Wax Resist Printing
This project was inspired by a series of cotton fragments known as "Fustat Textiles". These fragments are textiles found in various sites of Egypt, most notably the town of Fustat, and comprise a mystery to archeologists, since they largely do not represent motifs commonly found elsewhere in Egyptian art. Instead, many of these pieces of cotton resemble motifs found in temples and paintings of medieval India. Trade routes have been recorded in journals corroborating the concept that India may have exported fragments to Egypt. The textiles are dated to between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries, with a few being even later due to technical or stylistic qualities (Barnes, pp 30-32). Individual textiles comprise a range of dates over this time period. All textiles found at this site suggest a block-printed technique. Ajanta cave paintings as early as 600-800 AD suggest the use of similarly printed textiles as both garments and as home decorations in India.
Printing and Dying
These textiles are generally believed to be evidence of block printing techniques. The outline of repeated block shapes can be seen as the pattern is repeated across space. This outline is seen as a slightly mismatched edge where the fabric was not perfectly aligned between prints. Also, a slightly "blobby" appearance can be seen on most of the prints, showing which color (or lack thereof) was applied to the fabric. The "blobby" quality comes from the slight spread of the printed material onto the fabric.
From careful study of these textiles it is possible to intuit whether the color or the lack of color was actually applied to the fabric. In cases where the colored elements, usually red or blue, appear to be rounded and less sharply angled, it is likely that some element of the dying process was applied via a block print. This is particularly likely in the case of red textiles. Red tones require a metallic mordant such as iron, aluminum and tin, which can be made into a paste and applied via a block. When this mordanted section is put in a dye bath, the printed areas retain a red color, while the non-printed areas remain white.
In cases where the white segments of a pattern appear to be printed on the fabric, a resist-technique was used to prevent the exposure of this section of fabric to the dye. Resists such a mud or wax are still in use today, and make a feasible possibility for a pre-seventeenth century textile due to their availability and ease of use. This technique is particularly necessary for patterning with indigo, as medieval indigo dye baths do not require a mordant and necessitate total immersion. Indigo is unique in that the exposure of an indigo dye bath to air initiates the chemical process that turns the dye blue and fixes it as a permanent part of the fabric. Thus, an indigo dye cannot easily be patterned on a textile with the use of a block, it is necessary to put something on the textile to keep segments from being exposed to the dye.
This is the technique I have chosen to imitate. My goal was to create and wax-print a block from one of the Fustat Textiles, and attempt to use it on similar cotton fabric. My aim has been to better understand the limitations and challenges of this medium while creating textiles with a high level of authenticity that I might use as garments, gifts, or tent decorations, as suggested by their use in Ajanta cave paintings and other Indian sources. This, my first attempt, is a project that aims to make reasonably priced favors for Northern Lights.
Block Carving Process
These textiles are generally believed to be evidence of block printing techniques. The outline of repeated block shapes can be seen as the pattern is repeated across space. This outline is seen as a slightly mismatched edge where the fabric was not perfectly aligned between prints. Also, a slightly "blobby" appearance can be seen on most of the prints, showing which color (or lack thereof) was applied to the fabric. The "blobby" quality comes from the slight spread of the printed material onto the fabric.
From careful study of these textiles it is possible to intuit whether the color or the lack of color was actually applied to the fabric. In cases where the colored elements, usually red or blue, appear to be rounded and less sharply angled, it is likely that some element of the dying process was applied via a block print. This is particularly likely in the case of red textiles. Red tones require a metallic mordant such as iron, aluminum and tin, which can be made into a paste and applied via a block. When this mordanted section is put in a dye bath, the printed areas retain a red color, while the non-printed areas remain white.
Cotton Choices
The cotton for the favors was chosen largely based on price. I found it for an unbeatable dollar a yard price at a local discount fabric store. Since I was planning to buy 8 yards for the favors, price became rather important. I came to regret this choice. Tests on slightly more costly cotton ($3/yard) later showed that the pattern was of a much higher quality when printed on a thicker textile. In addition, the dye bath produced a much stronger color on the thicker cotton, and the resulting sample appeared to have a greater similarity to the images in the Kelsey Museum collection. Never the less, by the time the experiment had concluded, I had managed to create a reliable, continuous row of prints on the edge of the fabric.
Comparing the two, I tend to think that the $1/yard cotton which printed so much lighter was also a blend of cotton and something synthetic. Since I was using a cotton dye, I suspect the non-cotton fibers did not take the dye at all, and hence the lighter color.
Wax Printing
Resist-printed textiles pose a particular enigma. The point of a resist print is that the resisting material does not remain on the print, it leaves a white ground behind. So, if created properly, there is no indication as to what resist may have been used. Another challenge to this type of printing is the fact that the resist substance must be permanent enough that it performs the task of resisting dye while still being impermanent enough to be removed after. Often this is accomplished by using a substance which is liquid in some temperatures and solid in others - such as wax, which will become liquid at 100 degrees Celsius, so can be removed by boiling water. It's also particularly important to get a substance that will be strong enough to withstand immersion in the dye bath.
For all of these reasons, I chose to use wax as my resist. I also intend to attempt clay resists, but have not yet searched for a usable clay that will not stain the fabric and will be impermeable enough to stay on the fiber during dye immersion. Once wax was decided as the chosen medium, the next decision was what blend of wax to use. Paraffin and beeswax are the most commonly sold varieties, and blends of the two are usually used and recommended by modern wax printers. Paraffin, a petroleum based substance, has a lower melting (and burning) point than beeswax, making it safer to use as the risk of burning oneself is minimal. It also tends to crack when it hardens in thin layers, so that the textile will have hairline stripes of color through its resisted section. This quality is a trait highly esteemed by modern batik makers, as it gives the piece a unique chaotic quality. Beeswax is a more authentic substance, and tends not to be as susceptible to cracking. It's also more dangerous, as it melts at a high enough temperature to scald the skin, so should be handled carefully.
Through experimentation with modern batiking kits, I discovered another quality of paraffin. It cools much quicker. So quickly, in fact, that it does not necessarily stay liquid long enough to move the block from the wax melting pot to the dye bath. By gradually increasing the beeswax portion in my wax pot, I was able to create a wax resist that would stay liquid quite long enough to permeate the fibers of my textile. I also noticed that as I increased the beeswax proportion, the prints were much more durable, tending to crack and otherwise permit dye intrusion far less. By the end of my project, I had most likely increased the bath to over 75% beeswax. In future projects, I intend to use 100% beeswax, as my results indicate that this would likely provide the highest quality prints. I did have to raise the temperature in my electric griddle serving as a wax pot to over 250 degrees Fahrenheit to keep the wax reliably hot. I also rested my block in the pot at all times, so that the linoleum would maintain the heat as well as possible. Otherwise, the room-temperature block would add to the cooling difficulties.
Having created a wax blend that permeated the fiber, I now found I had the opposite problem -- too much wax spreading! The molten wax oozed past the edges of the block so significantly that the pattern was obscured by the bleeding wax. I found that the problem was the lack of any blotter behind my textile. I had been following batiking instructions, which recommend the use of a frame to keep your wax off any working surfaces. I needed just the opposite, some sort of absorbent material. Putting another layer of cotton underneath the working textile, I was able to soak up most of the bleeding wax below my work surface rather than across my work surface. Cleaning the block, providing slightly wider channels, and slightly thinner elements removed the last of my difficulties in this area.
Side Dripping
Finally, I noticed a difficulty of even printing. On many textiles, it is clear that one end is white and blobby, and the other end is more faded blue. It appears as though the pattern has consistently dripped to one side. This phenomenon is caused by my uneven shaking of the block to remove excess wax. Excess wax will cause print clarity problems as mentioned above, but the uneven shaking causes an irregular print. Constant attention to maintaining the waxy block in horizontal position will help. Blocks with less large surface areas will also help. This block is unique in having a number of large, solid areas, and those areas where the sections most clearly affected by the one-sided dripping wax. Other prints show a much more minimal raised block area.
The Dye Bath
The dye bath was a Turquoise Procion Fiber Reactive dye bath, using a cold water vat and fixing the dye with soda ash. This is a totally modern method of dying, but it was cheap, already in my home, and very easy to use. I hope to someday move on to natural dyes, but have not yet gained enough technical knowledge and time to practice with them. It was also important to me that I be certain these gifts have a fairly permanent color, as they are gifts. It would be horrible to give a gift that faded quickly, and I've used these types of dyes enough to feel comfortable with their colorfast capabilities. The color and intensity were chosen based on light indigo-colored blues seen in the Kelsey collection, so that though the technique might not be period, the result would be a fair imitation.
Finishing
The final steps to making a wax resisted textile into a useable fabric are truly a labor of love. Boiling water will remove the wax, but the wax permeates the water thoroughly enough that several iterations of alternating boiling water with cold water are requires to pull most of the wax from the fiber. At this point, one may dry the textile, but the process is not completed. After drying, it is necessary to rub off any caked on wax, and then iron the textile between two sheets of newsprint. The heat of the iron will melt the wax, and the absorbent newsprint will wick it away from the textile. Finally, running the fabric through a washing machine and setting it with Synthrapol (a synthetic dye product for removing excess dye from fabrics and limiting color bleeding) will hopefully remove the last of the wax, and create a textile which is fairly color fast and non-bleeding.
Conclusions
The entire process was non-trivial, and taught me to truly appreciate the profession of the printer and dyer. Particularly since the textiles of Fustat are considered the cheap exports of medieval India - reasonably poor in quality and technique! I did get a reasonably discernable and attractive print, even out of the less cooperative cotton. The process comprised at least 6 hours of block carving, 2 days of wax printing, a day and a half of wax removal, plus washing and ironing. Nevertheless, the process was interesting and fun, and I most definitely intend to repeat it.
In the future, I intend to implement many changes. Most of them have already been detailed in this paper - better, thicker fiber, a completely beeswax wax pot, wooden blocks and motifs with less solid surface area. To save a little money, I intend to use newsprint as a blotter, chances are it will be an even better absorber of wax. I also plan to construct a jig, a support mechanism to assist in block print placement. Because of the limited cooling time and possibility of dripping of the wax, I found I had to quickly align and print the block. More practice will certainly improve my aim, but guidance system will eliminate the problem completely. I can use such means as an L-shaped guide to quickly stamp the block on the fabric before it cools. A bigger dye bath would also be useful. This would prevent scrunching and agitating the fabric in such a way it will jeopardize the clarity of the pattern. For this project, I used a 10 gallon trash can. In the future I could upgrade to the 30 gallon outdoor bins!
Finally, I'd like to expand and attempt clay resist dying, natural dye stuff appropriate to India - such as indigo, madder and morinda - and mordant printing. I also yearn to attempt bandhani - detailed Indian tie-dying, and ikat - a process of resisting the warp and/or weft fibers before weaving. But those are projects for another day...
Sources
A general knowledge of block printing and feeling for its technique is something I have gleaned from any number of websites, skilled individuals and books. Most influential, however have been the following sources:
- Mistress Nicolette a very skilled dyer and weaver has helped me in my experimentations, providing enthusiasm, patience, tolerance of my wild ideas, and good ideas of her own on how we might accomplish this goal.
- Barnes, Ruth, Indian Block-Printed Cotton Fragments in the Kelsey Museam, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor: the University of Michigan Press, 1993. Has been my main source for Fustat Textile dates, production techniques, and actual pictures of extant pieces.
- The site "Riches to Rags" hosted by the Kelsey Museam and curated by R. Barnes and T.K.Thomas provides much of the same information and some colored pictures which I have used in this text.
- The Ajanta Caves, Artistic Wonder of Ancient Buddhist India, by Benoy K. Behl, published by Harry N Abrams in 1998. Provides fabulous and detailed pictures of many of the Ajanta Caves, including the striking use of several textiles which were likely to be block-printed.