Summer batik project, conclusion

[labricoleuse]

Today we conclude the batik project i began covering in yesterday's post. (Though admittedly the observant reader will have spotted a bit of the finished product already in my #TonyCanYouHearMe post...)

I'd worked out the wax layers and the colors and gotten several hues onto the fabric, as well as waxing in substantial areas. Here are a few more photos of that and the conclusion:

Here, we're well into the color applications, nearly all the dyes are layered in. But, you might ask, what's that circle in the middle of the lower figure's throat?



Detail shot of said circle. It's a jar i placed under the fabric because i didn't like how the dye was running as the weight of the wax caused it to sag. I chose to put it in this place, because a circular motif is a recurring image that my uncle (an artist/illustrator) uses a lot in his work superimposed over the subject, creating a kind of lens or mandala effect incorporated into an overall composition. The jar acted as a resist the same as if i had waxed a circle, except it allowed me to later go back into that section with dye, which you can't do with a waxed-out section unless you start again after removing the wax.


Last application of all dyes/wax. At this point, it was time to do the cracked effects. This (for me) is the scariest part of the process because you can totally overdo it and really screw up your piece, and then you've spent days and hours on something that's just a failure. But i totally wanted the cracks, because shattering and brokenness are motifs in the novel that inspired it, and particularly for the character represented by the lower figure--i wanted basically a web of fractures all over the piece, but concentrated in the lower right section.

So, i took it off the frame, crumpled it in a controlled fashion, and then did this:



...black dye over the entire thing. See why i find this the scariest part?

But, then i rinsed off the extra, boiled/laundered out the wax, painted in some style lines with Jacquard Airbrush Color (applied with a brush), and headed to the art store for some stretcher bars.



I stretched the finished piece just like i would a canvas, and here's the finished work.

This iPad shot doesn't capture a lot of the subtle layers in the fire background (the novel begins and ends with a building burning down), or the texture the dye layering gives the hair of the upper figure. And you can only barely see that there are four pieces of piercing jewelry in the fabric itself on the faces of the characters (the book being set in 1998, everyone at the club in question had loads of body piercings).

The finished piece measures 24" x 32", and as you saw in my Tony post, hangs in my living room now. And i'm sure once the book sells and comes out, this won't be the last piece of art somebody creates inspired by its characters, but as the author, i'm pretty thrilled to have had such success with the first! (Well, second, but that test run didn't count.)

Comments

[silentq.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, that's gorgeous!

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

It's funny, it is now hanging in my living room, and a friend came over today and saw it; and she was talking about how it was so visually demanding in person that you couldn't be in the room with it without looking at it, what with the colors and the ambiguity and the crackle (literal and figurative).

And, i said that was apropos, since that's what my crit partners said about the two characters it depicts from the novel--that whenever they were even peripherally in a scene, the reader was still hyper-aware of their presence. Which, cool, because that was intentional, and i'm glad that translated to the batik as well (at least for my friend who commented about it).

[silentq.livejournal.com]

Now I'm even more curious to read the book!
It was funny, I was out in Central Sq on Friday and a friend was trying to check in to the club on Facebook and the location suggestion kept popping up a club that closed 10 years ago - it's undead! :-)

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

Not gonna lie--Decadence is based more than a little on ManRay. By which i mean, i totally lifted the floor plan for the fictional club, minus the front room and one fire exit. :)

[silentq.livejournal.com]

Awesome. :-)