encaustic wax

Encaustic was is a technique I have heard about, but till today had not used. On Ebay I got a collection of different colors wax. Only small blocks but great to start with. As this is something I don't want to risk a regular iron with, a visit to the thrift store was necessary.

Some colors were applied to the iron which was than placed on top of fabric while moving it at the same time:

This piece of fabric is a drop cloth. I used it to find out whether regular cotton would work with this technique. Disperse dyes only work on synthatic fabric and I was not certain about this encaustic wax.

Next attempt was on a piece of watercolor paper. I love this result:

Placing it upside down on some other paper or fabric and iron from the back was not a success. Only very little color transfered.

After using the wax it was time for some more experimenting and several oil pastels/crayons were used. Most of them were bought at the dollar store. We discovered that all of them can be used for this technique. You probably go through them a bit faster, but the price is lower.