Experimenting With Soy Wax, Things I've Learned So Far

I've been experimenting with using soy wax as a resist in batik and I'm sharing some of my findings in this video. When using soy wax, it is recommended not to heat the soy wax past 180° F, whereas when painting with beeswax, my temperature setting is usually around 200° F. I am finding that soy wax is not nearly as tough as beeswax, meaning that water and soda ash will work to dissolve the soy wax much easier and faster than with beeswax. Because of this, when I'm using soy wax I do not let the fabric sit in the dye bath for more than 3 hours. I'm mixing my dye a little stronger than I normally do and use a little less soda ash than I do when using beeswax. Other than a little tweaking the dye bath, using soy wax for simple batik designs is much easier and less labor intensive when it comes to removing the wax. Soy wax is easier to remove from fabric. Beeswax, when used for batik on cotton cloth, is usually removed by boiling the wax out. Where as the bulk of the soy wax can be removed by placing the fabric in between sheets of newsprint and ironing the soy wax out of the garment/cloth. (I find this process very peaceful and relaxing and I normally do not like to iron.🙃) In this video, I demonstrate how to go about ironing out the soy wax. Note that when soy wax is ironed out, it causes a halo effect resulting from melted wax still in the fabric right around the design. This halo effect can then be removed by placing the cloth in very hot water with some diluted Dawn dishwashing liquid. Agitating the fabric in the hot water and Dawn liquid will help dissolve the remaining wax. I do not for pour the remaining liquid down my drain. I take it outside to dump it. I then wash and dry the fabric several times to ensure all the wax is removed and the color no longer washes away. I only use professional grade Procion MX Dyes from Dharma Trading Company. I hope that the lessons I've learned in my experiments so far will be of help to you and inspire you to get creative with trying out something new even if you don't do batik. But if you're new to batik or would like to try it out, soy wax is a way to get your feet wet, so to speak. To get started you can buy an embroidery hoop, bandana, an inexpensive natural hair brush, and soy wax all at Hobby Lobby. You'll need to make sure your embroidery hoop is large enough to accommodate your 100% cotton bandana so you don't have to keep adjusting it. An embroidery hoop is not a necessity in batik, but it helps hold the fabric taut so that you can paint the wax on without getting wrinkles. Note that synthetic brushes will not work when using any type of hot wax. When I started my batik journey, I used an inexpensive hog hair brush for painting on the wax. Whatever brush you decide to use know that it cannot be used for anything else once it goes in the molten wax, so don't use one of your favorite watercolor brushes to begin with. 😉 (Just a side note here, you do not have to use a tjanting tool to do batik. I show a tjanting tool in the video.) You'll also need something to heat the wax in. To start out you can always put some soy wax in a large-mouth glass jar and then set the jar in a pot of water, essentially making a double boiler so you can safely melt the soy wax. You'll need a dedicated thermometer to sit in the wax to ensure it is at the proper temperature. Or you can do what I did which is to buy a small electric skillet that has a thermostat reading on it.🙂 Remember to never leave hot melted wax unattended. So have fun and be creative. May God bless you on your artistic endeavors. Thanks for watching.