Many people ask me where my inspiration comes, and how do I plan my designs for my batik artwork. I have two different ways of approaching a batik. Some of my batiks are done mostly with the tjanting tool, which is a brass or copper bowl with a spout. The tjanting is a very ancient…
The batik is finally finished, covered with wax, and now it’s time to remove it and reveal the bright colors underneath. There are several ways to do this. Some artists, especially in Indonesia, boil the wax out of the fabric. This has the advantage of having the wax rise to the top, and when it…
Here is a batik tutorial video clip from 2015.
Silk Painting and the Fence Star, my pony, has been so good about respecting the one line white poly tape fences that I put up and move frequently. This gives her new sections of grass. She happily eats within the area and there is a line at the edge where eaten to uneaten grass meet….
Sometimes I have tried a different approach to a batik and I have started working with the black fabric and gone through many stages of bleaching out and re-dyeing color in. This first photo shows a picture of the wax on the black fabric in the beginning of my batik, Caught in the Thunderstorm. The strange thing…
People ask me all the time, “How do you do batik?” I used to try to write summaries, but now I can just say go to my website! Last Friday, Maria Wulf of Bedlam Farm came and took video of me doing batik. She wrote some beautiful blog posts about each part of the tutorial…
People ask how to start batik without making a big investment in supplies. I will have to recommend getting some old sheets, some RIT dye or ready-mixed dye at your local craft store, along with paraffin wax and cheap brushes. (DharmaTrading.com has extensive supplies and that is where I purchased my tjanting tool.) Buy the…
Starting with black fabric is an interesting change from how I usually begin with white fabric. It can be a bit difficult seeing where the wax has been applied when you are working with black fabric, but by shining the light a certain way, you do create a reflection that you can build on. Here…
Sunburst was finished last week. I have worked on it for over a year.It went through many waxing and dyeing stages. It also has been bleached out and re-dyed twice. As I came to the final dye bath, I set the dye and dried the batik. I wanted to add some deep red and red…
My fans are always asking me how I make my batik art. I thought I would make a poster to show them how it’s done! This is a simplified explanation of all the steps that are involved, but I thought I should share it with you here on my blog as well.