i have several quilty projects that i was hoping to get done, but i got my days mixed up and completely forgot that i'd signed up for an encaustics open studio day at The Upstart Crow today - i was sure that it was friday!
so instead of binding a quilt, i found myself pulling out all of my encaustics supplies from last fall when i took a 3 day class with Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch. it was a really amazing class - though looking back now, i realize that i never got around to blogging about it! Trish is a wonderful teacher, and i'd been enamoured with encaustics for so long, so i was really excited to take the class, and it definitely didn't disapoint. after the class, i worked on a few pieces and finished up the piece that i made my mom for her birthday, which i blogged about for the iron craft challenge that was "home" themed.
(wondering what encaustics is? according to the website encausticartist.com, "From the greek enkaustikos which means “to heat” or “to burn”. Encaustic is the name for both, a medium of pigmented wax, and the process involving heat, by which the medium is applied and secured" i described it in the post with my mom's piece as "an art technique that uses wax, oil colours, collage, image transfers, and so much more, all in multiple layers to create an image with an incredible depth to it.")
after that, i put all of the encaustics away, because i needed the space for other projects. i kept intending to pull it back out, but never found the time, so i signed up for this open studio day to get myself back into it.
and i actually finished something! (maybe) because encaustics works with wax and heat, there's a lot of cooling time in between layers, and since i can never work on one thing at a time, i had soooo many in progress pieces - or UFOs! i got further along on a number of pieces, but these were the ones that i actually finished today.
i still need to clean up the edges of the wood blocks, trim a bit, that sort of thing, but i'm still really happy with how they turned out.
i LOVE how this piece turned out! it's soo soo many layers, and in person you can really see the depth. i think the base had a shellac burn or a white glue burn, but that's been completely covered by the later layers. i inscribed straight lines, circles, and typewriter letters in the wax while it was warm, then rubbed black oil colour into the impressions and kept layering and layering. i did an image transfer in the corner, using an image that i photocopied about 9 years ago, of the pattern in one of my favourite scarves.
oh, i love this one. masking tape was laid down across the board, and plaster was applied, and then the tape was removed. once the plaster dried, i burned the board, creating the black lines with the white plaster. i didn't do as many layers on this one, because i wanted the wood to show through. i inscribed some dots and lines, used a violet oil stick to highlight them, and added another layer. i incised two sizes of circles, and used the black oil stick to bring up the contrast.
i don't know if this one is actually finished or not! i had a whole different base started, but i decided that i hated it and used some coloured wax to start up a new base. i love the bright green. i did an image transfer using one of the images from the pre-released bonus files for issue 8 of Craphound - remember, i blogged about Craphound last week? i'm thinking of inscribing a row of circles on the left side and highlighting them in black.....
i might add to this one too... the texture from the topmost layer of wax is really awesome, so i might highlight them a bit with some oil. in deep red maybe? we'll see. the base is plaster again, but much thicker than the circles piece. the strips of tape were used again, which created an indent to hold the pieces of fabric measuring tape. i don't think i'm going to trim the edges, i like the overhang.
i've signed up for another open studio in september, and i'm excited! Trish is coming back to teach classes again this fall, but i don't think they're in my budget. maybe i can manage one of the days... i hope!!
*unfinished objects
