Batik Fiber Art

Do we have tools/people for batik fiber art? I’m asking on behalf of a friend that toured the space with me today.

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Well, I’ve done batik. So far as I know, we don’t have any specific tools. I once owned janting pens, but I have no idea where they went. Wax can be applied with other methods, too. Metal cookie cutters can make some fun patterns.

We could always make some janting pens in Metal Shop…

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I have some amazing batiks I bought in India. Por ejemplo…

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Wanting to double-glass frame this one for the wall sometime.

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Short answer, no tools or dyes right now, not yet, but maybe in near(ish) future.

Tl;dr line :slight_smile:

It’s something we could (want/intend to) explore in fiber arts this summer. (If you don’t know me, I wrangle the Fiberarts group.)

There’s been interest in dyeing of different sorts. Some of it involves logistics (water/time/heat) depending on type of material/fiber, dyeing and type of dye, but I’ve been rolling around ideas.

I’m going to dig a little deeper once the renfair is over (SOON, YAY!) and my brain has regained its Thinky Powers (currently offline).

My direction of thought is if we can find a line of dyes that will go several directions of use (versatility before we buy dyes and figure out storage for not only those but the equipment). Also figuring out the dyes will dictate the equipment, but really the equipment needs may determine the type of dyeing.

We are full to the gills storage wise, but maybe a bin would do, or it might be better served AE (After Expansion). Which might not be instant-gratification, but also gives us time to work some things out and get supplies. For steam-setting, I’ve got a setup at home I can unearth and bring as well.

FWIW, my personal experience is dyeing protein fibers (like wool and silk) with acid dyes. I’ve been looking into Fiber Reactive dyes because of the heat/material versatility.

One idea I’ve been mulling is doing silk painting, which pairs with the tjanting tools used for batik as well. It’s also occurred to me we might explore laser cutting things to use to do wax printing images.

For those that read this far and are curious about what the heck a tjanting tool is…

It’s a traditional tool that is fill with wax and held over heat source to melt, then used to draw lines on fabric (also used on eggs, but that’s a different discussion) that act as a resist and boundary to dye. Then dye is applied, wax removed, and there ya go. Awesome art.

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I used to dip my tjanting pens in the pot of liquid paraffin I had going. I’m pretty sure I was using a small pot on the electric skillet for that…

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I have a tjanting tool that the gentleman that used to do those Ukrainian eggs out at the renfair about 25-30 years ago made and gave me. It heats over a flame. There’s lots of kinds.

Neat stuff! I’d be interested in seeing and learning more about your processes because I’m exploring applications for wearable electronics. Anything that might set off a light bulb for me on how to embed conductive filler into fibers is a win!

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Re conductive fibers

Actually…you should come to a fiber thingy and learn to spin yarn. There’s stainless steel fibers you can blend into your fibers to make your handspun yarn conductive. It’s on my list of things to play with.

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I just want to throw in that I would also be interested in batik once the doctors release me to lift more that 5 pounds. Omg! And spinning conductive materials!

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Watch for spinning class, likely July

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