Day 7- Featured Batik Designer- Cori

Today we bring you our first
Featured Designer Cori.
Cori comes to us from from Peace Baby Batik!

Cori tell us about yourself!

I’m a stay-at-home mom to the sweetest little boy in the world. When he’s awake, you can find me sitting on the living room floor playing cars or chasing him around a playground. When he’s napping, I spend my time writing, scrapbooking, batiking, or checking headlines and Facebook. I do a little freelance writing for the Southern Maryland Wedding Guide (http://somdweddings.com), but otherwise, I am at my kid’s beck and call! I also enjoy card making; vegetarian and vegan cooking; politics and current events; camping and travel; folk music; and Washington Nationals baseball. Some of my scrapbooking stuff is on http://scrapbook.com. My username is “Troylet.” My favorite place to visit close to home is the playground, A.C. Moore. I find the most peace sitting by a campfire with my son and husband.

I’m very excited about my Etsy Peace, Baby! store, and I am planning to do several craft shows every year. I’m also hoping to learn more complex batik techniques using authentic tools and start making designs in more than one color.

Let me share a little about my passion of batiking. I started doing batik several years ago after I was given a beautiful batik skirt from Indonesia. I made several skirts and T-shirts for myself and friends, and when my son was born, I started doing batik onesies and T-shirts for him. I thought maybe I’d hit on something I could sell, so I started Peace, Baby! Batiks this year. My goal is to never have an office job again. J

Here’s how my process works: I wash everything I am planning to batik, whether it is new or recycled. I melt the wax on my kitchen stove -- I use a beeswax blend – and apply the wax to the shirt using stencils and stencil brushes. Once the wax is hard, I put the items into the cold-water dye. I let it sit overnight, stirring often to make sure the clothing gets even coverage.

Once the items are finished in the dye, I rinse them in the sink and then boil them on my stove to get the wax off. (This is called “onesie stew” in my house.) I let the stew cool a bit and pour off the wax and water. Everything then gets washed in hot water to remove the rest of the wax. Then I wash it all in cold once more for good measure. The color is set, so the item can be washed on cold with other clothing without fear of bleeding.

I use 100 percent cotton onesies and T-shirts. When I can, I use “recycled” or second-hand onesies. (I only use second-hand onesies that are stain and odor free.) It’s important to me to protect the environment, so I use recycled shirts whenever I can. My designs are all done by stencil, some purchased and some that I’ve made. This gives me a lot of flexibility and allows me to do unusual designs and custom work.

I enjoy batik because it allows be to be creative in a different way -- without the ability to draw. I can’t draw to save my life (I’ve tried; I even took a class once) so batik lets me “draw” with stencils to create cute designs. It’s also a quick process. I go from white T-shirt to brightly colored T-shirt in 24 hours or less. It doesn’t take long to see the finished product. Each shirt I create is totally unique – the way the wax cracks and the way the shirt takes the dye is never the same twice.

Here are some samples of Cori's creations, see below for her Etsy store link.

Christmas Onsies

Long Sleeve Red Heart Onsie

Short Sleeve Pink Flower Baby Tee

For more styles and colors see the links below or visit Cori at her Etsy store to purchase one of these beautiful unique creations.

Facebook Fan Page-http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=600544153&ref=profile#/pages/Peace-Baby-Batiks/170878563930


Etsy Store-http://www.etsy.com/shop/peacebabybatiks?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=App_Seller&utm_content=shops&utm_campaign=fb_seller_shop
(FREE SHIPPING FOR THE MONTH OF DECEMBER!)



Cori thanks for sharing today, we had a blast getting to know more about you and we hope to see you back on The Scrappy Tree soon!

Come back tomorrow for more fun and exciting home-made gift ideas from The Scrappy Tree

Until then, Don't worry, Be Scrappy!