Prepare the fabric for dyeing. Many of the fabrics may not be ready to accept indigo as they are. They may have oils, fat, fingerprints, dirt, grime, and all sorts of impurities on them, acquired in the manufacturing and/or transporting process. So, you need to scour the fabric. Scouring is when you wash the fabric with hot water and soda ash.
After the fabric is ready. Transfer the design to fabric, usually by tracing the design from paper. This might be done with a tracing pad, light box, or the old-fashioned way, a window. Another method is to use an iron-on tracing pencil (make sure to use a pencil that will wash out!)
Melt a mixture of bee's wax and paraffin wax and apply it on the fabric with a brush. This is the pain in the butt process. It takes time and it is very unforgiving. The wax has to be almost like water in terms of its viscosity, so it bleeds when applied to the fabric. You have to account for the bleeding when applying wax. Also, the second you lift the brush out of the hot pot, your time is ticking. If the wax cools down too much, you can't apply it to the fabric. You have to put two layers of wax. *The waxing process can be dangerous. Molten wax can burn one severely and it could require a trip to the hospital. This is not recommended for children. Also, make sure you are using an appropriate melting pot, because wax expands when molten and if the heat source is exclusively from the bottom, it tends to explode when the molten wax reaches the surface.
Submerge the fabric in cold water (use ice if you need to), and introduce cracks into the design. This makes every single batik piece unique and you can't do this with most of the other resists. (Resist is how a dyer will try to control where the dyes go or don’t. Shibori, for example, is often referred to as “shape-resist”.)
Dye with indigo. Make sure your fabric is wet, but not dripping, when submerging it in the vat. This is to ensure even dyeing. The indigo solution consists of water, indigo, ph increaser (solution needs to be alkaline, lye or soda ash work great, but there are other methods to achieve the same result), and a reducer (basically, you need to reduce the oxygen in the solution one way or another. There are many ways to do this and you should explore what feels right for you. Indigo is not really a dye in a technical sense, but a special pigment that acts like a dye when put is a specific environment. So, you have to create that environment by reducing and changing the ph of the water.)
De-wax by boiling a huge pot of water and sticking the fabric in it. Skim the wax and repeat until there is no wax on the fabric. If there is even a smidgen of wax remaining, you will see it and it is very difficult to get rid of it afterwards.
Wash with soap and a dash of vinegar (to counter the alkaline environment it was in).
