Another look at beeswax

I decided to try finishing the wood piece I started on Thursday.  My back had started to hurt after standing for a little over four hours while I shot the tutorial, so I was glad to get back to the piece and finally "finish" it. 

I left the beeswax collage in this condition when I quit, and now I'm ready to add a few embellishments.  I brought a pan pastel and a "dabber" to spread the chalk-like substance.  Yes, I normally use these feminine products I raid from my bath to spread the pan pastels on my substrates.

But this time, I used my finger to spread the pan pastel around.  I also used my finger to add the mica powders I applied to the collage.  All I had to do was place the powders on the collage, then heat the beeswax.  All the powders soak in nicely.

I also finished both sides of the wood block, but don't really care for the final dictionary page I used.  I wish I'd left if off, but after I added the mica powders, I thought it would be too difficult to remove and rework.

You can see from the arrows where I placed each of the powders.   Once I was "nominally" pleased with the finished project,

I used a soft rag and buffed it till it had a nice shine.  I'm now calling this piece finished and ready to give as a Christmas gift.

Thanks for joining me today as I call this beeswax collage finished.  This is Day 12 of AEDM.

Second Thursday Tutorial: playing with beeswax

Beeswax is made entirely by bees.  Hard to believe, once it is in your crock pot or melting pot, but it's true.  Once melted, beeswax smells like warm honey.   If I close my eyes, I can associate the scent with autumn, baked goods, and even cleanliness.

Speaking of cleanliness, beeswax actually cleans the air because it releases negative ions which helps rid the air of contaminants like dust and pollen.  The science behind it is simple. Dust, dander, including pet dander, and other impurities float around on positive-charged molecules. Negative-charged molecules are drawn to opposite charges, where they attach and lower them to the ground. While the elements are not completely eliminated, they are brought down where they are easily cleaned through dusting and vacuuming, making them less likely to be breathed.

Although beeswax is smokeless, unlike petroleum based paraffin, if allowed to overheat, beeswax will begin to smoke and change color.  If you don't have a temperature dial on your melting pot, and it begins to smoke or change color, you can simply turn off or unplug the pot for a few minutes.

Here are the necessary supplies you will need:

A dedicated crock pot or melting pot with a dedicated project pan or insert, or an electric griddle and several tuna sized cans.

 Be sure to turn it on well in advance of creating your art.

It takes well over an hour

to melt even this small amount of wax in my crock pot.

You will also need

a canvas or block of wood for your substrate,
heat gun or iron (if iron is not specifically for beeswax, cover a regular iron with aluminum foil to keep the wax out of the steam holes)
tweezers (not shown),
a faux credit card,
various papers, napkins, any paper that doesn't have a shiny coating,
anything that will mark or color, as long as it is NOT acrylic (I have twistables and mica powders),
a dedicated natural bristle brush (not shown).

Before I could dip my tissue in the beeswax, I dropped my tweezers in the hot wax.  After retrieving them, I failed to wipe the wax from my fingers.

Before I adhered the tissue to the board, I heated it.  Then I added the wax laden tissue

and removed as many of the wrinkles as I could with my faux credit card.

Next, I performed the same steps with a napkin.

It was now time to add some color to the doily using the twistables.  I've had these for at least five years, but don't use them because they are greasy and smear on my mixed media projects.  But it seems I have finally found the perfect use for them.  Several of my British friends just discovered them last year, but they get them in packages of 10, not five, like mine.

Once I had added color to the napkin (and my fingers, I might add), I dipped the doily in the hot beeswax.

If I had used natural beeswax, instead of white, the doily would not have been so obvious.

Once down, I noticed the twistable color was being shifted away from the doily.

It was still way too stark for my taste.

I looked around to see what I could find to cover over this too bright addition.

That's when I came up with a portion of a dictionary page for the top,

and a lovely napkin for the bottom.

I never found a way to use the mica powders,

but now I wish I'd used some on the bright blue twistable that I didn't manage to cover.

Ruminations:
1.  Tissue paper and napkins are lovely and take the wax well.  On the other hand, they do NOT adhere well to wood.
2.  Old book pages, when dipped in beeswax, become transparent, while napkins become transluscent.
3.  Twistables work well, but be sure you like the color you are using, or it compliments your piece.
4.  I suggest using natural beeswax if you are going for a vintage feel and white beeswax for a modern feel.
5.  One thing I discovered after I had worked on the project for awhile was to coat the wood with beeswax so the papers would have something to adhere to. 

Thank you for your visit to my monthly tutorial.  I learned a LOT, but have a long way to go before I can say I feel comfortable using beeswax.  If you have played with beeswax and have any suggestions for me, please feel free to leave them in comments.  The more I learn, the better I'll understand this very different product that acts as its own glue.

As soon as this goes live, I will add it to my Tutorials page under "First Experiments Using Beeswax."


Today is Day 10 of AEDM.  I would love to have you join me every second Thursday of the month, where I experiment with a new (to me) product or technique and create a tutorial using it.

Recycled wood art, but first Week 114's Friday Smiles

I'm once again joining Annie at A Stitch in Time for Friday Smiles.  I have a LOT to be smiling about this week.  Nothing funny like last week, like when Squiggles met his doppelganger, but a few smiles, regardless.

After being peppered two days in a row with hail and 70-80 mph winds (equivalent to an F1 tornado), my hyacinths are still alive, and one even has new growth.  As an aside, there were over 1000 homes that had no electricity for several days because the winds blew electrical poles over in one part of town.  After seeing the devastation on TV, it reminded me of the domino effect.

Perhaps the biggest smile is because not only is Kathy's Kings and Queens altered book finished, I have also scanned each of the nearly 200 decorated pages.  You can see the non-shrinkable plastic I tried to spray paint using some of my crowns for masks.  For this page, I used two buttons from my stash, and a bit of baker's twine I found at the dollar store (3 rolls for $1.00 USD)

Lady Jane Gray, AKA the Nine Day Queen, may never have worn the crown of England, but she got one from me.  I honored her with one of my shrink plastic crowns.

The only page I added that had not been "gifted" me (an oxymoron, I fear) by Kathy when she dumped this project in my lap after announcing whatever I didn't want, just pitch it in the trash, was from a 1937 Encyclopedia.  You can see George, Elizabeth's father is wearing the crown I gave him after his brother Edward abdicated.  The crown looks a bit worse for wear, though, since it looks rather "smeared" in the scan.

Now please join Annie for even more smiles this week.  All I can say is, I'm smiling because I'm glad my Kings and Queens project is finished.  I'll have it on my blog soon I hope.

Now it's time to do a bit of recycling.

Back in my basement studio, I got out my dedicated beeswax crock pot, plugged it in, then waited.   While I waited, I did a load of laundry and hung it on the line.  Yes, it takes that long for this crock pot to melt the beeswax.

I'm not sure why I have no step-out photos of this, because I had a ton of time.  Instead, I concentrated on this project and forgot to take photos.  The piece of wood on the left began with a few leaves I had pressed from the previous year.  I adhered the leaves and flowers using the beeswax.  I then adhered some of my glittery tissue paper also applying it using beeswax.

The wood on the right was left over from when I attempted to repair a strip of wood outside my back patio.  I had already painted it, and it was screaming for me to not throw it away.  Instead, I added three leaves that I had pressed the previous autumn using beeswax in lieu of glue.

I was hoping for a better view of this one,

and a better view of the two together.

Even though I adore my camera (yes, I realize it's not "new" in the true sense of the word, but it's new relative to the previous seven years worth of lousy photos on my blog), there is only so much I can do

in the poor lighting I must contend with in the basement studio.  Although these are not finished pieces, they are started and that was all the time I could spend on this project today.  

Thanks as usual for joining me on this journey.  Your comments mean the world to me.

Today is Day 10 of 22 in which I altered two pieces of scrap wood using beeswax to adhere pressed leaves and flowers.  I also shared three pages in Kathy's Kings and Queens altered book I will give her next week.  And please don't forget to start your weekend off right by visiting Annie for a few Friday Smiles.

It's time to turn questions into answers

Back in late March I answered Seth Apter's call for answers, even though I am a contributing artist in his book, The Pulse of Mixed Media. Of course, I read about the open call on his blog, The Altered Page.

(Image brazenly stolen from Seth's Open Call blog post.)

There were three twists to this open call. The first was that the project would be online, similar to what led to the book in the first place. The second was this was NOT a juried event, so even I had a chance of getting in!! And third, it was a real mail call. Remember real mail? You know the mail call that involved envelopes and postage stamps and what we cyber junkies call "snail mail."


There were rules, though, such as size requirements and questions we had to answer. We were given a choice of 1, 2, or 3 questions. We could answer any or all. Quoting Seth:

"Your answer must be presented on a 5" x 5" square, which could be a piece of paper, cardstock, canvas, wood panel, fabric...could be anything. Your answer must be in words, which can be written, typed, drawn, sewn, painted, etc. Since we are artists, I encourage you (but you do not have to) also make your submission visually interesting...in any way you desire. "

Two weeks ago, my 5 X 5 piece was shown on Seth's blog, The Altered Page.  It just goes to show how seldom I check my e-mail.  Since I love to explain how I make each piece I create, below is what I created way back in late March of this year.

I did something totally uncharacteristic for me and created a small practice piece. I wanted to see if the beeswax I planned to use would soak through my handmade paper into or through the card stock substrate to the back of the piece. I did this after I had already created the square I was going to send to Seth. I realize I don't have the concept of "practice piece" down quite yet! You can see here, I recreated the larger piece by tacking the handmade paper to the substrate with thread. Although I really liked how the beeswax complimented the thread, I was very unhappy with how it changed the color of the handmade paper.

The good news was, the beeswax didn't seep through the cardstock to the handmade paper on the back.

So here is the original 5" X 5" square I created. I answered the first question, which was "the artistic ingredient." I first sewed around the outside of the square, then sewed horizontal lines above and below the information I created on my computer and printed on my handmade paper. As you can see, I only placed the beeswax over the words to the answer, and left the rest of the handmade paper as I made it. If I had to do it again, I believe I would use something other than beeswax to add color and interest.

You can see I used variegated brown thread on the back side and a deep green on the front. Once again, I am just thrilled to be a part of this call for artwork!

_____________________________

Helping a friend and making messes in my studio

Yesterday I tried to upload photos to Blogger showing my day, but Blogger had other ideas. So, this was my day two days ago.
My friend Scott wanted help organizing, and if you could see his house, you would know why he asked. While I was there, part of his kitchen ceiling fell in from the over 5 1/2" of rain we got that day.

Mostly, he wanted to play with his computer, rather than anything else, so that was when I knew I was a real artist and took my self seriously. If I couldn't work and do productive things (that didn't include scooping the ceiling off the stove), I could be more productive at home in my studio.

It wasn't much over four or so hours later that I asked another helper, Rob, to bring my home.

Once home, the first thing I did was check my basement. Although there was water in the basement, it didn't make it into my studio. So, what better way to keep an eye on the water than to work there.

The first thing I did was "surgery" on the stemmed glasses I was frustrated over when Kathy, Dana, and I tried to make "Faeries under glass." We scored, we whacked, and nothing happened. Then I wrote the woman whose technique I had seen in both Altered Arts and Somerset. She said we had done everything right, just had not whacked it hard enough. So, after scoring (which did NO good at all, I covered the glass with a towel and whacked it with a hammer. I whacked three times before I actually got the glass to break.

Ironically, yesterday I saw a technique that involves first scoring the piece, then taking a butane torch to it, then dunking it in water. Now that all three of the long stems are cut, I may try that way with the last six that I didn't mess with!

I wrapped and bagged each of the pieces which I will give to Dana and Kathy the next time we get together. As an aside, my brand new nippers didn't help at all, because I couldn't get any leverage on the stems. I used my trusty antique whisk broom to clean up the glass shards left from breaking the pieces.

While in the basement, I decided to delve into the fine art of batik without even exploring the materials I needed. I did this because Dana had loaned me her tjanting (tool you fill with hot wax and write on fabric). Jumping in is sometimes fun, sometimes spontaneous, and sometimes STUPID. Guess which time this was!!!

I still had a tiny amount of lovely golden beeswax I didn't want to mix with paraffin, so decided to heat it and remove it from the crock.

While heating the beeswax, I got my supplies together, at least the ones stored in my basement studio. From left: paraffin, white beeswax, a tuna tin (for capturing the natural beeswax after it melted), cardboard circle, the tjanting, and my hand formed metal pieces which will be used to "stamp" wax on the material.

Another view of the materials. Then it was off to my upstairs studio while the beeswax melted.

I cut some of the journal pages Kathy gave me on Friday to 6" X 6" for a new project. I began with a yellow acrylic background,

then used another cardboard circle as a mask for the two purple acrylics I blended over the yellow. While this was drying, I stretched some material over that shadowbox I was unhappy with. Better to use it for something useful, since it was going nowhere as a shadowbox.

Then it was back to the basement to check on the wax. Who needs a stair master when I can get my exercise just doing art? With me I brought the stretched material on the shadow box (far left), "peel and seal" to line the tuna tin, two wood touch up pens (between the crock pot and the tjanting), and extra material (far right). I was ready to jump head first into this project.

I was truly hoping the peel and seal would hold up under the heat of the hot beeswax. But before I traded the beeswax out, I wanted to finish a project I started last month.

It all came together when I got these cool sticks FREE at Mrs.O'Leary's last Friday. I cut one down and left one long for placement.

Sadly they were both too long for the little Paper Whimsey girl. And yes, I've just about used every image on that sheet!

When I had the size and placement I wanted, I colored the "fence" with two wood touch up pens I've had for years.

I added the wax, but got way too much on it. That little clover iron of Kathy's would sure come in handy about now!! It's back to the shelf until it cools and I can "rework it. I'm also not impressed with the "light brown" at the top of the fences. I think I'll remove them and color the next ones all with one color.

Now it was time to see if I could pull off saving the beeswax in a way I could easily reheat it. With fingers and toes crossed, it was hard to pour, so I just went with gut feel that it would work.

Yea. Victory and the peel and seal did not melt. Happy dance was happening about then.

Now it was time to start over with white beeswax

and paraffin I split using an awl. If I had been really precise, I would have weighed both pieces, but I went by gut feel. I did that a LOT that day.

Now it was time to play the waiting game again while the slow heating crock pot did its thing.

Although I didn't take any more photos of the project I'm working on (still), I spent time in my upstairs studio painting a few backgrounds.

Then it was back to the basement, where I tried to fill the tjanting. Before I could even get it filled, the wax had cooled and made a mess inside it. What to do?

After checking that the natural colored beeswax had cooled, I put it away, unplugged the crock pot and went up to search the internet for my problem with the tjanting. I never did find out how to keep the wax in the tjanting hot, but on one site I learned you had to use cold immersion dyes, not RIT, which is all I have. So, looks like batik will have to wait for another day. At least I have the wax all ready to go.

I'm sure that I could have used the tools I made, but I still wouldn't have been able to dye anything. At this point I was tired, cranky, and frustrated. It was better to save this project for another time, since I'd spent enough time experimenting for one day.

Lessons learned:

1. Research any new technique before jumping into it.
2. Know how to use the tools before you begin.

3. Have the proper materials for the task.

I hope you learn from my mistakes.