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You are here: Home > All About Hand Dyeing > Instructions > How to Dye with Fiber Reactive Dye > How to Batik

Books on Batik

Creative Batik

Batik: Fabled
Cloth of Java

Batik: Design, Style, & History

Chinese Indigo Batik Designs

Batik: 75 Selected Masterpieces

Batik for Artists and Quilters

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Materials
for making batik:

Procion MX dye

Batik Wax

Wax Melter Kit

Soda Ash
Dye Fixer
Urea
(optional)

Plastic Squeeze Bottles

Dust masks
Nitrile Disposable Gloves
Liquid Castile Soap

Dr. Bonner's liquid soap helps in boiling wax out of finished batiks. A true soap works better than the detergents found in most liquid soaps.

Soy Wax

Soy wax is softer than batik wax and does not resist dye as well, but it is much easier to remove, so some batikers prefer it.

Elmer's Washable Blue Glue Gel

How to Batik

You can batik silk, cotton, and rayon with the same easy fiber reactive dye and soda ash recipe that is so popular in other forms of hand dyeing. The advantage of this type of dye is that with it, unlike all purpose dye, you can use cool water (that won't melt wax!), while unlike naphthol dye, fiber reactive dye is reasonably non-toxic, and unlike vat dye, the method is very simple and easy.

For pictures of successful batik - essential in helping you decide what you want to create - see my Gallery and some of the sites on my Links to Other Galleries page.

Getting Started

This is just as in the How to Tie Dye page: study the How to Dye basic recipe first. Make sure you have all the chemicals and supplies you need for dyeing: Procion MX dyes, urea, sodium carbonate (soda ash), thin rubber or plastic gloves, measuring cups and spoons, squirt bottles to put the dye solution into for application, dust mask for measuring out dyes, and a bucket for pre-soaking the fabric in sodium carbonate solution. Be sure to pre-wash all clothing to remove invisible finishes that can prevent the dye from getting to the fabric. (In place of the Procion MX dye, you can substitute any type of fiber reactive dye that can use temperatures below the softening point of wax, such as Cibacron F/Sabracron F or Drimarene K dye; Dylon Cold Water Dye is an example of the latter, but avoid Dylon Multi Purpose dye, which is a hot water dye.)

Additional Supplies for Batik

You'll need to buy both beeswax and paraffin to mix together; some cheap paintbrushes for covering large sections (don't waste good ones on this); a tjanting, or several, with which to apply the wax; and some way to keep the wax at a constant temperature. I failed at batik until I acquired an electric skillet for the sole purpose of melting the wax. I'd been using wax that was melted, in a double boiler, but not hot enough to penetrate the fabric. Batik instantly changed from impossibly difficult to easily manageable the day I bought an electric skillet.

You can substitute synthetic "sticky wax" or "microcrystalline wax" for beeswax, if you prefer. It is best to use a mixture of beeswax (or its substitutes) and paraffin, because parafin alone crackles too much, while beeswax alone doesn't crackle at all. (If you don't like the crackle effect, use pure beeswax, or its substitutes, without paraffin.)

Each of your tools needs a ridge on it to prevent it from sliding down into the scalding hot melted wax. If they do not already have a ridge of some sort, you can make one by wrapping many layers of tape at just one place on the handle of the tool.

Tjantings for drawing with melted wax are available from Dick Blick, PRO Chemical & Dye, Dharma Trading, and other dye suppliers. (See the Sources for Dyeing Supplies page for contact information.)

Instructions

Draw with melted wax wherever you want the fabric to remain a lighter color. If the wax does not seem to penetrate the fabric, it is probably not hot enough; check the temperature. Use an electric skillet to maintain the wax at the correct temperature. (Beware of dangerous overheating; wax can burn, causing a dangerous house fire, or just smoke that can cause lung damage.) It's best if your design can tolerate a few random light spots from accidental drips of wax. Hold a rag in your other hand, ready to catch unwanted drips before they fall.

I usually stretch the garment over a cookie sheet or other baking implement, depending on the size of the garment; this prevents the wax from getting through to the other side of the garment, and makes it easier to control the fabric, as well. I have used a wooden stretcher bar frame, such as is used for mounting canvases for paintings, attaching a silk garment by means of wire clips strung on rubber bands that wrapped around the frame--it's certainly a lot more trouble that way, but the tension is sometimes useful for painting woven silks. I like to use a pencil to mark out my design on the cloth beforehand.

Apply dye when the wax is cool. (If you're in a hurry, refrigerate.) You can wait for days or even weeks after waxing to proceed to dyeing, if you prefer. Crumple the fabric if you want a lot of veining, then pre-soak in sodium carbonate and apply dye as described in How to Dye. Use only cool water dye such as the Procion MX dye I recommend, not any sort of hot water dye, and be sure that your soda ash and your dye mixtures are at room temperature, not hot, since even a little melting may ruin your design. Wash the excess dye out, after the full "batching" time of 2 to 24 hours has passed, using cold water only. You don't need melted wax in your washer. Obviously, you must not let anything waxy get into your hot air dryer.

Repeat? For traditonal, multiple-step batik, air-dry, and repeat the waxing and dyeing steps as desired, starting with the lightest colors and progressing toward the darker ones, first spending some time to plot the appropriate order for the colors and how each color will mix with the previous ones. For modern "faux" batik, a single round, involving direct application of different fiber reactive dye colors where they are wanted, is sufficient.

Removing the wax can be the hardest part.

Simmering in hot water, with soap, is the best method I've found. This requires a large (preferably several gallon) cookpot. Add liquid soap, rather than detergent, to the water. I've had excellent results with Dr. Bronner's brand liquid castile soap, which is commonly available in whole foods stores. Using this soap, I did not have to get the water anywhere near a boil before all of the wax had floated to the top of the pot. The procedure is much more difficult without soap, though you can re-use the wax if you don't use soap or detergent to aid in its removal.
If you allow the pot to cool afterwards, with the fabric safely below the surface, the wax will harden so that you can lift it off, instead of leaving a residue in the fabric. Don't worry about toxicity from the wax in your food pots, as both beeswax and paraffin are considered safe for consumption, though indigestible in quantity; there is the practical matter of removing any wax that gets on the sides of the pot, after scraping as much as is easy to get out, but heating the pot and wiping with paper towels works.

Alternatives to boiling:

Ironing the wax out between sheets of newspaper (using unprinted paper next to the cloth to prevent ink transfer) is a lot of trouble, often leaves some wax in the fabric, and, some warn, can create lung-damaging paraffin fumes.
Dry cleaning won't work at all, unless your dry cleaner still uses the older solvents that do dissolve wax (ask if they can remove wax, first). Some batikers have found dry cleaners that do remove wax, but I've never been able to find one in my area.
Steam cleaning by a dry cleaner is expensive (often $5 a piece).
Dharma Trading also suggests using *hot* water from a hose to rinse the wax out, but that requires that you increase the setting on your water heater enough to risk scalding in the house.
White gasoline (used for camping stoves) and other organic solvents can be used to remove wax, but the process is cumbersome, and the solvents can cause brain damage if you breathe them for too long. Never use organic solvents indoors.

Batiking without wax

You may occasionally read of batiking with alternative resists. Beware of water-soluble resists; I found the hard way that Deka's Silk Resist, for example, washes right out during the sodium carbonate pre-soak step of dyeing. If you use a washable resist, not only will you lack the interesting cracks and veins, but you will also need to find an alternative to the use of the washing soda pre-soak, such as applying sodium carbonate solution or Dharma's After-Fix afterwards, or drying the fabric after pre-soaking in soda ash, before applying the resist. This also requires a much more frugal hand with the dye solutions than I am accustomed to applying, as large excesses of dye solution will also wash away any water-soluble resist. Alternative resists can be extremely valuable, resulting in wonderful results - but these results will never be very close approximations of true wax batik.

Soy wax for batik

Soy wax is processed hydrogenated vegetable oil which is hard at room temperature. It can be used for immersion dyed batiks, with the advantage that it will wash out in hotwater in your washing machine. Some batik artists have gotten excellent results withthis resist. However, others have been disappointed by its not blocking the dye as completely, or by its wearing away in the dye bath. It is worth experimenting with. Use the hardest type of soy wax, from a dye supplier or labeled as being suitable for making pillar-type candles; do not use the softer type intended for use in containers.

Elmer's Washable Blue Glue Gel

You can also use Elmer's washable blue gel glue as a resist. It will last through a brief immersion period. To wash it out, first soak it in cold water. There will be none of the cracks associated with traditional wax batik, but the safety of using cold glue gel instead of hot wax makes it preferable for projects that children will work on.