A day of encaustic

So another class I took at the Create art retreat focused on a totally new medium to me, wax and plaster.  The instruction was provided by Trish Seggebruch and she was a lovely teacher.  She made encaustic look easy and she inspired me with her teaching.  I found upon trying however, that this is not the medium for me. 

I still had fun and played with the materials provided. In turn, I was exposed to some other new art supplies that I now want as well: PanPastels and Shiva paint sticks.  Another technique I used ( in several classes actually) and fell in love with...stencils.  These seem to be making a serious crafty comeback as good old Martha has a giant new selections of stencils in the big box store.

Without further ado, here are three of the five encaustic pieces I worked on. Two of them were just not worth posting on here.  There is something to be said about editing! :)

This little vintage themed one has a few goodies tucked inside the wax.  I also used a lot of transfers in these pieces and this worked pretty well. 

I was proud of myself for stepping out of my usual grungy color palette above.  I think this piece has grown on me a bit.  The purple flowers were added with stencils and the PanPastels.  Those were so much fun, I wish I discovered them earlier in the workshop. I was too busy trying to tame the uncontrollable wax!





This board was one of the ones I layered with plaster to before adding wax.  This made for very interesting texture.  I struggled with "controlling" the wax in any of these projects.  I had embedded my heart in wax (above), but it did not stay.  I turned this into an opportunity and added all the metal staples.  I also dripped resin on the heart.  This was from the overflow of resin for my assemblage pieces I just finished up from another Create class.  I hope to post both of them on here very soon.  They have the most delicious texture, you don't want to miss these.  

I hope you will stop by again soon!

Cheers,

Rhea

Halloween House: Part II

Since I have been in a creative mania since returning home from my retreat, I got to work on another page of my Halloween Book for my first swap over at Alpha Stamps.  Here is page two out of four.

I did not plan on the green glitter on the witch at first.  Unfortunately the black silhouette got lost on the page so I had to do something to make it pop again, so she got blasted with stickels.  I really love the moon I embossed with gears and distressed.  When I made this page I did not have the lovely bat embellishments I used below, so I freehand cut some out of felt.  It is good to be resourceful sometimes. 

The bats I used on this page were from Coffee Break Studios.  They had a booth at the Artist's Fair at Create and their stuff was just awesome.  I certainly dropped a bit of cash in that booth. I am cruising along on getting this swap done, thank goodness cause I have a bunch to do right now!

I hope to post more Create project pics tomorrow.  I was finishing up a few pieces today, but I lost the good light.  I guess fall is really on the way.

Thanks for all the comments on my Steampunk Metal Deck.  It is certainly getting some blog love from all my followers and I am grateful as always.

Steampunk Metal Deck

I have recently returned from a wonderful mixed media retreat called Create, sponsored by Cloth, Paper, Scissors.  It was an absolute blast.  I learned a ton and managed to produce a lot of art in every medium imaginable.  If I had to choose, my favorite was probably the project I am going to share with you today. The class was called The Vintage Metal Deck and it was taught by Leighanna Light. 

 We altered ten pieces of metal with paper, rust, gesso, stamping, distressing, image transfer, paint, ink and lots of cold connections.

I added a bunch of fibers I hand colored previously to add a softer texture to my industrial deck.

Some of the backs of the cards I just left rusty because I thought the color and texture of the rust was so lovely.

I had a tiny problem with the darker pages above and below, so I had to do some additions to save my work.  While this was a problem, it was a nice challenge to have to solve the issue in order to keep the integrity of my work.

A ton of embellishments and charms were used, I did not hold back in my "bling."

This project challenged me to let go of my perfection tendencies when it comes to wire and jewelry making techniques.  It was tough to let the wire be messy, but it was a great creative exercise.



I love the Harlequin pattern on this page.

One of my favorite new craft items after this trip: resistors.  These little buggers are wonderful.  I will be scouting out a source for these for sure. 

This was another lovely rusty back.

 

I experimented with rusting all kinds of items.  This is a technique I can see myself applying to many projects.

I am so pleased with the outcome of this project.  I was incredibly inspired during the entire process and I look forward to creating another metal deck soon.  If you ever have the opportunity to take this class with Leighanna I highly recommend it! 

 

Stay tuned for more of my projects from Create 2011.

Cheers,

Rhea