Sunday, October 12, 2008

The Impatient Dyer's Guide to Playing with Soy Wax

..but first, a totally gratuitous shot of flowers on my deck for anyone in the midst of bad weather and needing a lift in spirits.

I received the latest Quilting Arts magazine yesterday and was sufficiently excited and inspired by the soy wax article to have a go. I sell the stuff but have never used it. At last, some actual surface design!
I splodged (technical dyeing term) hot soy wax over fat quarters of fabric. Normally when experimenting, the first couple of pieces have very random patterns, and then I settle into something more regular. Or at least, something I've thought about for more than 1 second. This is #2 so it's still pretty random The colour is Tangerine.
By this piece, I was doing a pattern and breaking into 2 colours. This happens pretty quickly - I am not a single colour sort of gal. This is pale Tangerine with pale Midnight Blue.
And so on. Here's the washing line after the first round of wax and dye. That big piece was TOO big to work on comfortably, so I chopped it in half.
After round #2. That's my little greenhouse to the right of these photos. My "I may be a greenhouse but I don't keep the frost out" greenhouse. Hmm... well, now I know! But only after losing half my tomato plants and sundry other baby vegetables.
And here are the finished washed and ironed pieces. I don't muck around, you know! That's why I'm the Impatient Dyer.
I liked the green one best - here it is opened out. Hopefully you can see the 2 different layers of green dye.
I was hungry after all that dyeing so I whipped up this pizza. Naan bread base, covered in satay sauce and then red onions, mushrooms, olives, some deli roast beef and a tomato, topped with aged goats' milk cheese. Yum.

7 comments:

Rayna said...

Both your fabrics and your pizza look yummy, Shirley! Soy wax is easy and just perfect for an impatient dyer...as I know, all too well.
Rayna

Judy said...

Well, I learned my soy wax batiking from the lady above, so you know I sat at the feet of the master (or mistress, in this case LOL)!! Rayna is a delightful teacher and we had a great time in the process.
Shirley, I am so glad that you had the guts and gumption to post your message to the Dyers List about QA. I agree with you, but didn't want to make any waves, so I kept my mouth shut. I hadn't done any batik work for a while, but the article inspired me to heat up the soy wax and get back at it! I may post some results on my blog next week. Your pieces came out beautifully...isn't that soy wax addictive!!
Thanks for speaking your mind Shirley.....and I love your Spring bloomers.

xo

ann hubbard said...

Great job on your soy wax pieces. I have only used batik wax but after reading the same QA article I want to give it a try.
Your pizza looks terrific and your kids are cute even if Cass wouldn't smile. ann

rupr said...

I like your wax batik. I never did it because I am afraid, that I will not be able to remove wax from fabric.

Michelle said...

The fabric looks great - but, the pizza is making me hungry - it looks fantastic! :)

Janet said...

I love the shots of your fabric drying on the line! Beautiful!

Sheila said...

I read about the soy wax in the QA magazine also. I was wondering how easy it was to work with it. You make it look very easy. I love the lighter fabric. They will make into a yummy quilt. I just started back into quilting. It is quite addictive!