Batik is the art of making images on fabric and it is so important in Indonesia that they have a National Holiday celebrating it: October 2nd. UNESCO recognizes batik as a world heritage of humanity. Wax is melted and than used in a special tube pen to draw on fabric, or metal images are dipped in wax and stamped onto fabric. The wax acts as a stop out when the fabric is being dyed. I had large blocks of wax for my students to feel, but we didn't want to mess with trying to keep it at the right temperature all day for a week, much less worry about burns on hot plates, so we went even more low tech: Glue.
Some of my students with no vision opted to use stencils, rather than try to make a free-hand drawing. The trick with this is to use a sponge brush, dip it in Elmer's glue, and then dab up and down, rather than making strokes that might go under the edges of the stencils. Getting enough glue on the fabric is also important.
Other students drew pictures or patterns with the bottle of glue. The fabric was transparent enough to trace marker drawings on a light box, but some choose to just wing it.
The next day, when the glue was dry, students painted their images with acrylic. I think it worked best when they worked within the lines, but if the glue was thick enough to start with, it was OK to cover the entire thing in a couple of colors. The underside of the fabric, generally maintained the stop out. The paint has to dry completely before trying to rinse the fabric, for obvious reasons.
Day three, is when we soaked the entire piece for at least 5-10 minutes in water before rubbing and rinsing the rest of the glue out.
There was a little magic in the reveal, that their original lines never left, they were just covered and then revealed.
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| a low vision student uses a digital magnifier to paint his glue spirals with spring colors |