Silk painting techniques - hot batique:

The design contours, as well as separate areas of fabric are covered with hot gutta substance during the hot batik – hence the name “hot batik”. Covering of the fabric with the gutta is a temporary and auxiliary process, and after completion of the work the substance is removed.

Gutta.
The base of the gutta is paraffin, however it cannot be used alone because it becomes hard and cracks after drying. Artificial or natural beeswax (natural is better), as well as vaseline is used as the second ingredient. There can be several proportions and you must select the most suitable version for you.

Ingredients in grams:

All ingredients are cut to small pieces and melted in a metallic vessel. As wax and paraffin are flammable, please take all precautions and care about fire safety. Paraffin vapor is harmful to health so you can carry out the silk painting with this gutta in well ventilated premises, and you must make sure that there is no water in the substance.
Instruments.
There are various special instruments for hot batik, but you can also use self made instruments. For example, you can apply straight lines with a heated blunt knife that is covered with fabric – if the line is uneven it means that the knife is too hot. You can use glass tubes with 0,2-0,3 mm openings to apply the gutta to the fabric. Whatever type of instrument you use, you must remember that the substance has to stay hot therefore you have to ensure uninterrupted and even heating of it.  
Painting techniques.
There are three hot batik painting techniques – simple batik (with one layer), complex batik (two or more layers) and work on areas.
Simple batik.
Lay a drawing with hot gutta on fabric that has been placed into frame. After gutta has cooled and became hard, dye the fabric using a brush or take the fabric out of the frame and immerse it into the dye. You should remove the drops of dye from the gutta using clean cloth. After the dye has dried, cover the dyed areas with gutta. Then place the fabric between paper (newspaper or any other paper) that well absorbs moisture and iron it with an iron. You should change the paper frequently until it does not absorb anything from the fabric. As a result you will have a lighter drawing on a darker background. You can also remove the gutta the following way – when the fabric has dried, place it into freezer so that the gutta is completely hardened and fragile, then take out the fabric and, break the gutta off and remove the excess by help of paper and iron.
Complex batik.
Complex batik is similar to the simple batik, but here the work is done on several layers and the end result is very interesting. In the beginning you must lay drawing with the gutta and when it has dried, and then you apply light dye in the empty areas. After the dye has dried, lay the drawing using the gutta in those areas, where the light dye is. After the gutta has dried apply everything over with a slightly darker dye. Then apply the gutta in areas you do not want darker. Such layering is recommendable no more than 4 times. As a result the areas that were first covered with gutta will be lighter, but the ones who were covered last, will be darker. After completion of work all those areas with dye only must be covered with the gutta so that all work is completely covered. The gutta is removed just like with the simple batik method.
Work with areas.
With this method you can create complex and colorful designs. The principle is the same as when working with the simple or complex batik, however the main difference is that instead of creating step-by-step covering of whole fabric you dye different color areas. You have to work with each area separately, in accordance with your design. In the beginning outline with the gutta the lighter areas of the drawing, and then apply the dye. After drying, outline with gutta the next area that you do not want make darker. Each area is applied with dye no more than 4 times (the same as in complex batik). At the end you apply the desired dark dye in gutta free areas and after the dye has dried, cover it with the gutta. As a result you will have a fabric with light shade drawing (for example, flowers) on a darker background. The gutta is removed from the fabric the same way as in case of simple or complex batik.
When working with the hot batik technique you must always remember that the gutta can only be applied on a dry fabric. The gutta must be hot so that it would completely absorbed into the fabric.
You can create very interesting effects if after completion of the work (while the gutta is not removed from the fabric) you carefully take out the fabric off the frame and manually create cracks in the gutta. After that place the fabric back again into frame and using a large brush apply the cracks with a darker dye. The dye will get into the cracks and create intricate patterns that look exceptionally well on lighter areas. Also you have to make sure that the dye gets into cracks only not onto gutta. The excess dye on the gutta is removed by a cloth.
Similar result can be reached using a needle. In this case you do not have to take the fabric out of the frame and the drawing is carefully drawn onto gutta (without ruining the fabric). After that the dye is applied to cracks, using a brush.
After complete removal of gutta from the fabric you must steam the fabric in the steamer in order to fix the dye. If you have not planned to wash the silk afterwards, then steaming is not mandatory. Steaming is carried out like this: roll the silk like a tube and place the roll (or roll it up in shape of shell) in the steamer’s strainer and steam the silk for about 30-60min. I usually do this in vegetable steaming pot.

Author: Inese Eke

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