WORKSHOP DAY – ENCAUSTIC ART

On Saturday 4th April we held the third of our four annual  full workshop days. 

This Saturday was spent with Sue Tyldesley, our branch secretary, who has been working with Encaustic Wax painting techniques for 14 years.  See our previous post ‘Focus On Our Members’.

We had all seen examples of  Sue’s finished work and wanted to have a go. 
My first surprise was working on shiny card – I had brought totally the wrong type, but Sue was well prepared with the special irons, the right sort of card and masses of coloured wax sticks for us all to work with.
The first thing we tried was just to melt the wax on the base of the special iron and apply to the card – very random effects, mixing colours on the card.

I thought, yes I can do this (I particularly like random!) but then we got on to the difficult stuff – Kaleidoscope patterns and Landscapes.  Well my kaleidoscopes were even more random than my random (if you see what I mean) with no defined centre, and my landscapes became more mystical with every application of colour. 

Not quite as easy as Sue makes it look, though some seemed to find it easier than I did!!!!!

How it’s done – melting the wax sticks onto the base of the iron and ‘drawing’ onto the shiny card.

You can use any of the designs you have put onto cards and iron off onto fabrics ready for stitching.   This is where pieces for stitched cards and bags come in.

 

My ‘moody landscape’ with the strangest sky and lake reflections I have ever seen but as we said – these are mystical and magical places – all in the mind or perhaps all in the heavy hand in my case!!

 

Landscape with a lake – Tracey Ramsey with a much lighter touch than me!

 
Painting directly onto the fabric with the wax on a hot plate.   Now this I could master and who knows you may see a finished bag sometime.   Keep watching this space.

Late news – As everyone had such a great day and some of our members could not come on this date, Sue has agreed to do another of these workshops for us.  I will be first to book again as I am determined to master this and improve my technique – I feel a lighter touch is needed.

As I had to leave early there will be more photographs later when I have a chance to look at some other members’ work at our next meeting.  I’m sure they will be better than mine!!