Saturday, January 10, 2009

Waxing Poetic!

The 'Waxing Poetic' Class was great fun! The teacher Diana is the Children's Librarians at our local Public Library - & does the blog :)
She's also done SoulCollage, & said she'd been thinking of doing more, so that was fun! There were 5 other students, & a great flow to the class.

Basic tools are: fairly lightweight paper (tissue paper is great!), a small crock pot or electric frying pan to melt the wax (a combo of white & 'normal tan' beeswax - NO PARAFFIN!), inexpensive brushes (~ 1" wide), & either a blower that's used to strip paint (Darn, I forget what she called it! - that one gets very hot, looks like a hairdryer) or an embossing blower; & a quilting iron (I have one of these mini irons already :)

We made 3 collages, using several materials for backing - a medium weight card stock, artist's canvas on cardboard, canvas on wood, & a pressed board. The lighter weight boards buckle a bit, so you need to take that into account when you choose what to 'play' on!

We began with the card, & basic technique of painting some wax on the background, heating it with the blower (not long, & keeping it moving), then applying a piece of tissue. You could put a bit of wax on top, & then either 'blow' or iron. Ditto, ditto, ditto!!

Darker colours first, in most cases, tho you can also do some 'framing' with dark colours at the end. Old patterns are a lovely option (the curved lines on the upper L of the 'Egyptian' piece are from a pattern!). This was done on the canvas, & black & white Egyptian figures are from the 'goodies' I received in Ophelia's Give Away. the black circles on white (& in the lower L of 'Egypt') are painted in black ink on white tissue. We also did some transfers, using acetone & RECENT xerox pictures, transferring the image to white tissue paper.

My 4 year old Grand daughter 'claimed' the picture with the Girl on the Moon - my Full Moon in Cancer Dream board! It's her birthday Sunday, so I'm letting her have it :) The moon image is also from Ophelia.
The blue wavy circles were a print I did in class (from a stamp Diana brought). Stamping was done with acrylic paint on tissue paper from an art store. She had some lovely bits of paper to choose from! Old printed paper napkins are fun - the word in the lower L of 'Full Moon' are the top layer from a napkin! The gold is on white tissue; the white disappears into the wax!

I brought along some 8x5" matt board to use for a SoulCollage piece; so after doing my 3 'class pieces,' made a card. The statue was from a magazine, the black circle from that sheet of white with painted circles, the coins from blue tissue printed with coins, on a background of painted tissue & handmade paper, with another piece of gold on white tissue.

Gatekeeper: I am the one who stands watch at the gate, who monitors the flow, who welcomes abundance & grace. I am the one who watches, who listens, who waits.

Other techniques we played with - incising a design or line into several layers of wax, & colouring in the groove with oil pastels (you can wipe off the excess), using the iron to melt a BIT of crayon (she had the 64 colour box!) One gal embedded a feather she'd brought, & that turned out well. Diana often mounts the wax pieces on white board in a frame - no need for glass! The wax will scratch, but is a fairly permanent, & old, way to preserve images! I plan to do more :)

13 comments:

Lisa said...

great pieces. there's few things more beautiful than the effect of wax on a collage!

Unknown said...

wow those are beautiful!!! happy birthday to the birthday girl today!!!!!

Secret Wish Jar said...

Beautiful collages! I've never used wax for anything creatively (as far as I can remember anyway), but it looks like fun. May have to try it myself sometime :)

Anonymous said...

I saw you mention wax at Jamie's blog and had to see what it looked like! So cool! Love the moon and the magic! Anything is Possible!

Alettesiriane said...

so beautiful,I have just baught an old suitcase that has dware and closet inside.I need all the ideas I can get!

Alettesiriane said...

rosebeads.
I put the fresh roses in a iron crock and fill with water.I heat to boiling ,then let cool.This I do 4 days,one boiling each time.Then you feel when they are soft enough to make.I dried them outside,but the birds steel them .Your was seems good too!

Ali said...

what beatiful art works :-)

Cynthia said...

Dia! So Cool! I think that blower thing (I have one is an Embossing heat tool-sound right?)

Great instruction and just think the results are wonderful!

Thx
xx

Nadya said...

Thanks for all your lovely comments! I'm in love with these pieces myself!
Cynthia - yes, one of the options was the heat embossing tool; the other is used in stripping paint! It has a metal 'blower' & is hotter (so you REALLY have to be careful using it!)
Still searching for local beeswax, have a call in to one fellow's mom . . .

jennlui said...

beautiful beautiful!!! i love the collage with the moon... well i love all things with moons... hee hee!!! so fabulous to follow your creating experimentations!!! i'm also fascinated with beeswax and hope to try it out in the future...

peace and love

Caroline said...

This looks like lots of fun - I love what you've done with it!

Paula - Buenos Aires said...

I´d love to attend a class like that one! Cool technique. Or should I say "hot" technique? ;)

KV Creative Designs said...

Hi,
Thank you for visiting my blog! ASL is AWESOME!! Have you thought of taking a refresher class? I am thinking about teaching a Refresher class via Web cam. I need to find out if there is a market for it! I LOVE your collages, so creative! I will visit again!

Happy New Year and Artful Blessings,
Kathryn

P.S. Stop back by my blog and enter my Blogiversary giveaway!