Some Encaustic Work

Here is one of the encaustic pieces I made at Kim Bernard's workshop during July 4th weekend. We made our own supports which are basically shallow boxes turned over. The sides of this piece are about 1 and 1/2" thick. The supports keep the piece from warping. If it warps the wax could crack...very bad. This piece has another mini box inset near the top where I poured wax into the cavity and stuck one of my mini vases in before the wax cooled. Underneath are a row of periwinkle shells. I'm having so much fun playing with the wax and trying some cool things out.



Here's a close-up:



I think I can put dried flowers in the vase and they won't fall out. My daughter said this is ocean art because she says the blue part at the bottom looks like waves, plus the shells. Maybe instead of flowers, we'll collect some feathers we find at the beach and put those in the vase.

Buttons and Boxes!

These are my new buttons that I'm having fun with. I myself don't enjoy sewing but used to enjoy running my fingers through my mother's button box when I was little. I loved the feeling of the smooth buttons on my fingertips. These buttons and nice and large measuring anbout 1 and 1/2" wide. I've sold some in my Etsy shop and at craft shows. People seem to really like them. I had some shoppers ask if I could make them smaller, so I'm working on that now.

I'm also working on some sculptures for my fellowship work. I'm taking a weekend long workshop with Kim Bernard on the 5th and 6th at her studio in North Berwick, Maine. I needed to make some supports for the encaustic to adhere to. Anything pourous will work. I am so excited to try this on clay. I've been making these clay wall boxes for years and can't wait to see what I'll come up with. Here are two different sizes in the green stage. The "green" stage means that they are still wet and not leather hard yet. My basement is nice and cool right now with the humidity (as long as I keep the dehumidifier on all the time), so everything is drying nice and slow, perfect for slab work.