My First Encaustic Painting (with no assistance!)

Well! I couldn't bare to read another thing on working with wax. I had to experience the medium.  My cold wax ( that doesn't need heating) has not arrived from interstate and my 2kg bags of pure beeswax beads sat teasing me on my desk. 

So this was it, I took the plunge and melted about a 1/2 cup of bees wax in my rice cooker at home today.  I was really, really cautious of it getting too hot because I didn't have a fire extinguisher or a fire safety blanket on hand, only a picnic blanket.  I just kept telling myself " as long as it doesn't get too and start smoking I am safe! I opened up the windows for good ventilation and placed the wax in my rice cooker, once it melted I made sure it was switched onto warm.

Fusing each coat is so exciting and then as it dries it becomes clearer. I have a few panels going on so that I can work while Im waiting for the wax on the others to dry. At this stage I haven't added any Damar resin or the numerous other things I've been advised to add. Some of them are still in the post.  At least I will be able to compare these pure bees wax with other methods I use.

I had coated my pine wood  panels with Gesso but I forgot to heat it before the first layer of wax. So there is a possibility it won't be fused so well.  I also have my Tapanyaki hot plate under control keeping my coloured waxes at melting point in a muffin pan. I never did bake muffins anyway! I coloured the bees wax. with some cheap Reeves oil paints that I had never used. Also wax crayons shaved into the bees wax. I used oil pastels for drawing or adding color to the set wax. I even tried a little bit of glimmer spray that had an interesting affect...Oh I'm going to love this!

It's all a bit add hoc, and very 'zen- like', working with what I've got left on my shelves, in my home studio/office, and I guess that has always been the way I seem to work - will try anything once. If it works and I like it I'll be faithful till the end!