Toothpaste Batik on Fabric

My creative and wonderful blogging friend, Phyl, has posted several times about her toothpaste batik process.  I have admired the results for years and decided to try it last year for our Wild about the Arts Fine Arts Night.  I was hesitant to try because of the logistics.  It was not a quick and easy project, but I loved the process and I loved that it was so “different” than other things my students have experienced. These were made with 4th and 5th graders.  I would think that with the washing and painting, it might be a good project to try with a smaller class or with a club.  I know it is do-able in bigger classes because Phyl has taught this project many times.

We used animals as our subject matter to go along with the theme of our Fine Arts night.  We followed the steps exactly as described in this blog post.  The only difference is that we used Sax Versatemp Tempera Paint.  Next time I will try the original Crayola non-washable tempera, because Phyl said those colors turn out pretty vibrant.  The other difference is that I think her toothpaste lines were thicker.  The kids chose to outline quite a bit with Sharpies.

Another thing I noticed is how interesting the preliminary sketches looked after the paint soaked through the cloth and onto the paper underneath.  The texture of the paint blotches looked beautiful.  I encouraged early finishers (of the batik painting) to enhance their paint soaked sketches with Kwik Stix and oil pastels.  Everyone loves Kwik Stix.  Seriously.

I feel like some of these are just the cutest ever.

Have you ever tried a batik process with kids?  How did it go?

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