Janet’s soy wax batik class

Today was a day to play! I took Janet Lasher’s soy wax batik class today in her Charlotte studio. This is a technique I’ve been wanting to try for more than a year.

Soy wax is considered more environmentally friendly than beeswax, and it is much easier to remove from the fabric once the batik and dyeing process is finished.

Here, Janet talks to Grace Howes (left) about stamping on her silk charmeuse:


Here is one of my pieces, from the front (the side to which I applied the wax). I started with white Kona Cotton fabric, and painted on the circles. Then I applied blue and purple thickened dye inside the circles, and kiwi green on the background:


Linda Stegall started with a piece of fabric that had already been batiked (and that is her yellow and green piece hanging on the line behind her):


She drew big circles on the fabric, then brushed on thickened blue dye in some areas:


It was gorgeous!


Here are some of mine:






Today, I only used Janet’s thickened dyes for the color. I’m planning to do additional designs in the soy wax on some of my pieces, and may then overdye them with Dye-na-flow or Setacolor. After that, I may discharge them or add additional motifs.

– Susan Brubaker Knapp