Soy Wax

© 2005, DB Bowen
For about 150 years the preferred waxes used in batik have been beeswax and paraffin. While this mixture can be boiled out of cotton, removal from silk requires dry cleaning, specifically the use of perchloroethylene, a toxic chemical which is heavily regulated by the EPA in the USA. In the likely event that perc will be banned in the future, batik artists will either need to find another way to remove wax from silk or find an alternative resist.

I have been working with soy wax as an alternative resist on silk since 2002. Advantages are that the fumes are not toxic, melting point is lower, and the wax can be washed out with warm water and synthrapol. While soy wax shows promise as an alternative resist, it is not waterproof and is generally not recommended for immersion dyeing. I have been exploring instances where artists can use soy wax for its unique qualities and thereby eliminate exposure to paraffin fumes and perc.

In June 2005 I presented a paper at the World Batik Conference in Boston on my experiments using soy wax as a resist. I was invited to present this paper at the Kuala Lumpur International Batik Convention in December, 2005, in Malaysia. The revised paper is available as a low resolution pdf file (click here to download; 2.7 mb).

In December 2007 I presented another paper at KLIB which illustrated recent work by other artists using soywax.

Pictured to the left are students and their work in a workshop I taught for the New Mexico Silk Painters' Guild. Many of my fellow guild members are now regularly using soywax.

To see a few soy wax pieces click here.
To read about the research click here.