Tyra Smith, Cloud 9, Tips & Techniques

Crayon Batik

Redstick redstick@enchantedink.com
I went through a batik period long before I got into rubberstamping! One of the techniques that I liked to use was "Crayon Batik" and I don't see how it wouldn't work with paper as well as fabric.

I used empty baby food jars to hold the wax, regular paraffin like for canning, mixed with different colors of crayons. The more paraffin in proportion, the more translucent the colors, but straight crayon wax doesn't work as well. After putting a cube of paraffin and a couple of broken crayons in the jars, I'd set them in a water bath in an old electric skillet and turn it on to medium temp. You want the water to stay below the boiling point, but warm enough to melt the wax.

Then I'd use cheap children's paintbrushes to apply the colored wax to my fabric (or paper in this instance) You could actually paint in a design or image stamped with permanent, non-bleeding ink. No need to be terribly precise in your painting. Part of the charm of batik is the flowing, almost childish lines. After the image/design is painted in with the various colors, apply a wash to the background, let it dry and then coat with clear wax. When it hardens, crumple it all to crack the wax and then coat with another coat of ink/watercolor wash in a dark color to create the batik effect.

Then iron between sheets of paper toweling or plain newsprint paper to remove the wax.

For information on related topics see:
Tips & Techniques: Crayons