“Spring”- Encaustic Collage with Quilling and Rice Paper

I’ll be working on a very large triptych piece for the next few months. I have the basic ideas in mind, and one of the main concepts it will involve is layers- large amounts of my paper pieces beneath and surrounded by other elements, like fabric or paper.  As I’m working on rolling all my paper pieces for this massive project, I’m also working on layering techniques… what elements I want to be involved, what will look best, and what could potentially work best in a large format.  I experimented with wax-dipped fabric a couple months ago- this time I wanted to use rice paper in an encaustic collage.

• I began with a 6*12 inch piece of wood and painted it white.
• Encaustic medium came next.  I added layers of wax in clear and white, and then used brown wax to paint some curved sections.
• Some of my green rolled paper pieces were what I needed to create a 3D effect by embedding them in the brown sections of the wax, like portions of dirt and grass visible from under melting snow.
• The tricky part was adding the layers of rice paper to enhance the idea of new life growing beneath the surface of a retreating winter.

• I tore and burned the edges of the paper to create the right size and shape for certain areas of the painting, and then I adhered them under layers of clear wax.  The transparency of the paper allows the color of the paper elements and the wax to come through from underneath, making this piece fascinating to see from any angle.

  I wish I had better photos to show you guys… this is definitely a piece that looks better in person.

I love this technique, though I will need some more practice before I really get the hang of adding rice paper above quilling pieces.  It can be hard to create the right shape, and I’ll think next time I’ll try to cut everything out of a single piece and use that instead of strips.

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