I've been following Malka Dubrawsky's blog, A Stitch in Dye, for a while now. There's nothing about it that I don't like. And her fabrics, oh my...the fabrics!
She has been offering bundles of small squares in her etsy shop of some of the fabric she has printed using techniques that can be found in her book, Color Your Cloth: A Quilter's Guide to Dyeing and Patterning Fabric. I've been wanting to pick up her book for some time now so when I decided to buy a pack of her fabric, I figured it was time to purchase her book as well.
Her book deals with batik and wax resist. I know there are other books on the subject but in all honesty, the others I've come across have just been way too much information for me. I admit that often I just want to know how to do something, I don't need to know every single detail of what is happening at a molecular level. I just want to create.
Malka's book delivers. She dives right into her techniques, offering a lot of tips including how to stretch your fabric for stamping and various ways you can create your own stamps. She is detailed in her explanations without making your eyes glaze over in a sea of chemistry lessons.
Her process does use wax made from a combination of beeswax and paraffin. While this doesn't appeal to me, she gives a good explanation of how to work with them. I've got soy wax hanging out in my studio and having tried the kind of wax she describes without much success, I'll most likely turn to the soy.
She also has several projects in the back. I bought her fabric squares because I'd like to make a scarf from it but there are several others in her book that have caught my eye. The coasters, the camera strap and her Shoo Fly quilt are particular favorites of mine. I like that she has included functional objects in addition to art quilts, it lends a good variety.
She covers everything. And I mean everything. Workspace set up, stamps, applying wax, overdyeing, discharging and how to get the wax out of the fabric. I know that once I'm able to be out in my garage with warmer temperatures, this book and I will be spending some quality time with wax.
3 comments:
I'm right there with you! I've been using my 50% off coupons from Joann's to stock up on soy wax.
Be careful of immersion dyeing with the soy was though.
Fun stuff!
Lynn...thanks for sharing the info on this book... I've just ordered it.. I'm always interested in learning new ways.
This book has long been on my list. Thanks for the review.
Post a Comment