Jenny O'Leary

Jenny O’Leary is a textile artist and tutor living in Shropshire. She works with Batik- hot wax
resist, mainly on tissue paper combining it with bleach, inks and dyes and sometimes stitch
to create beautiful surfaces and textures. Landscape, it’s shapes, details, colours and
textures are her main source of inspiration, particularly of Shropshire and the borders of
Wales where she lives. Collage and layering are an important part of much of her work
using batiked papers, tissue papers, fabrics and threads. She offers talks and workshops
teaching her technique through various themes.

The process she uses is based on the technique of batik using hot wax which is traditionally
applied to areas of white fabric to act as a resist and the fabric is then immersed in dye.

The bulk of her work is done on coloured tissue paper, she protects the colour where required with hot wax then removes colour with bleach then adds colour using drawing inks. It is a layering process and she often plays with the order although applies the same principles. Through her workshops she also teaches batik on fabric and teaches themed workshops which gives her reason to explore the technique further.

Jenny is a member of The Batik Guild and The Shropshire Guild of Contemporary Craft