The hot wax and fabric meet!

"Unexpected Guest" - new encaustic and fabric on wood
This one has fabric fused in between layers of wax which I have been playing with on the last few encaustic pieces. Fun!

Black bear close up...Red tent close up

Here is the piece "When Shadows Fall" that is finally finished. I love how it turned out and was the first one I added fabric too. The trick is that the fabric must be totally dry before adding the hot wax or it just get tons of tiny little holes in the wax and it chips off or cracks. If the fabric is dry (from the staflo, which is water based, water and wax resist) then the encaustic medium/paints go on very stable.

Here is how the piece "I might be dreaming" started out as a sketch. I try to get sketching done while I play outside with London. That way I can set it down quick if I need to or take it with me to another part of the yard depending upon where he is. A lot of times I get nothing done as he likes to say, "Mommy come or mommy hold my hand" as soon as I open up my sketch book.

First layer of clear medium applied. The pink sky was put down first before any of the fabric was added. This is what the medium looks like before it cools off (kind of milky).

My favorite part on this piece is the part of the sky with the petals. :)

Below is her face close up. She has details on the fabric but then I came back on top of the clear medium and fabric with some encaustic paints and touched up some detail.

This was Scott and London playing with playdoh a week or so ago. London tends to get into a heavy breathing trance when the playdoh comes out. He never really does much more then pull pieces off and play with all the tools but it sure is a good time.

Here are some fabric letters I worked on last night and today. I am going to drill two holes in each square (top 2 corners) and thread string through them. They will then become a banner that will hang on the front of my table at shows. People always seem to have questions about what medium my work is at shows. Hoping this will make them want to come up to my table and see for themselves. Of course right now I do not plan on doing any shows until Oct. and Nov. but at least I will have this ready!

Nothing too exciting going on here, just thought I would share these new pieces and project. Until next time...take care!

Playing around a bit

I am still on my encaustic adventure and loving every minute.
After talking with an artist friend of mine Pam, about encaustic painting she informed me that she was making some wax medium cakes the next day. I was so fortunate to get to go to her studio and soak in so much information.
All my raw materials have been ordered and I have been collecting everything I need to make my own paints. It is very expensive start up but if I paint like I want to I will not be able to afford that amount of paints I would need. Crossing fingers I mix up a good first batch as soon as everything gets here. Until then here is what I have been working on....

A few years ago my parents went to a yard sale and found a ton of leather working tools and stamps and this little letter press stamps for like $20. It was this mans kids selling his whole leather working studio full of tools and dyes. Well the cart that every thing was on was what my dad wanted so he gave us all the tools and neat stuff. I have 100's of stamps both letters and images and knew that I wanted to use them for something someday and I think I might have found the perfect non-traditional use for them. HOT WAX!!!! :)

First I dug out a bunch of sketchbooks I had been missing for a while. Scanned in this image of a moose I had drawn. Printed it out in archival inks and then cut it out. Here I am deciding where I want to encase it in wax on my gessoed board.

How about right here :)

Heating up wax....

Moose drawing is in...and then I came back in with some colored wax paints and really just dabbled some on. I had my letter stamps ready to be punched into the hot wax once I torched the last layer with the heat gun. Of course if you look close enough you will see that the "E" got punched in backwards which was not on purpose but I decided to roll with it.

Then I came back in and did a little carving. Rubbed on some black oil paint into the stamped/carved areas and then rubbed most of the extra oil paint off the surface. I love the depth the oil paints adds to the wax surface. I for see hours of fun in my future! ah

I am really happy with the end result. And this is my first Encaustic to be listed in my Etsy shop! yay
You can find "Moose" here.

I will be documenting my paint making very closely so keep an eye out for future posts on this! wheeeee (and as always thanks for stopping in).

Waxy goodness!

FINALLY...after over a year of wanting to learn how to do encaustic paints (bees wax based hot paints) I have finally arrived...well sort of. I still feel a little bit like I have no idea what I am doing. For the past month I have been collecting the various things I needed. First and foremost I had to order my paints. I found some incredible sample sized paints here at thebeesknees1234 on etsy. And wow did they give me a deal. I ordered the sample pack and they sent me 12 free sample sized colors as well b/c I was lucky enough to be their first customer. I seriously feel like a lucky duck and I know I will be back for more soon.

Once I got started yesterday I realized that I did not have any white/clear. I needed some quick so I ordered some from this wonderful shop Jamieribisi on etsy that I have been eying since I got this itching to do encaustic paintings. She offers some wonderful paintings herself and tutorials and very nice earthy colors! I know I will be back to her shop too as I think I am addicted to this style of painting (even though I have lots to learn still).

I spend an hour the night before getting all my duck in a row. I took all my new paints out of the packaging and sorted them by color before putting them in bowls. I had to find an adapter and extention cord so I could plug up my griddle, heat gun and fan.

Here are a couple of shots of my work table right before I got started...again still not quite sure what I am doing...ahhh)

Once I started the first piece, I realized that I will need to order more tins and better paint brushes...specifically for Encaustic painting. (note to self...still need to do that)

I went in with no plan at all as I had a limited time to work on these while my son was at preschool. I think once I get some clear/white in there I will be able to show some fabrics through a lot better. But wow did I have really enjoy doing this...even if I am not sure I will ever attemp to sell either of these pieces- LOL

This one I included some fabric under the wax, but b/c I did not have any clear I used the silver sort of like a white. I came back in and carved in this one a little bit. Still not sure it is totally done as I feel like it still need to be cleaned up some.
Good learning experience in the end and I can't wait to make more...with a little more a plan now that I know a more what to expect!

Finally here is a piece I finished last week. It is Gesso on wood...with the boy and dogs the natural wood. Then on top of the gesso is permanent marker in many abstract layers of flowing lines (so much fun!)
You can find the prints "A Day at the Park" HERE in my shop. My husband will not let me part with the original. I usually sell the ones he loves so I thought I would be nice this time. haha