I had always been curious to try encaustic art. It has a very long history and I always liked
all of the possibilities of layering/collage aspects that are available with
this form of art. So when I saw a local
art workshop that was offered on-line, I jumped at the chance. Even better, it was a low cost art workshop
where I would take home 3 finished pieces; or so it advertised on-line.
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| Photo: The Indian Creek Nature Center, which is situated in southwest Cedar Rapids, IA. |
The workshop was held out the local Indian Creek Nature
Center; which is near a Sac & Fox Trail that I enjoy frequenting with Mr.
Motorhead’s dog. It’s a wonderful place
to go out and enjoy nature. I arrived last
sunny Saturday afternoon, paid for workshop fee in the main barn and then
walked a short distance to the “Sugar Hut”. I went in to find several people huddling
around the wood burning stove that was the heat source for the hut.
There was hot wax warming in a couple of places. One place was a griddle with several small
tuna cans filled with colored wax.
Another place was a large electric frying pan where the teacher for the workshop
was stirring the wax with a resin. It
looked terribly sticky like hardened caramelized sugar. She scraped the bottom of the frying pan and
would mix and stir it around with a metal paint scraper.
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| Photo: Colored wax, implements to apply, carving tools, resin in a bag, paper towels, vegetable oil and a block of beeswax too. |
As everyone, arrived she started to explain some things
about the wax. She explained that it was
Darmar Resin that she was mixing with the beeswax and that it is used to make
the wax more of a solid form when it cooled at room temperature. She said that the electric frying pan needed
to stay below 200 degrees. At the 200
degree mark the wax would start to boil and give off noxious fumes. Not a good thing; she explained.
The beeswax she used was from a local bee keeper and she
ordered it by the 3lb. brick from them.
She showed us how the brick looked.
It has a natural yellowish color she said that you learn to design your
artwork around. She then explained that
she used oil paints to pigment her wax.
You can buy wax that is already colored but she liked to have more
control over her colors. She also said
that you can generally get all of the colors from the three primary colors;
yellow, red, and blue. But she made a
batch of green for us too; to make mixing a little simpler.
We used cut up matte board that she had pre-cut into 4” x 6”
squares. She took a natural bristled
brush, dipped it in the frying pan wax, and brushed it evenly across the matte
board. Then, she used a heat gun lightly
over the waxed matte board to make it shine but not too close to make it run off
the matte board. This is how to make it
seal and adhere to the matte board. She
repeated the process of using the natural bristled brush to put another thin
layer of wax over the matte board. “This
is how you form your strata base”, she explained as she lightly ran an iron
across the surface.
The iron had no holes in its surface; and either it or the
heat gun could be used to seal the surface.
She explained that this sealing needed to take place each time between
layers or the whole of the wax surface could slide off or crack. Also, the layers needed to be done fairly thinly
too.
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| Photo: "Encaustic #1"; 4" x 6" |
Then, we were invited to make our own strata base. It was not as easy as she made it look, but I
managed through. Next, she took us
through all of the different possible ways of applying the colored wax. She had quite a few brushes and other
implements to choose from. She also
explained that if we did not like what we made that it was easy to just scrape
off the wax and start again. For most of
the 12 in the workshop, this was our first time ever doing encaustic art. Also, there was only handfuls that were
artists in the group.
Next she took us through the process of transferring and
also explained how to carve and apply oil paint into the carved out areas of
the wax. We played for a bit more and
some of the participants started a second piece of matte board to form the
strata base. About half way through the
workshop she invited us to take a break, go outside and perhaps, take a small
piece of nature to use in our piece of artwork.
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| Photo: "Encaustic #2; 4" x 6"-- An attempt at a girl on a bicycle. |
I went for a short hike and then came back to the hut. I started applying color wax to my second
piece and just playing with the different ways in which to apply the wax. I also carved out a girl on a bicycle and
applied oil paint into the carved out crevices.
The detail was lost when I applied the last layer of sealing wax. Darn it! I guess there's some learning curve with this new stuff.
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| Photo; "Encaustic #3"; 4" x 6" -- I'm framing it! |
Next, I started the third piece and decided after a layer of
colored wax that I would try a transfer of a barn scene. I placed the ink side down of the black and
white copy against the top of the wax surface; then, rubbed with a large metal
spoon, over the surface while applying pressure. Next, I poured a little water over the paper
and started to rub lightly with my fingers.
Eventually, the paper came away but the black ink from the copy stayed
on the waxed surface. Ooooo, cool I thought as the last bit of paper washed away. I think I'm going to frame this one!
I had a little more time yet, and decided to go back to my
first encaustic piece and apply a transfer to the top of that one too. Overall, it was a fun workshop and it was
nice top broaden out into a new form of art.
I may decide to dabble in this new form in the future but I definitely
would need an area where I would not be concerned about getting hot wax mess on
the floor, walls, and etc. This is when
a heated garage would come in handy…. Hmmmm, maybe I could see if Mr. Motorhead
has a bit of garage space available?
