Soy Wax Batik

A few friends and I got together for an art play day and experimented with Soy Wax Batik. The nice thing about the soy wax is that it is water soluble, so it is easier to remove the wax than having to iron it out as with regular batik. We melted it in small electric griddles, and used a number of different things to stamp with: wooden stamps, metal items, foam stamps, egg beater, thread spools, whatever we could get our hands on. We also drew free form designs with an eyedropper or traditional tjanting. After you do the wax design, you paint the cloth with thickened dye. The dye has to be thickened since the soy wax is water soluble.

Here are some pictures of what I did. These are about 36 x 45 inches, and there are a few detail shots. I have only done one layer of batik and dye, and I am trying to decide whether or not I will leave them as is, do more layers of batik, or perhaps enhance with paint.