Batik on Paper uses all the same techniques and tools as traditional batik on textiles, just replacing the cloth with paper. Almost any kind of paper will work, as long as the hot wax and fiber dyes won’t destroy it. Watercolor papers, brown wrapping paper, and even newspaper offer a variety of surfaces to work with. Recently I’ve been using a hardboard with a clay surface designed for watercolor applications and it’s also working very well for batik techniques.
Batik is a resist dying process. Hot wax is applied using brushes, tjantings, droppers, and other assorted tools to resist the dyes that are applied over the wax in successive layers. The wax preserves the color where it’s applied and resists any additional dye applied over it. By starting with the white areas and working to darker shades you can obtain a wide range of color, depth, and detail.
Once the dying process is complete and the paper is fully dry the wax is ironed out between layers of newsprint. With some types of paper you can obtain almost a fabric look once the process is complete. Batik on Paper is a much faster process then traditional batik on fabric.
My twist to the technique is to use painters tape and various templates to resist the wax. This allows me to get hard looking edges that are not typical of batik.
Here are a few photos of my process.
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Tape has been applied to the blank paper and everywhere there is no tape, wax will be applied and then the tape is carefully peeled off.
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The first coat of dye has been applied and in this case a different color has been applied to each section. The areas that remained white are where the wax was applied. The dye has been blotted off of the waxed areas and this is done for each layer of dye until the last one. |
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After the first coat of wax is entirely dry more tape and then more wax are applied. |
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The second coat of dye has been applied and you can see where the previous colors have been preserved by the application of the wax. |
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More tape and wax. |
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Another layer of dye. |
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After several layers of wax and dye have been applied I usually finish by covering the entire piece with a coat of black dye and since I like the look of the black speckles in the finished piece I do not blot this coat of dye from the wax. |
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After the final coat of dye has dried the wax is ironed out of the paper using newsprint to absorb the wax. |
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And the final result!
Pinwheel