Various wax mixtures have been used successfully. A suitable wax must not scale off, must not get so hard as to crack too freely, and must not be affected by whatever chemicals are found in the dyes or are used as mordants. A beeswax and resin mixture, wax with mastic, paraffin with lard, paraffin and beeswax in varying proportions have all been used successfully. Paraffin alone is rather brittle and produces too much “crackle” in cold weather. Beeswax alone is rather too soft to use in warm weather and not brittle enough if any crackle is desired. Therefore, mixtures of these various substances suggested give a wax that will crackle somewhat but not too much. For the beginner it is safe to buy one of the prepared mixtures on the market and experiment later with the various possible combinations suggested, after becoming thoroughly familiar with the result wanted.
The design must, in some way, be got on the cloth. This is a place where careless work may spoil a beautiful design. The lines on the cloth must be so carefully and clearly made that the brush can follow them without the slightest hesitation. All corrections should be made before the tracing is considered finished and the waxing started. If a mistake is made with the pencil lines, “Carbona” or gasoline will remove the wrong marks. A Conte pencil, No. 2, trimmed to a sharp point, is very satisfactory, especially if the piece is to be dyed several times, as the marks will not brush off as charcoal or chalk lines will. For a simple one-process piece, charcoal sharpened carefully will serve satisfactorily.
If the material to be used is thin, which is desirable for first pieces, the cloth can be pinned carefully on top of the drawing and traced as just explained. If the cloth is too heavy for the lines of the drawing to be seen clearly, the back of the design can be rubbed with charcoal, the design laid carefully in place, charcoal side down. Then with a sharp hard pencil the lines of the drawing may be traced on the right side. When the paper is removed, the design will be on the cloth in charcoal lines. If it is to be dyed in several colors later it will be better to go over the pattern now with the Conte No. 2 very carefully, as the charcoal dusts off easily. Use the pencil lightly but clearly with even lines. The cloth must be pinned or thumb-tacked so firmly that it does not slide over the design. It is a little harder to fasten exceedingly thin material like georgette or voile firmly enough to get a good tracing, so about the weight of medium china silk or thin crepe is the easiest material to begin with.
“The Sheep and the Goats.” A modern Batik Wall Hanging, by Helen R. Reed, the Van Dyck Studios, New York
If a design is to be repeated several times, as would be needed for the border of a curtain, the charcoal rubbing may be the most convenient. The design can be pricked with a pin and powdered charcoal dusted on the smooth upper side of the pattern. The danger in this is that too small a number of points will be pricked to give the design clearly. A better means of doing this is to follow the pattern with a sewing machine after removing the thread and presser foot so that the paper can be turned freely.
Some Batik workers make their design on thin paper which is pinned to the back of the cloth and the latter placed on a frame set against a window at about an angle of 45 degrees. This is somewhat on the principle of the photographers’ retouching frame.