Batik Fabrics ....and a little bit of time management

I had a really good morning today at Rikki Outis's class at Cottenham. Today we had a go at batik and I used several of the fabrics I have dyed in the last few weeks. Rikki uses soy wax as it is easier to get it out of the fabric. She had some melting in a large electric frying pan (skillet) and some in a melting pot which is good if you want to use a jantung.
I started off by cutting a stencil and then painting on the wax in a spiral design. (later, I over painted it with blue and red)


The next fabric I simply scrunched up and dabbed the wax onto it to create random texture. (I splodged red and purple dyes onto to this piece later on) There are so many ways to create gorgeous patterns using wax 

 The yellow sample was folded in a concertina fashion and the edges dipped in the hot wax. I opened it, let it cool and then re-folded in the opposite direction and re-dipped it. (It was later painted with teal and blue
The flowery piece was made by brushing on the wax onto pale pink fabric. (It was later painted with yellow and red)
I allowed them all to dry hard and then later, I painted them with soda ash and then with the Procion dyes we have used before. It was so lovely sitting on the grass under the apple tree doing this this evening. It is so warm here in Cambridge right now....I'm making the most of it while it lasts.
 
Time Management......

 I am enjoying Kelly Rae's class and today she talked about time management and asked us for our ideas too so here is what I learnt when I had my machine knitting business, Tiny Tiger, when my own children were small.  I was really keen to be there as a mummy to them and always wanted to be sure to be at the school gate to collect them as I had come home to an empty house as a child after my dad died and my mum had to work. What matters is what matters to you, not what you think other people think you should do, and it mattered to me to be there.


Gareth was two when I started my machine knitting business and Claire was already at school. At first I was making ALL the jumper myself so time was precious...at a premium...so as soon as he was in nursery school I would shoot home straight to my work room (where I had tea and coffee making stuff VITAL...no wasting time going to the kitchen) and spent the morning knitting. I never allowed myself to wash up dishes, tidy the kitchen, iron, clean.....I just got on with making. I love working under a controlled amount of pressure and I was motivated to try and beat my own record of how many jerseys I could make in one session! I also got it down to a fine art when he was in the bath...I could knit a WHOLE age 2 jumper while he was content playing, and turning wrinkly-fingered! Oh it was blissful....he was content and I was productive.


As the children got older, we had a family housework hour on a Sunday afternoon. The radio was turned on full blast and everyone had a job...Claire would sweep and wash the kitchen floor, Gareth would hoover downstaires, I cleaned the lavs and Tony would clean the shower. It worked well and got the job done quickly. Claire also used to do the ironing in return for her pony's keep which seemed a fair exchange. Having our business did mean they both had a good lifestyle.


There were so many other ways I managed my time but right now, it is 9.30pm and a really gorgeous evening and as Tony is hankering for a walk to the nearest pub garden to cool off, I'm going to join him!






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