Batik

This post, in part, appeared on my old blog in January (Blaze's hair was a lot shorter then). At that time, our computer was not working and I was having trouble downloading pictures on the library computer I was using, so I am going to try this again with the pictures that I had to leave out then.


We used the silk and Kool-aid to do batiking . I made a scarf and Blaze designed and dyed a flag for his own imaginary world.



First I drew the design I wanted on a big piece of paper.



Then I placed the silk over the paper, so that I could see the design through the cloth. The designs were then painted onto the fabric using a mixture of melted wax and beeswax and an old paint brush.





I used Black Cherry Kool-aid for this one, but found it to be the least color-fast of the flavors I've tried so far.



After dying, the fabric was streamed for 20 minutes. I'll warn you that the steaming with the wax on the silk means wax to clean out of the pan and streamer later.

After the silk is dry, sandwich it between two layers of paper and iron the wax out of the cloth. Ironing makes the wax melt and the paper absorbs it. A couple layer of paper may be need both under and above the cloth, so the wax doesn't get on the ironing board cover or the iron.





Then it was Blaze's turn:

He wanted to make a flag. He came up with the design idea, but I helped it along a little by making the posterboard star stencils and helping him to trace around a large plate, as the planet in the middle of the flag. He did the small details on his own.





He carefully painted the wax on, while I made sure that the wax stayed melted.



We used both blue and green Kool-aid as dye.



When the flag had been steamed and ironed, we tied it to a bamboo pole and it was ready to display or play with.

The Flag of Blaze World: