Exploring Toothpaste Batik and personal symbols

Second and third grade are working on investigating traditional forms of batik making in Indonesia and Africa through exploring their own personal symbols on fabric.  First we watched a video on Indonesian batik and looked at some amazing patterns and how they were made.  Then the kids sketched personal symbols in their sketchbooks, understood how resist works with white crayons and watercolor, and then applied these to fabric in a repeated pattern of choice, showing their interests.   After this dried a couple of days, they painted over the top using tempera, let that dry and then washed it out for lovely effects! We use a half and half mixture of toothpaste (basic Crest works best) and hand lotion.

sketches and application process

final Batik examples