The Día de la Madre is here, and if you are like most of us kids out there, you have also been racking your brain about what to get your mom that is not only sentimental but also affordable. And living in the land of cheap plastic stuff does not help us aid in the effort to conserve resources on mom's perfect gift. So, what's a girl to do?
Take matters into your own hands, that's what. I decided this year to get back to my childhood roots and exercise some good ol' crafty ingenuity and really make my mom something great. Something handmade. All from scratch and all out of love. Just like in the olden days when I would slave painstakingly over a cutout card collage made of fabric scraps from the bin at my Grandma's house or bits of ripped magazines and Sunday papers. And of course glue. Lots of glue. And voila! A work of art from the heart. What more could a mother ask for?
So this year I cultivated an idea for the grown-up version of an old classic. Instead of beginning with a blank sheet of paper, I began with an 18" x 18" scrap of white silk and decided to Batik my way into my mothers heart. And so it was...
-I needed to make something inexpensive and re-purposed
-I wanted to strengthen my batiking skills
-I wanted to make something that was useful for my mom
So I decided to use this silk and my rudimentary setup for batik work; a hotplate, some leftover 30% parrafin/70% beeswax, a pot filled with water, a 22" x 22" square frame, push pins, a few old paintbrushes and a djarning tool.
I created a template design, I transferred the image in pencil to the fabric and I began the process. I used the melted wax to fill in the design of a swan with a feathered plumage, 3 cycles of waxing then dyeing then drying and repeating and I was left with a wax covered silk fabric that was ready to be ironed between two layers of unprinted newsprint to remove the wax. Once all of the wax was out I sewed the batik piece into the face of a 20"x 20" pillowcase using a complimentary vintage upholstery fabric as the pillowcase backing. One down feather pillow (which had been tucked away in my goodwill pile for some time) to fit and the gift was complete. Total cost- about $8.00.
The moral of this story is, use your talents and resources wisely. My mother was moved to tears at the sight of the one of a kind object that I had created with my brain, my skills and my re-purposed materials. If money is an issue for you, which it is for most of us these days, this is a great way to save dough. It just requires your time and energy and the creative juices i know are flowing through you all. The "Do It Yourself" approach goes for all kinds of gifts for all kinds of people, not just the MAMAS.
As if our birth was not good enough- geez.
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