You may lightly sketch your design with pencil on your pre-washed and
dried muslin. It is easier to draw if you stretch it on a board and
secure it with pushpins.
Remember that you are drawing with the hot wax. Everything that you
paint with wax will be natural color of the muslin.
Make sure the wax is hot enough to go completely through the material
(HINT: It should stick to the paper underneath.)
Now begin painting in your colors. I like to start with the lightest
and work darker.
After your painting is finished and your piece has dried completely,
you may brush wax over the entire piece of material.
Let the wax harden. Some people like to put in the freezer for a
minute.
Crumble the material into a ball to cause the wax to crack. These
cracks will give you the beautiful crazing lines of batik.
After crumpling, open it up. You are ready to put your gloves on and
put in the dark or black dye bath. Submerge your piece and swish around
a few minutes for the dye to absorb in the material. Take out, wipe off
and hang to dry.
When dry, get your craft iron out. Place your batik on several old
sections of newspaper (new paper sometimes bleeds ink.) Sandwich the
batik with more newspaper on top.
With the iron on a high setting iron out your wax. This will take
several pieces of newspaper. Keep ironing until very little wax comes
through paper.
Your batik is finished and ready to become a design for a banner, your
table, maybe on a t-shirt, or for unique greeting cards!
Nostalgic
and Contemporary Picture Frames
Glass globs fit in any décor, especially when you can choose your colors.
Inexpensive frame (you’ll only use the glass and the stand) Choose a
frame one size larger than you need so that the stand will be big enough
to hold picture up.
What you need for stained glass:
Copper foil
Glass cutter
Zinc channel
Soldering iron
Solder 60/40
flux
brush
What to do:
Decide what size frame opening you want (2 x 3, 3 x 5, 5 x 7)
Draw your opening on a piece of paper to make a pattern for your clear
glass.
Score and break glass to the opening size.
Using a board with a right angle, lay out your center piece of glass
with enough room for the sides of the frame.
To foil your globs, wrap tape around and rub foil on the glass. When
all done, put glass in a plastic container ˝ full and shake with lid on.
This magically burnishes the foil on!
Turn on your soldering iron. When hot, tin the edges of all your globs
with solder.
Add foil to clear glass and position in place.
Begin tack soldering the globs to each other and to the center glass.
Run a nice bead of solder around the center glass
Cut your cardboard stand to fit your opening (remember we have to go
larger so that stand will work)
Cut 3 zinc strips to size. Clean zinc with steel wool before soldering
at seams.
Check your frame stand back to make sure it slides in and out.
You may choose to add a patina at this time or just polish and leave
silver.
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