Oscraps

Take Two - Encaustic Anyone?

Vicki Robinson

Designer + Brush Queen + Mac Guru
Designer
It seems something went amiss when I tried to move the posts in this thread about craft rooms to their own post — my original post has disappeared along with all your lovely replies that were specific to this topic. I'm not sure what went wrong, but I'm recreating my original post in case anyone else was interested. My apologies for losing your replies! :(

One of my more recent obsessions is working with encaustic — using melted wax with other pigments and media. The top two are 6x6 panels (from a couple of years ago) with a layer of acrylic and ephemera topped with liquid wax, smoothed, and dried. Then other layers of media, each with its own top layer of wax, followed by the tiny flowers I picked up on a morning walk. The trick is to get the wax as smooth as possible, using a heat gun and then letting it cool enough to press in more layers without disturbing the layers below. When you're done with the final layer of wax, it all "cures" for about a day and then you use a soft cloth to buff the wax into a sheen.

It took several hours to do both pieces and it takes a bit of trial and error to learn how and where to apply the heat gun. Despite all the warnings to do this type of project in a well-ventilated room, I may or may not have set off the incredibly loud smoke detectors in my house. Turns out there's no way to turn those suckers off ... the smoke just has to dissipate. Who knew??

The bottom photo uses the same technique, but with a delicate small branch of leaves I picked up on another walk. The branch was a bit too big to fit on the panel and as I was trying to keep it bent as the wax dried (not an easy task is the wax is hot!!), I knew exactly what text was needed. We call that a "happy accident" Lol!

encaustic.jpg

269861177_10160200552869203_8507888757696147672_n.jpg
 

Vicki Robinson

Designer + Brush Queen + Mac Guru
Designer
This is the first encaustic piece I did — I believe it was a class offered by Ivy Newport. It's much simpler, but you can see how the layers of wax add lots of interest.

encaustic3.jpg
 

Susan - s3js

Well-Known Member
CHEERY O
Vivki, I come back just to look. This is simply gorgeous and a fabulous technique. I'll try it out on the porch in the spring. Smoke alarms sound awful!
 

Ellen

Well-Known Member
Ah and I thought I'd gone bananas , I was so sure to have replied to it.:D
I did use encaustic art many years ago in the olden days, still have all the goods to work with it.
However mine consisted of melting the wax on the iron -( I hate ironing but on this special occasion am happy to use one.)
And then you can make special patterns on the yardstick. landscapes, waterdrops . You can paint with it just by using a different part of the iron. After that you can buff it up to make it shine more and if you want you can stamp on it too.
The iron is a special one, made for this technique.
I have never tried what you do Vicki , with the melted wax. It looks nice, I specially like the leaf one.
 

Vicki Robinson

Designer + Brush Queen + Mac Guru
Designer
Ah and I thought I'd gone bananas , I was so sure to have replied to it.:D
I did use encaustic art many years ago in the olden days, still have all the goods to work with it.
However mine consisted of melting the wax on the iron -( I hate ironing but on this special occasion am happy to use one.)
And then you can make special patterns on the yardstick. landscapes, waterdrops . You can paint with it just by using a different part of the iron. After that you can buff it up to make it shine more and if you want you can stamp on it too.
The iron is a special one, made for this technique.
I have never tried what you do Vicki , with the melted wax. It looks nice, I specially like the leaf one.
No, Ellen! It was me! I haven't done that kind of encaustic, but it sounds like fun!
 
Top