Watercolor Batik Class

The Watercolor Batik Class began Tuesday evening. Batik is a process where wax is applied to fabric or paper which acts as a resist to the paint or dye that is applied. Examples of Batik can be traced back over 1,500 years to Egypt and the Middle East. Samples have also been found from previous centuries in India, Japan, Turkey and China. In the Watercolor Batik class we are applying the wax to rice paper with a tool called a Tjanting, which is a traditional tool used to draw precise lines of wax onto the paper. In my case on Tuesday the lines were not that precise, however, I can tell that the more you work with the tool and wax, the more you are able to guide the tool and control the amount of wax that comes out. The tool looks a small brass vessel with a funnel tip attached to a handle. After you create your design with the wax, you apply the watercolor to the paper. The final step is to remove the wax by ironing the paper and using newsprint to absorb the melted wax. The result is a beautiful watercolor which maintains the beautiful whites. The light colors are translucent and I especially enjoyed the end results because they look like stained glass paintings. I really like this process and can't wait to do more. Here are some pictures of the class and some photos of some examples done.......Robin