Adire Style Wax Batik

Adire textile is the indigo dyed cloth made in south western Nigeria by Yoruba women, using a variety of resist dye techniques. In the past they used a cassava paste, but today they use melted candle wax. The dye-resistant starch was either painted freehand or stenciled onto the fabric. When freehand painting, the artist usually paints a grid of squares or rectangles onto the fabric first. Then she fills these squares with geometric and representational motifs.

After the white cloth is covered in various patterns and designs, it is dyed in an indigo dye bath. Originally, indigo was a dye derived from plant leaves, but nowadays most people use synthetic dyes. The cloth then gets put into a vat of boiling water which melts off all the wax, revealing the white design. Adire cloth is used for clothing as well as for export to be made into decorative textiles (throw pillows, tablecloths, etc).

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Here's an artist adding wax designs to the white cloth.

This project was inspired by the lesson found here:

http://homepages.nyu.edu/~km1482/final/aea.html

It's a much simpler (and safer) technique using wax crayon resist.

Grade 7 students first drew out a large grid pattern with wax crayons onto cardstock (any smooth, heavy weight paper would work). 

They needed to press hard (really emphazise this) and could use any light colour. Seriously, if they don't press hard, the wax won't be thick enough to resist the paint in the next step.

White crayon is good, and the most authentic-looking, but it's tricky to see on the paper.

Then they filled in the squares with a variety of patterns.

Here's a finished design.

I pre-mixed up a bottle of 'indigo' coloured tempera paint (watered down a bit) and then the students gently painted it over their design. The wax will resist the paint. If it doesn't, either a) the student didn't press hard enough with the wax crayon or b) you need to water down the paint so it's not too thick.

It's really best to test this project out beforehand so you know how to get the best results with the materials/brands you're using.

Let these dry. 

The next step (next class) involves drawing a stylized African animal on black paper and colouring it in with oil pastels- they can also use lines and patterns to fill it in.

Cut it out and glue it onto the dried background 'adire' paper.

Here are some of the Grade 7 results.

Ta da!