The wonders of Batik

After an alarming (!) start we got down to creating some vibrant batik on Saturday.
We were in the studio space of Action Space the charity I volunteer for, which is also amongst the studios at Cockpit Arts. It was the perfect venue to get very messy with dyes and wax.

I'm showing some of the final pieces of fabric after the wax was removed. We had to leave them overnight to dry up and also for the dye to fix itself to the fabric. 
I have to say that they all turned out rather brilliant. The light is shining through them in this picture so it makes the colours even brighter. But the dye held rather well, ironing helps too. I got everyone's fabric in the pictures! Let me know what you think...job well done I'd say. 

And now for the processes involved...some waiting for things to soak, the magic of science and then applying the wax and the dyeing of course. 

This was the waxing table and below a batik tool close up called a tjanting, it helps make finer lines as you are drawing with the wax.

After the wax was applied, the fabric needed to sit in a 'fixer' (water and soda ash) so that the dye would stay in the fabric once washed out. 

Next up the dyes, probably the best part, mixing different colour dyes together on the fabric and experimenting. A psychedelic colour range to choose from.

After this, it was a waiting game, covered in plastic so the pieces didn't dry out. They had to soak in the dye for at least two hours. Perfect time to head out for a well earned glass of wine!

And I can't resist another couple of pictures of them all together in the afternoon light.

Return to rag rugs

We returned to making rag rugs on Saturday.

The last time we were busy cutting up fabric and hooking and prodding  was in the blissful heat of the summer. I think we should make rag rugs more often as it seems to make the sun shine!

I got some coffee sacks from Brick lane market this time as they are great for the hessian base in which to work your rag rug. Others also used the jute shopping bags to work into, working on hiding a certain logo, how all shopping bags should be...

Some great organised chaos...and fierce concentration, we didn't feel the time flying by.

And there was even more fabric to choose from than last time as clothes and bedsheets are not given away to charity anymore (even friends and families unwanted clothes and bedsheets...I am a magnet for this stuff), they all get recycled into fantastic rag rug creations. 

And the tools with funny names - hooky and proddy - how those words can be interpreted in so many ways.

 

It was great to see the progress on a rag rug from the last session, all that time ago... OK, it wasn't so long ago really.  

Beads galore

On Saturday we threaded many, many beads through wire and wondered if we would make anything by the end of the workshop. As with much creating and making we were testing out the ability of waiting in order to achieve...delayed gratification...

Well most of us managed, and very enjoyable it was too. There was even time to make a wee bumble bee, well, maybe not so wee, it being almost the same size as the flower...

Everything matched, even nail varnish, I think this was down to the overall bias on the colour red today  






 
And here is a picture demo of how the whole threading the bead thing worked. The beads are sort of like knitting stitches, you have to make sure to count your rows so that you get the right shape. Much scolding by me if you add an extra bead where there wasn't supposed to be one! Ah, but sure that's what I'm there for...















So increase and decrease depending on the shape you are after.

You end up with a whole heap of petals ready to be all rolled into a flower formation.

And hey presto, there it is, all rolled up with green florist tape, you can't see the tape in this picture though.