Paste Resist

When studying the Tudors last term I wanted to introduce the children to the concept of negative space and the ways in which we can use it in our art work. Resist are always for this so I chose to cover paste resists. Unfortunately, we don't have a wax heater in school for the children to create wax batiks but another method of using a paste resist to create batiks is a easy and safe way for the children to part take in the process of batik.

I chose to use the design of the Tudor rose, not just because the children would be able to recreate the simple design but linking it to the idea of symbols and standards to represent noble families fitted with the history topic.  The children used a black Tudor rose outline that they could see through their thin piece of cotton fabric. I mixed a simple flour and water paste that I poured into squeeze bottles I bought of Amazon but old clean sauce bottles would do the same job. The children then trace the Tudor template with the paste making sure to apply even pressure to the bottle to get a clean even sized spread of paste. The paste will bleed a little into the fabric and can cause it to crumple a little. This is normal it's just the water content soaking into the fabric.

When the paste has dried, (at least over night) you can begin to add paint to the fabric. On this occasion, we used an acrylic paint that we added a small amount of water to. Be careful not to make the paint to watery as it will bleed into the fabric under the paste and you will loose the negative space created by the paste. The children can paint over the top of the paste or use it as guide lines so not to mix colours. Once the paint is dry, the paste can be removed by picking at it. Make sure all pieces are removed as it affects the finished look. Removing the paste should leave a clean white line in its place.

Finally we mounted our fabric between two art straws to give it a standard feel.