Creative Batik (Search Press Classics)

This book explores some of the techniques that can be used with wax and dyeing fabric to create amazing effects. The focus is on producing patterns and designs that can be straightforward or more complex, depending on your comfort zone.

There are good guidelines for getting started - preparing the wax and brushes, fabric and dyeing chemicals, so you could tackle batik with the book from a beginner's perspective. Using stamps, brushes, etching and cracking, tjanting and discharging are all covered, explained by using a different project for each technique. Fully illustrated instructions are provided for each. What is particularly good about this book is that the projects take the stance that you can work outside the typical associations of batik patterns (mainly via stamped or tjanting designs). Many projects have a pictorial base, such as a fruit bowl or a boat on water, and this makes you
realise that you have plenty of freedom with batik techniques. The Gallery contains many photos of some amazing work such as a Venetian Canal, landscapes, seaside scenes and people, giving the reader a taste of the possibilities.

This is an update on a 2001 edition. It has become a classic book on batik. What you get is - introduction, getting started, techniques, projects and a gallery. If you have always wanted to try batik, this is the book for you. This book introduces the reader to different techniques, both traditional and modern such as using candles, stamps, brushes, etching, cracking and cantings as well as discharging. The book demonstrates batik on all levels from simple to the exquisite examples of finished work and is therefore suitable for all skill levels. There are 9 projects to follow and these will give rise to many more ideas of your own. The book is well illustrated with many photos and the instructions are clear.

To ensure you get a real feel for the strong tradition that goes hand in hand with batik, this book begins with a history of the art streching back more than 2,000 years. From the past though, the book quickly moves forward to provide descriptions of all the tools and equipment needed for Batik in the present day. There are several interesting projects covered in the book each with clear step-by-step instructions. Fish, fruit and flowers are all dealt with so it's simply a matter of taking your pick and getting started. Finally there's also an inspiration gallery section, which consists of mnay amazing pieces of work. The delicate tones and fine details of these pictures show you exactly what can be achieved given time and effort.

Explore your creative side with this colourful, practical guide to the many different dyeing and waxing techniques used in batik. Summer is almost here and time to create your own fabulous fabric decorated with flowers, trees, birds, animals, landscapes and abstract patterns. The book contains information on using candles and wax crayons, stamps and cantings, overdipping, painting, random waxing and discharging. Projects include book covers, scarves, panels, lampshades, and much more. It is difficult not to be tempted and inspired by this book.

This is a colourful and highly attractively designed volume, such as we have come to expect from Search Press abd with a practical appeal. The expert author describes techniques and tools methodically, comprehensively, clarifying them for the novice, and succeeds in making the reader believe they can do it., When it comes to the different projects proposed however, one's enthusiam may well pale off: 'a doodled lampshade' for example may not be what you have always wished to know how to batik, and the very impressive illustrations realistic landscapes and bowls of fruit and flowerws may cause you to reflect that painting on canvas or tapestry weaving, might be more preferable to the more messy methods of batik for blending colours and dyes for painterly effects. If fired to use4 this medium, an individual will, as always, need to abstract the techniques and find their own inspiration.

Rosi Robinson shows how to create a stunning range of beautiful batik designs, patterns and pictures using a series of innovative step-by-step projects. She explores many different techniques from making simple marks and drawing with wax, to dipping and painting with dyes, etching, cracking, discharging and more

Rosi was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, but was educated in England and the USA. She graduated from Vassar College in NY, USA with a history degree, but began to teach art in Primary schools and for the last 23 years has been Head of Art at Cumnor House School in Danehill, Sussex. Her interest in batik began in 1970 and since then she has given batik workshops to adults and children throughout the world. She has exhibited in Europe, Canada, USA, China and Japan, and has travelled widely in Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Rosi lives in Horsted Keynes, Sussex, UK.