Many batikers are not able to obtain a tjanting and would not if they could, preferring to do their waxing entirely with brushes. Brushes, properly trimmed and of various sizes, will certainly give very satisfactory results to the careful worker. Of course the minute line possible with the tjanting, is impossible to achieve with a brush, though a line as narrow as the sixteenth of an inch can be made by a practised craftsman.
USE OF BRUSH
The all-over floral design shown facing page [36], designed by the writer and executed by Miss E. Shirtleff, was made in six colours. This panel was done in the “blue group,” explained in the chapter on dyeing. The outline of the flowers is in the original white of the material, the petals of the flowers range in colour from straw yellow to orange, with some of the outer ones in moss green. The background has a “wave design” worked out in all the different colours used in the flowers and an extra shade of dark green. The waxing of this piece was done entirely with the brush and has no line of a greater width than one-sixteenth of an inch.
FLORAL DESIGN ENTIRELY EXECUTED WITH A BRUSH
PREPARING BRUSHES
This fine work is easier with shaped brush; this shaping is done without much difficulty by dipping the brush, preferably a good sable one, into hot wax, and, without pressing the globule formation out of shape, gently wiping the excess of wax from the distended bristles. Allow this to cool and when hard, trim to a point with a sharp knife. Melt the cold wax out by dipping in the wax pot and you will have a brush that will be more manageable and will hold more wax for the size of its point, than one would have with the regular unshaped brush. For covering big surfaces, one or two flat soft-haired varnish brushes will be needed.
WAX MIXTURES
“CRACKLE”
For waxing, bees-wax with a mixture of white paraffin wax is used by most batikers, the proportion varying according to the brittleness desired. This of course is best worked out to suit the individual batiker’s requirements and after a little experimenting one soon learns to get a satisfactory mixture. One part paraffin to five parts of bees-wax will give the consistency of medium to produce the crackle surface so popular with many artists in America. Pure bees-wax cracks very little and will stand the highest temperature when in the dye-bath, and inversely the larger proportion of paraffin used the more the medium will crackle and the cooler the dye-bath must be used if one does not want one’s design to melt away. When no crackle at all is desired, the solution can be made more pliable by the addition of rosin. Use this, however, in hot dyes only, for it has unpleasant mannerisms, one of which is to increase the mixture’s brittleness when it is made to undergo a cold plunge.