BY TAYLOR GIORDULLO

Recently, Mariemont’s students were required to request their classes for next year’s schedule; a process with which most are familiar. This year however, as they scrolled through the various art electives offered, they may have come across a class they hadn’t seen on the list before. In fact, they possibly didn’t recognize the word at all.

“Batik is a technique of creating beautiful art on fabric through a beeswax resist and multiple fabric dye sequences,” explains Julia Lair, who will be teaching the course next year.

The class lasts for a semester, during which students will be kept busy through various projects.

“Students will create framed art pieces, wall hangings, clothing, and stuffed art,”  says Lair.

The idea to offer Batik was not a random one. Fiber Arts and Advanced Fiber Arts are both art classes currently offered, and it was the interest of students in these courses that led Mrs. Lair to develop the new class, which students can take after completing the two Fiber Arts courses.

“Quincy Taylor and some other students completed Fiber and Advanced Fiber Arts and they wanted to continue learning new things, but there was nothing available,” says Lair. It was then that she got the idea to offer a similar and more advanced course: Batik.

Taylor, a junior, had some experience with Batik her freshman year, as it was a part of some of her Fiber Art’s projects.

“I really like Batiking because it’s fun to play with the wax,” she says. However, this experience came to a halt in Advanced Fiber, much to the dismay of the students.

“My friends and I were sad because the Batik projects were our favorite part of freshman year,” says Taylor. “That’s when Mrs. Lair decided to create this new course for us and other students completely focused on Batiking.”