Posts

encaustic with mixed media
,

Combining Encaustic with Mixed Media Scrapbooking Techniques

I've been a scrap booker since I was a teenager, and I began working with mixed media elements in my scrapbooks, art journals, and on canvases as an extension of that passion.  This was all long before I became an encaustic artist.  I've been wondering for a long time if there was a way I could replicate my favorite mixed media looks in an encaustic painting.
mixing shellac

Mixing Shellac Myself and Using it in my Shellac Burns

Dry shellac burns can be a harder than wet burns because the quality of the cells you get depends on how heavy your hand is and the size of the flame you use with your torch.  It can be really tricky to get the balance right.  I also learned recently that the concentration and age of your shellac also makes a HUGE difference.

Image Transfer on Encaustic

It seemed fine at the time, but looking back 10 years later, this collage is super boring and not very well made.  So, I decided to rework it and use an image transfer on encaustic technique to include the original letters without keeping the large, unwieldy pieces of paper.
text impressions in encaustic paintings

Adding Text Impressions into Encaustic Paintings

Most of the time when I'm stamping on my art, I'm not trying to get a perfect image transfer.  I'm going for a more abstract type of look, with random parts of the stamp popping out and a kind of blended look with the other parts that are not so clear.  Because of this, I didn't bother mounting this one before I started stamping.  And because I didn't wait until the wax was cool, I started getting these amazing impressions stamped into the wax, completely by accident!

Encaustic Bubbles- Abstract Wax Art using Incised Lines

I'm not sure where my fascination with clusters of shapes and holes comes from, but I find myself coming back to this type of work again and again.  From my quilled abstract works to this new line of encaustic pieces, clusters of circles are everywhere.  I guess you could call me a trypophile, rather than a trypophobe. 

Encaustic and Coffee Grounds

  I'm not a coffee drinker.  I don't keep it in the house and even though I wanted to use it in my art, I could never bring myself to just buy a bag of it.  So, I brought some freshly used grounds home from the office I work in…