Stenciled Encaustics

Stencils!  Don’t you just love being an art junkie and collecting all kinds of things you’ve never used before but are certain at some point you will?  I have boxes and boxes of embellishments and tools that have rarely, if ever, been used.  But one of the great things about being a mixed media artist is being able to find new uses for things you’d given up on or forgot you had.  Encaustic painting seems an especially perfect medium to find new ways of using old things.

I added a little color to each of these using oil pastels, which work pretty well with the wax through the heating process.  Since encaustic medium is so expensive, finding other ways to add color are essential for me, and using oil pastels has some definite possibilities.  I also used walnut ink on the top piece- I love the random effect it creates, and it work so well with the yellow.

I do need to keep working with this technique, because there were some unfortunate effects that happened on both pieces.  Since I had painted a layer of wax on each piece before putting the stencil down, there was some wax that peeled off with the stencil.  I tried letting it cool for awhile before I lifted the stencil, but that didn’t seem to do anything.  My next step will be to try using just a little bit of oil on the back to prevent the stencil from sticking to the wax- we’ll see if that works.  I was able to work around the little pieces that came off fortunately, but figuring out a way to keep it from happening is my next step.