Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Batik Paper Lanterns







I have some of these lanterns hanging in my house, and in sparked a lesson idea for my 3D class while I was student teaching. The student's really loved creating these lanterns, and I think they surprised themselves with their talent! The project began with the students making prototype lanterns out of drawing paper (sketching thumbnails-measuring & cutting out paper prototypes, practicing attaching (sewing/gluing) all of the pieces together..etc.) Then, we did a week long batik dying with traditional batiking wax and tools. This was a bit frightening for me, but my CT assured me that it would be okay! I've just heard stories of fires and such, eek! Anyways, the student batiked dippidy-dye paper (amazing fiberous paper!) layering wax and mixed water soluble dyes. Then, we backed the dyed paper to make the walls of the lanterns stronger and then cut, folded, glued, sewed, and hung the lanterns. They were the talk of the school for a while as they hung in the hallway- but we did have to watch some of the Middle School students in the hallway... they seemed to really, really want to touch them. Good project overall, I would do it again!

3 comments:

Anna Pietrolungo, Essendon North Primary School said...

Hi Molly! The lanterns look amazing and complicated. I will have to research the Batik methods. Great job!

Molly Stewart said...

thanks Anna, actually not too bad, the most important thing to remember is keeping the wax (paraffin/bee mix) at the safe temperature, easy if you double boil it in a an old pan inside of a electric pan...and make sure the students know it can start a fire, scare them a bit! Also, there are ways of batiking without the hot wax check out african batiking or flour paste batiking.

Katie said...

I love how these turned out! So bright and colorful! whoo hoo!