Wax Lyrical ~ Stamps and Stencils ~ New Challenge.

Hi everybody! It's time for a new challenge over at Stamps and Stencils. Sue is our talented host this month, and she has chosen a great topic, 'Wax Lyrical'. This is what she has to say.......

....... I have long been fascinated with the subject of Encaustic Art, melting wax to create many layers and trapping pieces of fibres and papers between the layers of melted wax just seems magical to me. So for this challenge I want to see some wax on your projects, whether it's just dribbled, melted and then stamped into or a wax embellishment as long as you include some stamping or stencilling the choice is yours !

 I love it when a challenge encourages me to explore something different, and that's exactly what Sue has done with this one. I've been interested in trying 'encaustic' art for a while now, but never seemed to get round to it. Sue's challenge was just the push I needed ! I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but needed to do a bit of research. I googled 'encaustic art and came upon an 'e zine' called Mixed Media Encaustics by Glenda Bailey.  There are some wonderful examples of her work as well as some really useful guidelines. This is how I got started.....

I used a wooden panel, measuring around  6"x 6" and gathered together a selection of papers in fairly neutral colours, to use as my background. I also had some pieces of white tissue to stamp on. I'm lucky enough to have a wax pot which I used to use for batik work.

 Once the beeswax had melted, I used a bristle paintbrush, to brush a layer of wax onto the wooden panel. I then started layering on the different papers, brushing more wax over the surface of each one. Glenda Bailey recommends  "every layer that you put on the collage must be "burned in"or heated and fused in to the layer underneath" . I used my heat tool for this step. Once I had my background all fused together, I applied my stamped tissue focal image, as well as the stamped, motivational words....

I used tissue paper to stamp on but next time I will have a go at stamping onto pieces of Kleenex type tissue as I think it would sink in with very little trace of any edges.

I also added a little Fimo butterfly charm I made sometime ago....

I also sprinkled a few pieces of gold leaf into the melted wax. Once the panel was finished and the wax had set, I gently buffed the surface with a soft cloth. This gives the surface a lovely sheen. The final step was to scrape off the drips of wax from the sides of the panel and paint them with black paint. I'm really quite pleased with the results of  my little dabble with 'encaustic art' and will certainly be having another go! 
Now, our challenge as Sue has said is to use wax somewhere on your project, It doesn't have to be all over and it can be any kind of wax,  such as candles or crayons. If you'd like to have ago, hop over to the Stamps and Stencils blog where you'll find plenty of inspiration from Sue and the rest of the team. We'd love to see your creations! until next time, happy crafting ! x