Batik Printing

I've fallen in love with an art blog that I stumbled across the other month.

She's an art teacher in an elementary school and shares all her cool ideas on her blog, 

PLUS explains how to make them. 

Batik printing is something that I've been wanting to try for a while, this teacher explained how to do it with acrylic paint and gel glue.  We had to try it, and it was a lot of fun for myself and the kids.

This is what we did...

We purchased the Elmers Washable blue gel glue.

Scrounged around for white fabrics that we had on hand.

{I found two old pillowcases for the kids and a hand towel for myself}

So, to start, place cardboard directly underneath the fabric that you will be working on 

{In the kids case, I placed it inside the pillow case...more on that later}

Cover your work area with plastic or something to keep messes to a minimum.

Glue away to your hearts content.

Ethylwolfe and I had just read a book about the planets, so he chose to do the solar system.

I put KennaKat's name on hers and she covered the pillowcase with polka dots.

I did randomness and a dragonfly.

SO, put glue everywhere you want to keep white.

Let the glue dry overnight.

Once glue is completely dry you can start painting.

Water down acrylic paints in the colors of your choice and get to work.

This is Ethylwolfe's solar system freshly painted.

He didn't want his black dark so we watered the paint down...a Lot.

KennaKat got bored painting, and the pillowcase was huge, so we ended up just pouring out the paints onto the case, it worked fine.

My towel.

After paint is completely dry, place items in warm water for 20 minutes or so, or until glue is dissolved.

{I used the bathtub, and worked it with my hands to get the extra glue out...like you're working out a stain}

Once rinsed out you can hang dry, throw them in the dryer, or do what I did and throw them in the washing machine, wash them, forget about them, wash them again, then dry in the dryer :)

Ours faded a little bit because I washed them twice in a row, but I'm sure they wouldn't fade so much if I had done it properly :)

The finished results...

My towel was hung up and used immediately, so it's in the washing machine right now, sorry, no current pictures of that.

What I learned and would do differently:

I definitely enjoyed doing this project, loved it rather.  I learned a few things...I don't think I'll water my paints down as much as I did this time...they got watered down a LOT, but as you can tell, the colors are still good. If I use a terry towel again, I will put my glue on much thicker than I did for this.  On the spots where I didn't get the glue all the way past the fuzz, you can't see much white.  So, live and learn.

Also, things that are 2 layers {like the pillowcases}, I wouldn't bother putting a board between, then the glue could double work and put white on the other side.  I used cardboard and then removed it for the painting process.

I think my next project with this might be to make beach towels for the kids....I'd have them lay down on a white towel, draw their outline, and then let them "draw" themselves and decorate the towel, I think that would be fun.

For the 3 pieces, we almost went through a regular bottle of blue glue.