It’s at this time, when faced with 18 yards of waxy silk, that I wonder “What was I thinking?”

The wash out is always a chore. The soy wax washes out completely in hot water and soap which is much better than the old days of ironing out wax between newspaper and never getting the residue out without dry cleaning. But it takes a lot of work, a lot of hot water, and makes a mess.

And I was very unhappy to find that the biggest panels didn’t turn out the way I had hoped. I was looking for spirals of warm yellows and orange on a background of rich reds. It turns out my waxed spiral designs with their expressive brush strokes didn’t hold up to the dye and all I got were yellow splotches. Bummer.

So I redid the spirals with much bolder wax lines and overdyed with darker reds. The fabric actually turned out really well, but I hadn’t budgeted time for that extra step. So I have been humping the last few days to get it done. Sewing my little fingers off while my hubbie did all the gathering, packing, and errand running for the rest of the installation. And tonight we got them done in time to finish the rest of the packing before we hit the road for Oregon tomorrow.

I think they turned out pretty well.