Batik experiment

This past Wednesday my friend Martha and I tried soy wax batik. This was the first time either of us had done it.

We pre-soaked fabric in soda ash then used tjantings, empty thread spools, tjaps, luffas, and potato mashers to make our resist patterns. After the soy wax dried, we painted over the fabric with dyes thickened with sodium alginate. The fabrics were laid out in the sun to dry.

One of Martha's.

Mine.

Some of the fabrics were then reprinted with more soy wax and painted with a different color dye and dried again.

Martha's

Mine

Not always wanting white fabric showing, we tried previously hand dyed fabric. This gave a different starting point.

Martha's

Mine

At the end of the day we had some great fabrics. Will definitely do some more batiking before summers end.

Dyeing Fabric Fun

This past Saturday was such a sunny and cool day, I decided to dye some fabric outside. Using Procion MX dyes, I colored two different types of silk - dupion and habotai.

I got some colors that will work with silk tie samples I got from a friend.

Next I squirted some dyes onto silk velvet and swished the dyes around.

I had two different manufacturers of PFD fabric - Moda and Kona. I dyed some of each to see what the finished feel of the cloth would be. Kona feels rather thick, okay for piecing but I don't like it for applique. The Moda feels about the same.

My favorite cotton is Pimatex by Robert Kaufman. It has a feel similar to the commercial batik fabrics. The thread count is tighter and works much better for any type of applique.

I also dyed some organza. I needed very little dye for these since its so sheer.

It ravels quite a lot when washed and tangled up with the other fabrics. I wasn't sure whether to throw it in the dryer, (didn't want it to melt) so I draped it over a clothes rack. It got back its stiffness.

Further experiments with soy wax and shibori are in the future.

Play Day Experiments

Last Tuesday I had a play day with some art quilt friends. Each brought some art supplies and fabric to experiment with paints, inks, fabric markers, stamps, stencils, etc.

I tried some Tsukineko spray inks, spraying around the negative parts of stencils. I used many different colors, some I borrowed.
Above is sage sprayed with lilac walnut ink.

Oregano with cornflower walnut ink.

Carnations with cherry blossom walnut ink.

With the exception of the bugs, the fabrics are different yellow/green hand dyed fabric. The bugs are light blue hand dyed fabric.

The next day I outlined my stencils with a Sharpie black ultra fine marker and put in details.

Moth with cherry blossom walnut ink.

I then painted the insides of the stencils with Tsukineko inks.

Morning glories sprayed with terra cotta walnut ink.

Iris with eucalyptus walnut ink.

I also played around with stamping using Distress Ink Pads. Wasn't too happy with the results of what I made but it gave me some experience using the stamps and ink pads and the fun of experimenting without feeling it has to be made into a quilt.

I'm very happy with how the spray inks came out and will continue with the other flowers and bugs next rainy day.