If you spend any amount of time creating art, you’ll know that art supplies are not cheap. The expense depends on your style, the amount of supplies you need, and the medium you are working in. Some mediums are more expensive than others. Of course, if you’re anything like me and you a) want to learn and practice as many different art mediums as you can, and b) don’t have a ton of money to spend all the time, then you get creative with the ways in which you achieve your visions.
I absolutely love working with encaustics, but it is one the most expensive art forms I have found so far. The price of wax can be astronomical, and if you like working in different colors, you can quickly spend a fortune on multiple blocks of different colored waxes. One way I have found to get around that is to stick to three main colors of wax- clear, white and black. When I want to add a little color, I won’t use wax. I may paint my wood base a certain color before I begin, or I’ll use colored and patterned paper within my piece. For this piece, I used colored wool fibers and embedded them in layers of clear and white wax. Adding the waves of texture was fun- I’ve been experimenting doing that in my most recent encaustic pieces. When I first started, I would try to get the surface of the wax as smooth as possible, but I have to say that adding this kind of texture is pretty fun. :)
And just for kicks, here’s a piece I reworked. The Tim Holtz metal corners give it just the right touch. :)
Now I just need to get them framed. Hopefully by next week they’ll be ready, so check my website then to see how they turned out!
