Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Alchemy


Well, I have been working on a piece for an upcoming exhibit, whose theme is "The Alchemy of Encaustic". After talking with my friend Marcia from Houston, it just hit me what to do. I wanted to create a 3D image of an atom with electrons around it, and using wire and polymer clay, came up with this idea. I also used an image transfer and some stamps that I had made for this project.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Wax Play Day



On Saturday my friends Lisa, Carolyn, and Ellen came over to do a little encaustic wax. We had a great time, and finished some wonderful pieces! We turned my kitchen into an encaustic studio with 3 electric griddles, 1 hot plate, torches, heat guns, etc. and spent the entire day doing encaustic wax! Here is one of the pieces I finished, and this time I decided to extend the wax onto the sides of the piece instead of staining the sides of the board. I have several more pieces started, and hopefully will have time to prepare a couple for an upcoming encaustic exhibit at Kilgore College in October.

New Stamps


I have been looking for years to find a solution to getting stamps made from my own designs. Most of the commercial machines out there are just way too expensive for the limited number of stamps I wanted, and some of the old photopolymer texture sheets I have purchased are now too brittle and yellow to use without damaging them. Until now. I have used Ready Stamps in the past to have stamps made, and the rubber was just fine for stamping, but did not work well with clay and encaustic wax. I decided to contact them, and now they are making photopolymer plates in both the hard plastic and soft clear stamps just like the ones in the craft stores. I ordered 4 plates of designs from them, and I am really liking them! They are fabulous in both clay and wax! Here is a photo of some of my doodles and the stamps that were produced. Contact them if you want to have some of your own designs done.