Friday, November 14, 2014

SOY WAX RESIST

I must admit, I was dubious about whether or not I'd enjoy the Nov. technique our Fiber Junkies group had planned.  We worked with soy wax resist. WOW.....fabulous fun and so many great results.  I took about 50 photos but am only sharing a few.
 We all brought various tools to transfer designs to fabric using melted wax.  My thoughtful son gifted me several wood batik stamps he sought out for me during a trip, along with several custom metal stamps.  Unfortunately, none of us could achieve quality designs with these stamps.....we either tended to use too much or too little wax.
 Small dedicated 'electric pans', wax chips, dyes, and other stamping tools such as brushes, corks, spools, etc. were organized.
 Once the wax was melted....the 'design' tool was dipped into the wax and pressed onto fabric that was placed on rug padding.  Here Gen is using the end of an empty plastic spool.  
 I played with a silicone brush (a cooking tool) and pale green silk noil. Here too I found it difficult to control the design.
 My next stamping tool was a potato masher....again, it took some practice to control how much wax to retain on the tool before stamping.
 Val always quietly dazzles us.....her wax resist fabric has already been painted....using a credit card as a scrapper and a stencil to create the birds.
 Kate also used a stencil.....which created this wax design on a recycled cloth napkin.  I was surprised plastic stencils could be used...I assumed they'd melt but the wax wasn't that hot.
Once the wax dried, the fabric was painted using Dyna-Flo.  Time ran out before any of us were able to remove the wax....so it will be interesting to see the final results when we gather in December.
 I think this was Denny's.....she works so fast....it's hard to get photos of her work.
 Another one of Kate's...I think she may have used one half of a tennis ball for the circles......followed by several colors of Dyna-Flo.
 I worked on this hand-dyed silk piece.  The dark lines/spots are the melted wax.....added with a foam brush, and a hand-held waffle vegetable cutter.
Now painted with several colors of Dyna-Flo.
 Here's another one of mine....yellowish silk noil stamped with a egg beater.  Did I say practice is required?  
 This is Judy's....a pleated/crushed piece of silk, wax applied with a waffle veggie cutter. Sorry, I can't remember what created the circles.
 I caught Gen here putting the last bit of paint on her yellow fabric that featured numerous wax resist designs.

Hopefully I can share photos next month of the final look to these fabrics after the wax is removed.  I can say this was really fun and we are all looking forward to perfecting the technique next year.

Follow these links to see what others have been up to this week:  Sarah's Whoop, Whoop Friday, Off The Wall Friday, and Crazy Mom.

10 comments:

Norma Schlager said...

I have the wax, I have the book and I still haven't done it. I do need to get an old electric frying pan at a tag sale. Your group had some great results.

Nancy said...

Very interesting to explore this, and it seems much safer to have a low-temp wax to use. I'm partial to the egg beater and potato masher. Kitchen tools seem to have many possibilities. I saw this idea somewhere, too- use a corn pad on the end of a cork or pill bottle to stamp images. Makes nice little rounds or ovals. Look forward to seeing the fabrics with wax off.

Linda M said...

This is what we will be doing on our next play day!Of course it's not till February because of winter. I think you will be very happy with your results.

Nina Marie said...

doing surface design always takes me back to my elementary art days when it all was just play. I've found its always more fun in a group rather than solo though because there is always so much to prep and cleanup!!! these look great!

Anonymous said...

This looks totally addictive!

Robbie said...

Love using the egg beater!! Who would have thought!!! I saw pics on Judi's blog too...some neat pieces!!!

Victoria said...

I would love to try this. Really amazed at the great designs you achieved using kitchen tools. Very, very, cool!

Years ago I played around a bit with batik using beeswax and dyes, and I remember also having a lot of trouble controlling the wax amount. Over all I just made a mess! I have never tried soy wax and am wondering is their a benefit to using soy wax over another type, (such as beeswax)?

margaret said...

lots to see here and interesting all the different things you have used that worked better than the professional tools that you wanted to use. A much better use for electric frying pans than cooking in them

The Inside Stori said...

Soy wax melts at a lower temperature (safer I suppose) and is also supposed to be easier to remove....... I worked mostly on silk noil......which I suspect rendered less effective images due to its natural texture. Though the results are fine......I'm not sure I'd bother again.....unless I did some big pieces. I LOVE our FJ's experiments, yet with so many different small finished pieces of fabric ......they can be difficult to incorporate into projects.

Amy Art Quilter & Fyber Cafe said...

I love the potato masher, I am on the hunt for other mashers with different designs. I have a great one that looks floral, but everyone says it makes a pattern like a sand dollar. Isn't soy wax so much fun!!