To continue our Folly adventure...day 2 was more of the same but with the addition of Eco printing and batiking.
We prepared our bundles - fabric and leaves tied up very tight with string and shrink wrap, and boiled them in a vinegar and water bath for @ an hour. Mary and I had recently taken a workshop in Eco printing and became very familiar with which plants impart color and which ones don't.
We also did some paper...same process and mordant. I found a little booklet that my mother had - belonged to a spoon collection and talked about the 13 original colonies. I thought it would be interesting to try and print on that.
But first....dunk it into an Indigo bath for some nice blue color.
I also had some very old magazines I thought would be fun to print on.
We made many layers of paper and leaves and in between tried different colorants - like this piece of tissue paper which imparted some great color.
We also used a Marigold which gave color from both the flower and leaves.
This beautiful long strip of China silk that Kate created was a great success. She will probably use this to make one of her beautiful books.
Here is a piece of paper printed with Sumac - a highly successful plant for imparting color. After printing, I dipped it in Indigo.
The batiking was fun although I've never been a big fan as I don't like dealing with the wax. I did it years ago and used a mixture of paraffin (very brittle) and bees wax (very pliable)...together they make a perfect blend...only problem, they are hard to remove...ironing between newspaper helps but still much of the wax stays behind. Soy wax is the answer which washes out easily but I didn't have any...next time.
Here is my piece of batik...since this pic, I've ironed and ironed to remove wax and it's still stiff as a board..so it's either bring this tiny piece to the dry cleaner which can remove it or toss it with a good lesson learned...I'm thinking the latter....but I do see soy wax in my future....More great results to follow...
Wow...results were really nice!! Love Kate's silk piece and the Sumac paper you did! Nice job!!! And lots of fun too!
ReplyDeleteI think you can boil your wax out of the batik, since it looks like a fairly small piece. As the wax floats to the top, you skim it off. I've just done a google and there's info on Dharma's website that tells how to do this. http://tinyurl.com/yaybh3u7 I think too that you can get some kind of product that is similar to what dry cleaners use to remove the rest of the residue. Here's something that sounds like it's more environmentally friendly: http://www.georgeweil.com/fact_file/wax_out.aspx Googling is my best friend! Give it a try to see if you can come up with other solutions, but my quick look found numerous websites recommending the boiling method. Hope this helps. You may not find the soy wax will hold up to the dipping in the indigo vat, depending on how long you leave it in.
ReplyDeleteHi thanks so much for the great information. I had actually done batik in the past....on silk ...after much ironing, I finally resorted to boiling. It did remove most but not all...maybe because it was a big piece. I did wind up taking it to the dry cleaners..I will look into the product that is similar to that which dry cleaners use....sounds good.......Thanks again...
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! I too have done batik - back in college as part of an arts and crafts class and remember the ironing and ironing and ironing with the final trip to the dry cleaners. It's only recently that I ran into the boiling thing but haven't tried it myself. Good luck with your search and let us know if you find a solution.
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