Encaustic Wax review by PAWS

Starter Kit

ENCAUSTIC WAX ART : A REVIEW

All products shown in review can be purchased from Hochanda

Good morning everyone, i thought today i would take a look at a fab hobby that is fun, messy and produces magic everytime...Encaustic wax.

I bought the starter kit simply because i wanted to create waxy looking ivy leaves for a project i was and still am working on....

Ivy Created by Applying Encaustic Wax to Satin Fabric

Then i did something terrible.....i pushed the box under the bed and forgot about it until i saw a show with Shona and Michael Bossom on Hochanda. I fished the box out and had a play, and oh boy did i have fun.....it doesnt matter what you do magic happens, and if you dont like what you've done you can remove it with the iron.

Encaustic wax waterfall

This picture is one of the peices i produced....the foreground leaves and flowers were created with the hot stylus which is an additional tool and very very useful. You can also buy a metal stylus which is really useful for working into the wax whether it is hot or cold.

Michael and Shona Bossom are incredibly talented and full of ideas for things you can do with your encaustic kit...they have written books which i can highly recommend, packed full of ideas to get you going...also to be found at Hochanda.

You can also get the wax sealer which protects your work once it is finished:-

and this is well worth investing in as it lasts FOREVER...well not really but it does last ages as you dont use much to seal each picture.

Whats in the Starter Kit?

This is a great way to start as you get the encaustic art painting iron,16 wax block beginner colours, 32 page Quick Guide,  A Metal Scribing Tool, 6 colours @4 x A5 = 24 cards, 40 x A6 white card, 20 x A5 white card, 10 x A4 white card.

Are there more wax colours available?

Oh yes!!! And they are yuuuummmmmy.

Starter Colours

Expanding Colours

Vivid Colours

The Vivid are my next planned purchase as i have an urge to do sunsets and space scapes and they look perfect for that task. Again Hochanda is a great place to get them.

Can i get DVD's to teach me how to use the Encaustic wax?

Yes, and they are superb as you can craft along with them and learn loads of fun techniques

Is the Iron and Hot Stylus Dangerous?

Well a little yes as they are hot, but with supervision the younger generation will love playing and producing their own masterpeices.

Can i apply Encaustic to fabric?

Yes....as my picture above shows, you can use the wax to alter the texture of fabrics, but you can also transfer your images from the card onto fabric....one of my next planned experiments is to transfer an image to felt and then machine felt using my Pfaff into the image....should be fun.

I have transferred all my unwanted images to a peice of old duvet....There is no plan for this as of yet...but it looks great

There, That is my review on Encaustic Wax...i hope it helps and you enjoy reading....I love this hobby as it is very satisfying and almost magical.

Pop Can Light Shade

Ingredients

* Sissix Bigshot Plus

* Sissix Bigz Die 'Garden Flower' to create the flowers

* Sissix Bigz Die 'Gerbera Daisy' to create the leaves

* Spectrum Noir Blue 'TB9' & 'TB6'

Eye Pins Silver 2 inches

Jump Rings Silver 8mm

Needle Nose Pliers

* Collal 3D Glue

Cheap 4 tier Acrylic Crystal Lightshade

* = Items purchased from www.hochanda.com

How To

1. Aquire and strip down a cheap 4 tiered lightshade

2. Collect, Cut and Clean alot of coke cans *****WARNING they are sharp, take care to avoid cutting yourself

3. Use your Sissix Bigshot and the 2 Bigz dies and cut the cans with print side up....u will need alot, 1 leaf for every arm of the lightshade and 1 flower which = 2 large petals, 1 small petal and a small circle

4.Colour the cut outs as follows. Leaves = TB9, Small Petals = TB9, half of the Large petals TB9 and half TB6 and the small circles TB6.. Also Colour the clear acrylic crystals on both sides with TB9 or TB6.

 

 These 6 pictures show the layers for the flowers and leafs etc.

The Layers are built as follows

1. Innermost arms of the Tier: Leaf,eyepin, flower, eyepin, crystal, crystal, crystal, flower, eyepin.

2. Next Inner arms of the Tier: Leaf,eyepin, flower, eyepin, crystal, crystal, crystal.

3. 3rd layer arms of the Tier: Leaf,eyepin, flower, eyepin, crystal.

4. Outermost arms of the Tier: Leaf,eyepin.

5. Work from the inner most layer outwards to avoid becoming tangled, use glue to secure where u feel necessary.

 there is a pleasant tinkling noise from the cans when it catches a draft or breeze

The Finished Shade

Zentangle Rose

Ingredients

* WaterColour Paper

* PolyChromo/Lyra Pencils

*No 3 Zentangle Pen

Blending Pencil

Blending Solution

* = Items purchased from www.hochanda.com

How To

1. Find a rose picture....i used the internet but you could look through books, that is the desired size. print 2 copies.....

2. Cheat.....use one of the copies to trace the rose outline onto the paper

3. Colour in all the areas that are white and the Darkest shaded areas using a dk blue

4. Begin to colour the petals, i prefer to do them in layer order so the overlaps are crisp, using the blending pencil to smooth out the shading

5. When Happy with a petal, use blending solution to smooth the pencil out further and bring the white highlights foreward

6. When Happy with the Rose, add shading around the edges and Zentangle like a crazy thing

 1st Picture i ever Groovied

 No2

No3

 No4

 No5

No6

All of these have been done with the shapes available on the starter Kit, the Mountains are extremely useful :-)

Some of My Encaustic Wax Pictures

Encaustic Wax :-)

Welcome to my new Blog Page.....I will post all my makes here and how toos if anyone is interested

Groovi Graveyard

The Finished Picture

No matter what media i play with, when drawing i eventually draw a graveyard, and this is the latest Picture i have created using my Groovi Starter Kit.

Ingredients

* Clarity Groovi Starter Kit

* Lyra Pens

* Spectrum Noir Pens

* White Lyra Pencil

* = Items purchased from Hochanda

How To

1. Decide on your foreground, i used the Groovi starter kit, plate mate to create the flowers and berries of my blackberry bush and the Mountains on their side for the leaves.

2. Build the image from the foreground backwards....mostly lines and curves. I find it useful to have a 'sacrificial' peice of parchment so i can try something out before committing.

3. Because i wanted this to be a nighttime picture, the whitework was essential to create the highlights from the moon, soft flicking strokes and build up the layers slowly.

4.All the Background is coloured using Spectrum Noir pens, very little detail shading has been added as the whitework provides the key highlights.

5.Before colouring the foreground blackberry bush i put down a soft coat of white pencil and then coloured over it with lyra pens...The white pencil brightened the foreground so that the Blackberry Bush stands foreward.

6. Mounted on a dark card with some small Brads

Its something different......:-)