Watercolor Batik on Rice Paper

Remember the art journal project? We are about to come to the end and I decided for the last journal I wanted to try a new technique. 

Watercolor Batik

I found some tutorials online and the only thing I needed to purchase was rice paper and a new black micron pen. The technique uses hot wax and layers of watercolor so I set up my work area on the waxing table in the studio.
The basic idea is to draw your design with the micron pen on rice paper. Then starting with the lightest value, apply layers of wax and watercolor wash.

When all the shading is done the whole sheet of rice paper is coated with wax and crumpled. Then the paper is smoothed out and darker wash applied all over.

Once it's dried the wax is ironed out between newspapers and your finished design is revealed.
I actually liked it better before the wax was removed!

I was also thinking about creating some batik dyed shirts with the ginkgo design... hmmmm who knows where this will end up.

I figured it was a good first effort. Now to start work on a piece for the journal I have in my possession. The theme is "secrets"... time to get my imagination rolling.

Glazing on a Sunday afternoon...

I was sort of lazy today. Slept in, then didn't get motivated to get into the studio until late in the day. I did finish all of my glazing (finally) and I should be happy with that accomplishment. 

 It seems like every year that goes by I make glazing a more complicated affair. The mugs above are carbon trap shino with wax resist designs. That process goes pretty quickly. Below are the platters for the cheese/dip/veggie/cracker platters and they involve a dip in shino, then washing off the interior. Next comes waxing the rim of the plate and glazing the center with gloss green. The bowls that go with the platters get the same process. Actually, all my ginkgo leaf design pieces get the same treatment.

The porcelain plates and platters have black velvet underglaze brushed into the stamps and then the excess wiped away with a sponge. That's the time consuming part. Thankfully they get dipped into a single glaze. I also had about 20 mugs that were stamped and glazed with this technique.

This post is included as a link on Sunday Ceramics, head on over there to read what else has been happening in the ceramics world this week!