Fabric Dyeing Workshop, part III, soy wax batik

Our fabric dyeing workshops continued with an exploration of soy wax batiks. There was an article on this technique in Quilting Arts Magazine, and it highlighted several advantages that the soy wax had over traditional beeswax and paraffin. The most important being it was water soluble, for easy removal when you were finished. I ordered several pounds of soy wax from Dharma Trading Co. for us to share. And searched for used electric frying pans. I decided to pre-wax several pieces of already dyed fabric to get ahead start on the layering. I am glad I did, because the pieces that were already dyed were nicer then the muslin pieces with the white background. I helped set everybody up at Vera's and we used many found objects to dip into the wax. Most notably cookie cutters, empty thread spools, potato mashers, pastry wire blenders, rug grids, and circular items like toilet paper rolls. A first layer of thickened dye was painted over the wax and let to dry, then a second set of wax was either stamped on or areas were painted over with the wax. A 2nd dye color, and a 3rd wax and dye were added. Three layers was the average, though some probably had only two. We also tried painting wax over stencils, printing with carved Balinese wood blocks, and used a glove with small rubber dots on it. The wood blocks clogged up with wax and didn't print very well, and even with water soluble wax they were hard to clean. Removing the wax was an at home project. I layered newspaper and used a hot iron to melt off a lot of the wax, changing newspaper often. It was still a messy process. After removing most of the wax, I put it in the washer and dryer. It came out beautifully soft and had no wax residue. Immediately after removing it from the washer, I wiped out a soft wax ring from the washer drum with paper towel. It came off easy too. I loved the whole look and process of the soy wax batik, and did it the next time we also had a workshop. The only problem the 2nd time was the day was too hot, almost 100' and the wax started to melt when I brushed the dye onto the fabric. Cooler weather the next day allowed me to finish. The soy wax has a lower melting temperature than the beeswax/paraffin and this was good in the electric skillet.

Photos:
Amy's dyed yarns,
Vera's fabric,
large sheet,
Peggy's sunflowers,
Peggy, Pat,
Marsha's t-shirt,
Fabric drying,
large sheet,
fabric parfaits.