Cold Wax means Batik

When I found I could get cold wax I pictured a thicker product, something with the consistency of warm honey. I ordered some. When I came in what I found was a product the consistency of milk, much thinner than I expected. I researched it online to find what I had was the wax used for batik. It didn't need to be heated or melted to be applied, plus is was water soluble. I tried it, applied it with a brush, rinsed out the brush okay. Didn't stiffen the brush at all after rinsing. It spread on the silk more than I wanted. I decided to thicken it with some sodium alginate. That worked better, until the sodium alginate molded- I didn't know I had to keep it refrigerated. Live and learn. Anyway, since then, I've learned to use is not as much as a traditional resist but as a masking fluid to preserve the white areas. For that purpose, it works well. Now I treat silk spin things as watercolors in that I need to preserve the white areas of the painting because, with silk, you can't scrub out whites like you can on watercolor paper. Once the color is in the silk, it's there for good, even if it's not heat set yet. Live and learn. And I learned how to properly use this cold wax on silk for non batik paintings. Just to note, for brighter whites I use an opaque fabric paint in white, in small amounts. It's much thicker than silk paint but is made by the same company as the silk paints so they work well together.