Batik Class

This evening I ran into a friend I haven't seen in some time.

She asked me what I have been up to lately.

I thought for a second and said, "playing."

I think thats all I've been doing lately - and here is more proof:

Last week Tuesday I participated in a Batik class from my friend Anne,

the queen of batik quilts.

She teaches the all day workshop in her backyard.

Here she is giving us the run down on how it is done: And then she let us loose. . .

I cannot tell you how excited I was for this workshop!

Well yes I can - I was so excited that I could hardly sleep the night before.

I'm sure you can see it in my eyes (or lack of eyes).

On my first attempt I dove right in to the waxing of the fabric.

The wax on this piece was applied with rosette irons and a beater.
Below is the waxing tent.
The mix of half beeswax and half paraffin wax
was kept melted in doubleboilers on electric burners.
Down the small hill is the tent where the dye was kept.
Here is my first waxed piece hanging on the line after I applied some dye to the centers of the flowers.
Once the piece was dry I applied a second coat of wax
and then dyed the background a deep purple.
Everyone made some really wonderful batiks.
I ended up doing quite a bit of batiking in the 7 hours I was there.
I finished three pieces and then I have three more pieces
that have wax on them and are awaiting more dye.
Our quilt group is having a dye party in a couple of weeks
so those pieces will be finished then.

I had a wonderful time and learned a lot.

This has opened a whole new art world for me -

however along with that new world comes a whole new set of supplies.

Maybe I should just stick to the world I'm in.