Soy Wax - part 1

Yesterday was my birthday so I played in my wet room with soy wax!  This technique is from one of the online lessons from Hilary and our MIP class!  I've worked with wax before but was never happy with the results.  Well, I'm hooked now!  Should have known Hilary would come up with tips/tricks and show us some great ways to use the wax.

The only problem I had was what to use to melt the wax in!  I didn't have an old electric skillet or hot plate BUT I did have a fragrance warmer my daughter gave me years ago as a gift!  Worked perfectly!

I couldn't wait to get started!  So I pulled out some papers that I previously stamped, screen printed and even one with string art on paper I did last summer (which I wasn't happy with  at the time but I sure am now!).   Picture on the left side is the paper before using the wax.  Pictures on the right side show with the wax and over dyed with fiber reactive dyes!

The left side is a stencil I did testing out color for my Stumpwork quilt  from 2017.  The paper was quite thick so it was hard for me to see where I painted the wax ..but it's not that bad after I painted with robin egg blue dye.

This was a really ugly piece...not much better now...I used red wine dye...it will be good for piecing...this was actually the first piece I put the wax on.

This paper originally was from wiping off excess dye on fabric from a  screen print.  Again, I didn't think I would do anything with this paper...but...I cut out leaf stencils from freezer paper, painted on the wax; over dyed the entire piece with lime dye!  Now it can be used...somewhere!?!

This was a stencil that I printed last summer.  I used the same leaf freezer paper stencil and applied the wax then over dyed with red wine dye.

This is a screen print (turquoise) on fabric, again done last summer or fall.  After wax dried, which was just painted on, I used both orange and red wine dyes.  I can see this being used in strips or even as a background piece.  It's batching right now so it might not come out as vivid!

This turned out to be one of my favorites!  This paper was screen printed,  which wasn't a bad print.  I could see adding other papers to it but after I applied the wax and then purple dye!!!  I am VERY happy with it! 

 This was one of the string art pieces I did on paper!  I really wasn't happy with them but, once again, I'm quite happy now after adding wax and over dyeing with purple dye!!!


And my most favorite piece is another string art on paper I did!  Again...nothing exciting but look after adding wax and dyes!  This will be a whole paper piece I'll stitch up!!! 

I did a crackle of the wax on a white piece of fabric.  It's now soaking in some robin egg blue dye!  And two other pieces are batching now (after I added soda ash).  Hope they turn out but if not, I'm still happy with my results from today.  And the wax was so easy to remove!!!

 Today, I hope to melt more wax and get out some screens!  Yep..we're putting wax on a screen and screen printing!!  Woohoo!