Monday, December 8, 2014

Working On An Encaustic Project

Today I continued on with an encaustic project I started a few days ago. I'll take you through it step by step, but not quite to the end!


This is my hot palette, in this shot the waxes are cold, and I had just turned everything on to heat.  When they are hot, they will be clear and liquid.

When I started this, I adhered a very colorful piece of deli wrap which I had used to wipe brushes on with a painting project several months back, to a cradle board. The piece has to be warmed with a heat gun or torch before each layer of wax is brushed on, then heated again to seal the wax to the layer beneath it. With each coat, the colors become more muted. This has had several coats before today.

My heat gun; I will be getting a butane torch to use as well. Both work in encaustics, but there is some difference to the finish it leaves. Can't use a hair dryer for this - not enough heat. The temps need to be about 700 degrees! And of course you have to be careful that you don't burn yourself - ouch!

A couple more coats of beeswax and resin mix has been added - see how the colors look even more muted?

I added strips of ribbon; the wax looks very hazy now, but when it sits and cools completely, the haze will disappear. I pressed the ribbon into the warm wax, then put more layers on top of the ribbon, and then sealed with the heat gun.

Here you can see a different type of ribbon has been added going in the other direction. More wax layers have been added and then sealed. It may look like the colorful base layer has been totally obliterated, but wait - you will still see them in the finished piece!

And what are these fellows doing here? Well, you will have to come read my blog tomorrow to see how they will be used! I can't tell all my secrets in one post!


1 comment:

  1. as someone who has seen the finished product, I can testify that it turned out very well and the little soldiers look great! ;)

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