Name: Jacky

Message: Hello- Was wondering if I applied wax to my batik when it is wet from the soda ash soak if that would be okay? Or should it be dry again after the soak and then apply the wax? Thanks so much!!!!! Your site is sooooooooooooooooo helpful!!!!!

No, the wax won't stick to the fabric unless it's absolutely bone dry. You need the wax to really soak in, in order to repel the dye. I prefer to wax before doing the soda ash presoak, as described in my page "How to Batik". Here is the order of the steps in the process, as I do them: 1, wax, 2, soda ash, 3, dye, 4, washout. Then, depending on the project, you may be finished, or you may repeated the process once or many times, by allowing your piece to dry thoroughly, and then returning to step 1 and rewax.

As an alternative, you can mix the soda ash with the dye immediately before applying it to the waxed fabric. Be sure to use the dye immediately after you add the soda ash to it. It will maintain full strength for only about thirty minutes.

Many people do old-style immersion dyeing for each step in batiking, using a high volume of water, plus salt to help the dye find the fabric in all that water. This is the best way to get a perfectly smooth solid color, but it is more trouble than direct dye application and does not allow for applying multiple colors of dye at once. In high water ratio immersion dyeing, the soda ash is not added until after the dye has had a chance to soak into the fiber. High water ratio immersion dyeing requires half an hour or an hour of stirring for each color, so it's a lot of work. The requirement for absolutely dry fabric is the same though, when applying the wax.

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