Encaustic Marathon

Today I was in a creative zone with several encaustic pieces; new and in progress.  I finished 4 completely today.  I had one already complete and I have one in progress on my desk.

I remember reading about encaustic a year or more ago but it seemed too intimidating to attempt.  Until...I started noticing beautiful pieces in gallery's and little art stores.  The effect was ethereal and one I could never duplicate in another medium. 

At first, I toyed around with heating a block of beeswax in a small crock pot.  Although I was happy with the results I obtained in the following inchies, I was too limited by the one effect.  I wanted more options. 

 When I came across an encaustic class taught at 212 Art center, I jumped at the chance to really learn about this elusive art form.  Rob was a great instructor and showed us several techniques to try.  However I got stuck on my practice board and never finished the the two full size boards we were provided.

Night Bird is my practice piece from my first encaustic class.  I used a photo transfer technique with photo copies of a photo I took of a bird and had manipulated in Photoshop.

Today, I transformed my unfinished full size board from this...

To this...

The stone or egg shapes are from some lovely fabric I found at Quilting Seasons, a small shop in Saline.  I loved the fabric so much, that I also used some in this piece...

I also added beads by pressing them into the warm wax.  It is hard to get a good photo of this as the glare from the wax and beads was so distracting, I purposely lowered the contrast in Photoshop so the details could be seen.  The colors are not quite true.  It is better in person.

A small encaustic piece I finished a couple of weeks ago was enhanced by some interesting snap trim I added...

This late summer we had an art camp.  Lucky for me, Rob was teaching a mini encaustic course.  I signed up, of course!  It was wonderful, because I had time to try new techniques that I didn't have time to in his original class.  This is what I made...

This poppy is a carving, filling, and scraping technique.  I was really pleased with how it turned out.

The last piece I started and finished today is my favorite.  I used a medium copper printing plate I had picked up at a antique store for $5.  I didn't know what I would do with it at the time, but the copper printing plate was too fascinating to leave behind! 

Using my own photographs, I turned it into this piece of collage...

I have so many ideas and techniques I still want to try, so stay tuned for more encaustic to come!