community of dyers

Here's a shirt I did for my mom's birthday. First I batiked it with soy wax, heated to 270°F in the electric skillet I always use for batik wax, applying the wax with a tjanting for fine lines, and a natural-bristle house-painting brush for larger areas. I dyed it using the LWI technique with Procion type red MX-5B and ProChem's MX boysenberry, which I think is magenta MX-B, then, after washing out the wax in 150°F water with detergent, and drying, I drew on the butterfly details, freehand, using permanent fabric markers.

Finished shirt:

After batiking but before markers:

Marker detail:

I used some old Marvy Uchida markers, the fat ones, and a couple of fine point Identipen markers, and then some new Marvy Graffiti markers. I don't like the quality of the Graffiti line as well as the more expensive line of Marvy Uchida markers, and I think they will likely dry up much sooner. Many of the fat Marvy Uchida markers stay bright in the marking pen for years after first use, but I suspect think the same will not be true of the Graffiti line, because they are already less generous in feel.

-Paula