When my friend Barb was here a couple of weeks ago, we made batik scarves together. It's so much fun to have someone to work with! Here they are drying, prior to the wax removal and final wash. We used soft golden yellow, coral, and fuschia. These are my favorite colors this season!
This is how mine turned out afterwards. The daisies had just finished blooming, and I tried to capture something of them in this design. The colors soften a good bit in the final wash.
That seems to be the nature of cool-temp fiber reactive dyes on silk, particularly with the temperature and time adjustments needed to keep the soy wax relatively intact. I like the soft colors, and the wax removal is so easy with soy. (You don't have to risk damaging the silk fabric, as you might removing stronger waxes. Also, there are no paraffin fumes!)
It was great to catch up with Barb, and the kids had a great time together too --
Ok here's the dye conundrum du jour: both of these fabrics were in the same dye bath, in preparation for the first layer of wax. The cotton came out barely-yellow, while the silk charmeuse came out soft gold! Apparently, the thin dye washes I use (in order to permit several layers of wax and color -- the fibers will only accept so much color) actually "take" more strongly on silk than on cotton. More experimentation is clearly in order.... or maybe someone out there knows something about the physical/chemical properties of cotton vs. silk fibers!
Isaac Lightyear is due home today after a week with Aunt Shannon! I asked what he wanted for dinner, thinking in terms of welcome-home-to-your-favorite-thing-mom-can-cook.
He requested "you know, sushi, and Chinese noodles and stuff like that!" -- so I'm going to make spaghetti instead figure this one out, and head to the store soon. In the meantime, my kitchen is begging to be returned to its former glory. Ciao!






















