My Encaustic Adventure - Part I

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Don't Assume It Won't Work.  Just Try It!!!!

I took an amazing encaustic class last week given by Victoria Eubanks here in Denver.  I highly recommend it!!!!!  It was an all-day creative session - from 9-4 - and Victoria shared her passion and knowledge in a patient and inspiring way!!!!!  What a great teacher!!!!!!  Over the next few days I want to share with you the three pieces I created that day.  This piece began with lots of questions - could I stamp on tissue paper and embed that in the wax?  Could I incorporate broken pieces of a vintage Christmas ornament?  What would happen if I colored the stamped image with colored pencils and then embedded it?  For some of my questions Victoria had immediate responses based on her experience.  For others she said, I haven't ever tried it, let's see what happens!  I loved the opportunity to just try things and to see what would happen!  It seemed easy for me to apply this attitude since this was a medium I had never explored and I was curious.  I think the more familiar you are with working with supplies, it can be a bit more challenging to keep this open mindset.  Shunryu Suzuki said that In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few.  May we all learn to approach our art with the beginner's mind - believing that there are many possibilities waiting to be discovered!
For this encaustic piece I began with a piece of mdf board that I covered with kraft tissue paper that I stamped with the retired Stippled Butterfly stamp using Staz-On ink.  I then stamped the image again on another piece of kraft tissue paper and colored it in with colored pencils.  I applied a few layers of encaustic medium and encaustic paint and then added the colored butterfly.  I then added an additional layer of encaustic medium and the drips of green encaustic paint.  Finally I embedded the small pieces of broken vintage glass Christmas ornament.  This was my first encaustic piece ever and I loved the journey!!!!  Thank you Victoria!!!!