This week we used glue instead of hot wax to form a resist against the acrylic paint. Originating in Indonesia, in batik hot wax would be poured on using a tjanting (a kind of tiny pot on a stick with a hole in the bottom). Then when the wax is dry and hard paint is applied onto the material and it won’t go wherever the wax is. You can build up layers this way, and whatever colour is beneath the wax will be retained, a process very like reduction lino prints.
Our way though did not involve any hot wax, but instead Elmer’s washable PVA glue. This is normal PVA glue except for being washable which is very important because it means that when all the layers of paint and glue have been done, the glue can simply be washed off (just how the wax is ironed off in traditional batik).
We used small squeezy bottles to apply the glue, because ideally you want a nice thin layer so that it doesn’t take too long to dry. The glue has to be completely dry before the paint can be applied so I encouraged the children to work on multiple paintings at once. Because it’s going to be washed off we need fabric, and a man-made polyester type fabric with a slight sheen makes the washing easy.
I think the results look great – especially those who layered up and worked in stages.
