Surface Treatment Workshop - week 6

it's been a misty mizzly week in Mousehole with not much colour to cheer

and I've been stuck indoors all week with a really bad cold

so it was good to get out today for a short walk

and discover some beautiful blues and rusts

and they do say that, sometimes, you just have to create your own sunshine

or really search for those bright colours that cheer ...

this week I enjoyed working with a bit more colour in my

faux encaustic samples for The Surface Treatment Workshop

for a long time now I have  loved  using wax in my textile work and collages

and have playfully experimented with it for over 10 years now

dipping papers, photos and fabrics in wax or applying it to collages and canvases

and I just love the look and feel of a waxy texture

every now and again I have sessions where I wax papers and fabrics

so they are translucent, fragile and ready to use in a textile piece

so I was looking forward to having a play with the faux encaustic technique

using gel mediums, acrylics and inks

below you can see how the mixture in my palette looks quite waxy

it's a pourable recipe of Golden gel medium,

turquoise acrylic ink and green acrylic paint

this technique is all in the layering up of encaustic recipe, papers and embedded objects

several ... three ... four ... five layers ...

the thicker the medium the more waxy it looks

I used an old vintage black and white photo, one of my St. Ives photos

lots of text, pre-rusted tissue papers, corrugated card and sewing paper

I also used some wax from some ceramic tiles and some of my waxed papers

smothered in really thick gel medium and there are several layers on these collages

but it was quite hard to photograph the actual waxy texture

it does look sort of waxy?

what I do like about the gel medium is that

being translucent all of the layers can clearly be seen

still, after all that, I wasn't sure I liked the matt finish

so I used a glaze on top which enhanced all the colours and layers

then, I felt that some of these little collages would benefit

from adding some textile layers and stitch

I added some of my melted and textured textiles ... ready for little stitches

and flowers and leaves pressed from my garden embedded in the faux encaustic

this is a collage I layered up ...

which I then cut into four pieces ...

you can see I've pinned on some blue silk and a little cottage ...

I will have these finished up in no time

my conclusion is that this technique has a lot of potential

and it's good to understand the process ...

but I prefer the proper encaustic look of using coloured wax

and will experiment more with that at a later stage

if you would like to know more about these surface techniques and products

you can find them in the book "The Surface Treatment Workshop"

by Darlene Olivia McElroy and Sandra Duran Wilson

thank you for visiting x