Encaustic Art with Paper Elements

mixed media encaustic art with quilled paper pieces

I’ve been doing a bit of practicing recently. Encaustic is one of my favorite artistic mediums to use in mixed media art, but there are times when using my heat tool can really mess up the look I’m trying to create if I’m not very careful.

mixed media quilling art on encaustic medium with oil paint

With this piece, I used a little oil paint with the wax to get that green color.  I used chunks of tim holtz’ tissue paper with the chunks of color to create a color blocking effect, and then it was time to add my paper pieces.  Usually when I add these to my encaustic pieces, I just set them on the surface, brush some wax over the top, and use my heat tool to fuse the pieces with the wax.  This doesn’t really work that well, especially if I want the wax to be smooth without little pebbles in between the paper pieces.  Plus, I did not want to mess up the squares of color and paper I had created.  So this time, I worked slowly.

mixed media encaustic art with quilled paper pieces

I set the pieces on the wax and pushed them in as far as I could.  I did this step a few times after heating the area very slightly, each time pushing them a little further into the wax.  Once I could see a build up around the bottom of each piece, I used my heat tool to very carefully fuse the build up of wax with the bottom of the paper.  It took a while and I didn’t quite get it right on some areas, but for the most part I was able to fuse my paper pieces into the wax without having a build up on top or in between the pieces.  It will take some more practice (and patience!) but this is how I’ll be adding elements to my encaustic art from now on.

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8 replies
  2. Michelle Looi
    Michelle Looi says:

    You have a great blog on MM and so much details that you photograph to share with everyone!
    Love this piece of layout, Anjuli! Love elements to go with the LOVE theme! :)

  4. Cheryl
    Cheryl says:

    Hi Anjuli,
    Thanks for sharing your encaustic mixed media work. I liked your design and the concept of including paper, text and colour shapes.
    I was wondering whether you are using a blow torch (gas flame) or heat torch (hot air). I ask this because I have found that for complex layers such as yours the heat torch works best for me. It doesn’t make the wax move at all and seems to seal the work more evenly.
    Regards Cheryl

    • Anjuli Johnson
      Anjuli Johnson says:

      Cheryl- Thank you so much for your suggestion. I have been using an air tool, but I think I’m going to go out and buy a heat torch today. What a great excuse for me to get some more art supplies. :)

  5. sheila whittam
    sheila whittam says:

    Good that you had a go at mixed media encaustic. All of this can be done effectively. I have created encaustic with lots of different underlayers but I found it requires careful fusing as one can melt the underlayers that disturbs the work deeper. Take a peek at the many layers that can be seen on my website, and use very hot very fluid medium with a wide hot brush on a pre warmed panel.

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