DIY Network

Encaustic Wax Collage Visit DIY's Craft Lab to learn the art of encaustic wax painting. From "Craft Lab" episode DCLB-113

Guest Darlene Schaper creates a collage using the ancient art of encaustic wax painting. Encaustic means to process with heat. It's a hot wax painting process where the wax-bound paints are fused together with external heat. This technique dates back to ancient Greece and Egypt.

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Guest Darlene Schaper creates this unique collage using the ancient art of encaustic wax painting.

Project designed by Darlene Schaper.

Materials:

beeswax and damar mix (available at darleneschamper.com)
painting board
piece of canvas cut larger than painting board
Gamblin powdered pigments: red, yellow, blue, black, white
natural bristle paintbrushes
empty tuna cans or small metal ramekins
electric hotplate skillet
sandpaper
traveling iron or quilting iron
dust mask
Winsor & Newton Artguard barrier cream
electric heat gun
collage glue

	Figure A
	Figure B
	Figure C

Encaustic Wax Collage

1. Using sandpaper, sand the edges of the painting board just enough to take down the rough edges. Set a board on top of the canvas to protect the work surface.

2. Turn on a hot plate and set pre-mixed beeswax and damar mixes on the heated surface. Temperature should be approximately 160 degrees Fahrenheit or 70 degrees Celsius. If pre-mixed wax and pigments are unavailable, pour a little bit of wax mix into each tuna. Put on a dust mask and add about one teaspoon of each color into the individual can to separate the colors. If you have the pre-mixed, just set each un-melted wax color in a tuna can and let it melt down. Stir each one to make sure the colors are mixed in (figure A).

3. Using the plain uncolored wax mix, paint the melted wax onto the board canvas in even strokes, covering the entire surface.

4. Hold a heat gun about two inches from the board surface and use slow left to right motions to melt the wax onto the surface.

5. Once the wax has hardened and cooled a bit, take another paintbrush and dip it into the blue mix and start painting it onto the sky area of the landscape.

6. Pre-heat a craft iron to medium heat. Touch the iron to the surface and move the blue wax around. The iron also burns the wax into the surface the same way the heat gun does.

7. Add more layers of blue and mix in other colors into the sky again and then use the iron to spread the wax and colors and move them around as desired

8. To paint the mountains, paint on the left side of the iron from the tip to the base, and three sections of color: first white, then brown, and some black on the bottom (figure B).

9. In a sweeping motion from left to right and bottom to top, of the mountain range area of your landscape, touch the loaded iron onto the board. Then load the iron again and sweep down for the other side of the mountain. To create mountain ranges keep repeating these steps across the canvas (figure C).

10. In the bottom part of the landscape, paint in different shades of green and use the heat gun to melt it all into the canvas. To create the effect of grass, wipe the iron with a paper towel to remove the mountain colors, and set the edge of the iron on the wax. Sweeping upwards, stroke and slash into the wax.

11. To add collage elements, cut scrap paper or fabric and place it on the wax painted canvas. Paste this on with water-soluble glue for extra bonding, and then paint a layer of the clear un-pigmented wax over the top. Use the heat gun to gently melt this in. Use caution or the paper will burn.

12. Add buttons or charms, etc. as desired by doing the same as Step 11. These pieces could eventually come off and not be as archival as the previous methods.

13. To achieve the look of clouds, paint white-pigmented wax onto the sky area in strokes and shapes that resemble clouds. Then place a piece of waxed paper over the white painted area and place the hot iron on that. Tap and move the white around with the iron in swirling quick motions. Remove the hot iron and let the wax under the paper cool for about 15 seconds then carefully peal back the wax paper and discard.

Tips:

• To achieve a white background, glue watercolor paper to the board canvas or collage with wax a piece of white natural fiber fabric to it.

• To save time in mixing, buy previously prepared and mixed wax bars.

• Use your imagination; try the same techniques with all different colored waxes and see what other marks can be made with the hot iron.

RESOURCES :

Gamblin Powdered Pigments: Red, Yellow, Blue, Black, White
Gamblin Artists Colors Co.
Website: www.gamblincolors.com

Winsor and Newton Artguard
Website: www.winsornewton.com

Wax Art
by Hazel March
ISBN: 1862092282
Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

Pre-mixed Artist Encaustic Waxes, Beeswax, Art Collage Sheets, Hand-Dyed Lace and Embellishments
Darlene Schaper Studio
Website: www.darleneschaper.com

GUESTS :

Darlene Schaper
Darlene Schaper Studio
E-mail: darlene@darleneschaper.com
Website: www.darleneschaper.com