as pretty as this is, it is still not done and will take on a different look when the wax is removed.

 I loved what Denny was doing with her lettering and piece of plastic "ladder"

 Painted and waiting for wax to be removed.

 Mary's got an additional wash of darker purple...

 very nice effect.

 Gen used a print for hers so this should be fun to see.

 and Denny used a stencil here.

Vals was gorgeous, she used Lumiere paint which was very clever as it's so pretty with it's high metallic content. Everyone is to bring their finished pieces to the Christmas party to share the final look. Next time - the party and please stay tuned.