Here is an 8 minute video of Martha Stewart and artist Leah MacDonald demonstrating one method of doing encaustic. Leah MacDonald is known for her photos, often black and white, which she paints and coats with wax. She pours her wax on the photo, thus getting a smooth, even coating. I've always painted the wax on with a brush. Also, she is using bleached wax whereas I use unbleached yellowish wax. It's a great demonstration, me thinks.
photo: one pound local beeswax, unbleached
15 comments:
thanks for finding this video, suki i can't wait to watch it. should i look for bee's wax in the health food store or the art supply store or...?
Neat!
Fascinating!
I've never seen encaustic work actually being done before.
It looks much simpler than I'd imagined,,but I realize this is only one process.I'm sure there are many ways to do it. Being completely ignorant of the process, I always thought the paint pigments had to be melted INTO the wax.
Thanks Suki,,,,this was VERY interesting; great post!
M. Heart. Places that sell herbs might have beeswax. Art supply stores might have small amounts of bleached. I'm not sure about health food store. I bought mine at a craft fair where a local bee person was selling these chunks, but before that I ordered it from Mountain Rose Herbs. I used to make my own lip balm and other cosmetics using beeswax. Before this wax collage thing.
Hi Kelly. It is pretty neat isn't it? i want to try this pouring method now I've seen it.
Babs, in my opinion what Martha and Leah did is not "real" encaustic. It's more like the "collage" method I do, except they only used one item on their collage, the photo. Yes, with real encaustic process you want resin in your melted beeswax and you can buy pigments or maybe use your own pigment powders and melt it into the wax to get colors, just as you say.
PS I probably would not have called it encaustic myself as it doesnt use the pigmented wax, however in the video of her show Martha called it encaustic so I followed suit. I'd probably just call it waxed photos or somehting like that.
Okay, thanks for clearing that up Suki,,,I wondered if I had it all wrong,,wouldn't have surprised me a bit. This however, really was interesing, thanks again.
interesting post. I will have to check that out. Never heard about this type of art but I like it.
I could not get the video to work on the computer at work, so I will try later. Thanks for sharing!
Well, I watched the video, although Martha is not one of my fav people in the world. The other woman was charming. I liked how she taught this process. Very interesting. But think I am not seeing what it's really like from here...close up and personal would be better. Wonder where I can see some, or do I need to make it myself? ;-) This is what Judy Wise does on her blog...
I will have to check this out, thanks for posting it. I will also link to you in the next "Bee Spotting" post if that's ok. People seem to really bee getting into others bee's wax lately!!! hee hee
Hi Babs again. Right,the variations in the process can be confusing. and the terminology used to describe it.
Cris, this is very much (to my mind) the same as my wax collages. Except instead of pouring the wax on the canvas/board I paint it on with a brush. The idea is to coat the work, whether a photo or collage of papers etc with wax.
Annie hope you have better luck at home!
Lynn, I myself have never seen a real person doing wax works. I know around here they have classes for encaustic (which involves using wax mixed pigments) which is more like painting with wax. What Leah MacDonald does with photos is similar to what I do with the wax collages, just pouring or painting wax over the photo or collage. Encaustic variations are very popular now so I'd bet you have some artists in your area who do this.
Sure Karen, that's great to link to me. thanks. Bee well. Suki
Thanks for the video!
Always nice to see a process!
Marianne, just one way to use hot wax.
Hi everyone...
I have just been reading thorugh your posts about Encaustic Art. Where are you all based? I am importer of Encaustic Wax in South Africa. Email me for more info on suppliers in your area or country.
email: mercurius@koogle.co.za
Encaustic is fun and therapeutic!
Regards,
Kelly (Foster)
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