Encaustic plus Pixlr

So, moving on in my 'Art & Crafts List to do NOW,' I did indeed get on with the next one on my list, Encaustic.  The one thing I was hoping wouldn't happen when carrying out this craft did - and that was to burn myself.  I was doing very well until it came to clean up time when I momentarily glanced away from the iron that I was cleaning with a piece of kitchen roll - and promptly burned a little blister into my palm - ouch!

Before that I was quite enjoying this craft and found it relatively easy.  This, I have to admit, was greatly  helped by the fact that I had watched a beginner's guide to abstract encaustic earlier on in the day.

 

I initially thought encaustic meant embedding things into wax, which would have meant putting my much neglected Melting Pot into use - but when I checked online, I found it was more to do with layering and  'painting' with coloured waxes.

A very, very, long time ago I bought a set of encaustic waxes, together with some glossy card and a travel steam iron.  This was around the time that it first became popular.  More recently, I was able to add to the wax collection when I spotted some in a local charity shop.  I tend to use my materials with more abandon when I know I have a plentiful supply.  It's when they are limited that I tend to be more cautious and 'keep it for that special project' that never seems to happen... 

As I was a beginner (again! the first attempts were so very long ago!)  I decided that abstract was the way to go.  Maybe I will move on to landscapes at a later date, when my wound has healed....

 

Simple materials needed, glossy cardstock, colourful waxes, kitchen roll and an old iron (preferably non-steam but I didn't use the steam facility).

I used the techniques shown in the above youtube video which meant smoothing down the wax on the iron and then quickly swishing it across the paper.  Lifing up the iron created those lovely organic tree like marks.

You could avoid getting the outline of the iron by using an iron more suited to the purpose, the type with interchangeable heads. 

The difference between now and when this product first came out is that you can now alter your finished 'painting' simply by using various photo manipulation techniques onto your scanned masterpieces. This simple technique just wasn't available to us then.   For this my go tos at the moment are Pixlr or the free version of Picmonkey.

This was my first attempt, which was fair enough in green...

...but lets see what it looks like without colour:

This piece was my ultimate favourite as I think it looks like a galactic waterfall.

 

And altering the contrast made the colours 'pop'.

 Oh, I forgot to mention, I worked on a craft mat with strong cardboard underneath to protect the kitchen work surface.  The mat ended up getting very messy!

Back soon with my next 'NOW' craft which I've just checked is Gelli Printing.  I have done some of this  recently, but you can never do enough of gelli printing, can you...?

Thank you for getting through this very long post and for stopping by today,

enjoy your bank holiday weekend (those of you in the UK),

and I'll see you soon,

Nicky

@Creative Flourishes