Squeezing in Some Studio Time

I claimed a little time for myself when our house guests went off on a shoe shopping trip and to pick up a few warmer clothes. Coming from Sweden they were expecting summertime weather here in southern Arizona but the weatherman has been throwing loops at everyone it seems lately.

I wasn't sure what I was going to start with but a  when facebook friend had commented that she was clearing out all of her old art school sketches and pieces that she didn't feel worth keeping I shouted  across the interwebs that she was to cut up anything she didn't want and send it to me for collage papers.

I got two hefty packages of heavyweight watercolor papers and some lightweight prints as well to use any way that I please. I've promised her a piece in return for her most wonderful  supply gift.

The two layers of background on this are thanks to my friend.

This background paper was stiff enough to try out some encaustic work.

A piece of disintegrated shirt that I found on the migrant trail nearby.

It was naturally tie -dyed by the elements

( my second go at attempting encaustic, ever)

I added a few pieces that I picked up off of the street 

wire and a piece of balloon.

They were one piece but I didn't care for the composition so I simply

cut it into two pieces!

This was brush strokes of wax on an old aluminum tile I found on the road.

This is what the back side looks like, I t had been road-smithed by a car it appears.

I rather like it.

This came out a bit dark but I was just starting to flex my collage muscles for the day here.

More encaustic on heavy weight watercolor paper.

This was an experiment on a shard of heavyweight antique  mirror glass 

that I found outside of an abandoned old church last year.

The silver on the back had eroded away leaving a fabulous weathered silver patina

 they way old mirrors do.

I layered encaustic wax and scraped some away to reveal the glass and silver in places.

It's become a gift to our Swedish friend Olle that spent some good years in Alaska once upon a time.

I have more pieces to play with.

After a successful day in the studio I was felt freed up enough to go hiking yesterday in the hills surrounding our neighborhood. The hike yielded two practically brand new Mexican blankets that we found on the trail which will be great for the truck after a wash.

Our guests also got to experience the truly southwestern experience of a Mexican woman approaching us with fresh tamales in the parking lot of the grocery store.

They had never tasted anything like the green chile tamales and were quite pleased.

I'm off on a road trip to the surrounding area for a couple of days now. We're going to visit a few places that I've never seen like the cliff dwellings and some hot springs.

Of course I'll bring my camera!

Diving Into Encaustics

A snippet of some mail art  from Dosfishes and some gold leaf included here.

The porcupine quills got a little singed with the torching!

Just picked up this used book on Cockatiels at the library.

Alcohol inks, oil pastels and the mighty torch.

Pretty globby but there are areas that I like.

antique hairpins and a rusted bottle cap from Artymess 

Antique lace embedded

Incised, pigmented, torched and collaged.

I've had the idea of  doing encaustic work in the back of my mind for awhile. It was another of those avenues that I knew would require new supplies and a few tools.  I took the plunge when I was out of town for a couple of bead shows and in a city that actually has an bona fide art supply store. 

Once I was in my studio with the help of my newly purchased book Encaustic Workshop by Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch.  I realized that I didn't have everything I needed but perhaps enough to get started.  I found that we did not have a heat gun handy so I had to make do with a Mapp gas torch or a hair dryer, neither of which are 100% suitable for the fusing work. Encaustic work  employs the use of hot wax and pigmented hot wax which can be painted, spread, incised, layered and you can even embed objects, papers for a collage effect.

Let me tell you this first off... Using a Mapp gas torch to fuse the wax is very exciting dangerous and certainly not the ideal tool. I was lucky and had no catastrophes but can easily imagine things getting out of hand. The hair dryer blows... literally and figuratively. Fortunately I have the ideal heat gun waiting for me at Studio South in Arizona. Under a month to go till we take off for our winter home. Guess my encaustic supplies will be a-traveling with me.

What you see here are essentially my encaustic doodlings and experimentation. These pieces are done on small pieces of wood, the largest being a mere 5 inches square (12.7 cm)

I certainly figured a new way to make messes in my studio. The only hot plate I had to heat my pigmented medium tins and wax medium was a small stainless steel plate on top of a heating element that was kind of tippy to add to the excitement. I also had a pyrex glass cooking pot explode as I was heating the resin, thinking that it could withstand the temperature. My heating element was inexact at best and I quickly figured out which setting I needed to be at to keep the wax melted but not boiling.