lake 5 (kind of)

on cotton, 40 x 100cm

This was going to be a larger version of the lake series.. then, I made a mistake!

My new place is heated with a wood stove.  I discovered that it's perfect to dry the batiks quickly after a dye bath to dry them over the stove.  Except that this time I forgot all about it, and an hour later when I remembered, the heat had melted the wax in the middle into a spreading oval.  (its white because I had decided to bleach out the previous dyes).. so, since I didn't want to give up on the work I'd already put in, I decided to use it as part of the final image, and the rest happened around the white oval.

My 'abstract' version of the lake :)

The nice thing about having a wood stove (other than the warmth and the 'homely' wood smell); is that I no longer have to wonder about whether wax imbibed paper can be recycled.  It's an ideal fire starter!!