For Her, It's Effortless

In case you didn't know, my Auntie Judy is a rather well known batik artist. She has a very unique style and paints scenes of traditional Chamorro life. There is a hotel resort here called the Leo Palace. They have a golf course, a small water park, tower rooms, or duplex residences. Oh, they also have a baseball field. The Japanese baseball teams stay there during spring training, and apparently there are also fans who will follow them here. Can you imagine going to a stadium game in Japan? I would feel like someone played the ultimate prank by replacing all the Americans with Japanese people.

Anywho, the activities director for Leo Palace asked Judy to do a workshop for Japanese tourists and Judy invited any of us who were interested. So, Rylee, Porter, and I participated in a batik workshop with several Japanese tourists. It was a blast.

I liked that Rye and Port got to hear and see Japanese people interacting with each other and also with us non-Japanese speaking peoples. It's just so fun to see how differently people of other cultures behave; their mannerisms, physiology, how polite or impolite they may be. Japanese people are very polite. Our favorite was to hear the little children speaking in Japanese.

Um... maybe you don't know this, but Judy is the tall lady dressed in pink.

After you do a layer of wax, you have let it set before you paint with the dye. After you apply a layer of dye, it has to dry before you wax it again. I had one lady bring me to Judy's painting in the window and ask me (gesturing and speaking Japanese) how to get the crinkle effect. So, I followed suit explaining to her that you put wax all over the whole thing and then kind of squish it. She, at least knew some English words like "wax". The Japanese I know is pretty helpless.

Doing this is seriously SO MUCH FUN :)

After you crinkle the wax you gotta really squish the dye into the cracks.

The last step is to iron it with paper. The paper absorbs the wax, and the heat sets the dye. 

Here is Porter's. He made it for Nicole.

Some people feel too intimidated by drawing with wax because it's very sloppy. You cannot be concerned about perfect lines or drips or you will not have fun. I have a hard time thinking the layers of colors through. Not only do you go from light to dark, but you also go from primary to secondary, and so on, and so forth.

Some of these participants were quite artistic.

I love, love, LOVE, the bamboo idea here, and I think her color choices are so fun.

This is Sumiko. She quickly became very good at drawing with the tjanting tool.

This is very good!

This is Kamae who asked me about the crinkle effect.

Hers turned out very beautiful.

This is mine. Seashells, pine trees, and stars. I'm rather pleased with the crinkle here, too. You just never know how it will turn out.

I know. You're in shock because I NEVER accessorize.

This is Auntie Judy's work. For her, it's effortless.