A resist, used in many areas of manufacturing and art, is something that is added to parts of an object to create a pattern by protecting these parts from being affected by a subsequent stage in the process.[2] Often the resist is then removed.
For example in the
resist dyeing of textiles, wax or a similar substance is added to places where the dye is not wanted. The wax will "resist" the dye, and after it is removed there will be a pattern in two colours.
Batik, shibori and
tie-dye are among many styles of resist dyeing.[3][4]
Wax or grease can also be used as a resist in pottery, to keep some areas free from a
ceramic glaze; the wax burns away when the piece is fired.[5]Song dynastyJizhou ware used paper cut-outs and leaves as resists or stencils under glaze to create patterns.[6] Other uses of resists in pottery work with
slip or paints, and a whole range of modern materials used as resists.[7] A range of similar techniques can be used in
watercolour and other forms of painting.[8][9] While these artistic techniques stretch back centuries, a range of new applications of the resist principle have recently developed in
microelectronics and
nanotechnology. An example is
resists in semiconductor fabrication, using
photoresists (often just referred to as "resists") in
photolithography.[10]
Etching
Etching processes use a resist, though in these typically the whole object is covered in the resist (called the "ground" in some contexts), which is then selectively removed from some parts. This is the case when a resist is used to prepare the copper substrate for
champlevéenamels, where parts of the field are etched (with
acid or electrically) into hollows to be filled with powdered glass, which is then melted.[11] In
chemical milling, as many forms of industrial etching are called, the resist may be referred to as the "maskant",[12] and in many contexts the process may be known as
masking. A fixed resist pre-shaped with the pattern is often called a
stencil, or in some contexts a
frisket.[13]
The
Oxford English Dictionary does not record the word "resist" in this sense before the 1830s, when it was used in relation to both "
calico-printing" (1836) and metalwork with copper (1839).[14] Resists were also used to etch steel from the mid 19th-century.[15]
Gallery
Yūzen resist technique, with crisp, thin white outlines around the dyed patterns, created by ridges of resist paste that separate areas of dye
Detail of
tie-dyed silk (kanako
shibori) with
embroidery, Japan, 17th century. Pressure resist, no paste.
^Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada, Mary Kellogg Rice, Jane Barton, Shibori: The Inventive Art of Japanese Shaped Resist Dyeing : Tradition, Techniques, Innovation, 1999, Kodansha International,
ISBN4770023995, 9784770023995
^Medley, Margaret, The Chinese Potter: A Practical History of Chinese Ceramics, pp. 151–152, 3rd edition, 1989, Phaidon,
ISBN071482593X
^Beard, Peter, Resist and Masking Techniques (Ceramics Handbooks), 1996, University of Pennsylvania Press,
ISBN0812216113, 9780812216110
^Reyner, Nancy, Acrylic Revolution: New Tricks and Techniques for Working with the World's Most Versatile Medium, pp. 40–42, 2007, North Light Books,
ISBN1581808046, 9781581808049,
google books
^Susan Crabtree, Peter Beudert, Scenic Art for the Theatre: History, Tools and Techniques, p. 391, 2012, CRC Press,
ISBN1136084304, 9781136084300
^D. Widmann, H. Mader, H. Friedrich, Technology of Integrated Circuits, pp. 92–115, 2013, Springer Science & Business Media,
ISBN366204160X, 9783662041604,
google books