Wax Print — Saint Louis, Senegal

Samba is a dyer in the neighbourhood where I stay in Saint Louis. He works with several techniques — one of his standards is twisting the fabric into thin rolls, wrapping it tightly with cord, then passing it through the dye. Where the cord holds, the color cannot reach. I love the result in blue and white.

For this project I asked him to do something he rarely does: wax wood block printing. He brought out his carved wooden stamps — time-consuming work. The fabric was first dyed blue, then stamped all over with hot wax, each block placed by hand. Into a second dye bath, brown. When the wax came off, the pattern appeared: blue showing through the brown wherever the stamps had been.

Two shirts, just a few made. More next time.