Design Development - Batik

As one of the strands of my 'Global Collective' concept looks at the traditional textiles produced and worn by different cultural groups, I have decided that I would like to experiment with more authentic methods of printing. This includes: block printing, stenciling and wax batik (see the 2 images below for batik tools and equipment)



So therefore, earlier this week I spent 2 full days in the print room sampling with batik. I have worked with batik in the past, however this was at an age when my design ability was not as advanced as it is now. I had such a great time in the print room producing my samples. The print rooms were completely empty and so I had the room and dye lab all to myself - a very rare treat in a usually busy textile department. It is such a great feeling when you iron off the wax from a fabric sample and it has produced a striking design. I can't wait to experiment more with batik in the coming weeks.

The stages of a 4 colour batik print






A selection of the samples produced



My overall aim is to produce final fashion fabric samples which combine a mixture of the aforementioned printing methods layered with screen print. This is something which a feel may give my final collection a little bit of an edge over other work.
Phillippa x