encaustic... a process explained

encaustic is basically using hot bees wax to cover a foundation. what i did in judy's class was learn the basic technique and then some different techniques to add or embellish. we started with a board. you could use a stretched canvas, some people have put encaustic into their journals. once you have chosen your base, you can choose to paint it or not. i used acrylics to paint my backgrounds, then i did a collage with photos i have taken, glueing them down securely. then i put on the first layer of hot 160* wax. after the wax sets, you can use a blow torch or a heat gun to set the wax. it melts a little and rids the surface of brush marks. its a technique that needs practice to not get the wax too hot and to be certain to cover the entire area. then you can do a number of techniques, by scratching the surface or intaglio, then adding another layer of wax and heat setting it again. or a stencil, gold leaf, shellac, adding a tissue image, or burnishing a reverse transfer . there are so many techniques and combinations... but each time you add wax you must heat set it again. another process is painting with hot wax... you can use pure pigments or oil paints or pre-colored wax blocks to color the wax... the trick is to take small brush strokes since you can only paint while the wax remains hot. after every little bit you should stop and heat set it. this is the exercise i found to be the most difficult. if you go to judy"s website http://judywise.blogspot.com/ to the dec 13 post... the heads that are shown were done with hot wax... we were told to turn our sample upside down and copy it that way. i am not good at drawing and this method seems to make it possible to achieve some what of a likeness. i'm sorry i didn't explain the process in the beginning. it really has nothing to do with stitch ... i just have to do something different once in awhile to soothe my gemini nature.