I love to work with wax and dye so this workshop for me was a no brainer. I would have gladly taken this workshop for all three days if it would have been allowed and at the same time am glad it wasn’t as otherwise, I would not have learned all the other awesome techniques I picked up from Judy Wise and Sue Stover.
We were gifted with hot, sunny weather and the tables outside had dye baths set up in traditional printer’s colours in Procion MX of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Indigo Blue instead of Black (with possibly another colour?). Spackle, stencils and other assorted pattern making tools were on another table. The tables inside had a selection of clear and coloured waxes, stencils, pastel sticks and coloured powders along with mark making tools and foils. And we also brought supplies as well.
As per Trish’s casual teaching style, she demonstrated the dye topic along with an Encaustic wax refresher (prerequisite for this course is “Intro to Encaustics” which I had taken in 2012) and then turned the workshop into an open studio to let us run free and wild, checking in on us occasionally to give us time updates and to see if we were on track or had questions, all while doing her own thing at the front of the class and occasionally wanering off to make sure the camp was running on track or to sort out issues like diet requirements and blown circuits (mother hen comes to mind taking care of all her baby chicks). In the afternoon there was another demo and then again open studio time.
I started off with a variety of spackling techniques as these pieces had to dry before they could be put into the dye baths.
Left piece: 3″ x 5″ Encaustibord, spackled with stencils, dye dipped into Cyan and Fuchsia creating purple. Right piece: 5″ x 7″ Encaustibord, spackled with a stencil, dye dipped into Indigo. Both pieces then had a clear wax coating applied to them. The piece on the left has a higher profile so the clear wax coating can not be polished like the piece on the right, each technique coming with its own merits.
6″ x 6″ birch plywood panels, spackled, stuck together, pulled apart creating mountains and valleys similar to the merangue on lemon pie – I find the tips somewhat fragile as they tend to chip easily. Left piece: dipped in Indigo dye, partially covered with clear wax giving it this cloudy snow like look. Left piece, dipped into Yellow dye, drizzled with clear wax, dipped into Fuchsia dye, dribbled clear wax on it, dipped into Cyan dye vat. The Cyan has not been coated with clear wax allowing the piece to give off a nice woodsy smell. To me it also looks like saltwater taffy or mint candy.
A classmate provided a sample of 6″ x 6″ foam core board to us for experimentation: spackled bottom half of board, clear wax resist top left corner and over some spackle, dipped into Indigo dye vat, moon – coloured was, pastel and powder rubbed into ocean surf and shoreline sand, coating of clear wax. I think the pattern on the back from the Indigo dip is almost as intriguing as the delightful moonlit beach on the front.
Experimenting Batik on Wood Panels: cradled 6″ x 6″ birch plywood panels, cookie cutter stamps with clear wax. Left piece: dipped into Cyan dye vat, thin coat of clear wax on top of Cyan, dipped into Fuchsia dye vat. Right piece, dipped into Fuchsia dye vat, applied clear wax to some Fuchsia cherry blossoms, dipped into Yellow dye vat, applied clear wax to orange cherry blossoms, dipped into Cyan dye vat. Both pieces were covered with a good layer of clear Encaustic wax. I’m not sure if these pieces are finished yet or not.
To be perfectly honest, the next 4 pieces are a phenomenon as I can’t remember the process as I was too busy having fun to take notes. All I know is 4″ x 4″ Encausticbord, Yellow dye vat, Fuchsia dye vat, 4″ stencils that had adhesive on the back of them, clear Encaustic wax on top of the stencils, removed stencils, dipped into Indigo dye vat or Cyan dye vat or ???. The yellow on the bottom left piece is not part of the piece but a reflection of the photography flash.
3″ x 5″ Encaustibord, dribbled with wax, dipped into Cyan dye vat and covered with clear Encaustic wax.
4″ x 4″ Encausticbord with tape resist, dipped in Yellow dye vat, covered with stencil and powder and then coated clear Encasustic wax coating on.
8″ x 8″ Encausticbord, ink drips, stamped with clear Encaustic wax using a cord circle stamp, dipped in Indigo dye vat and coated with clear wax.
Left piece: 8″ x 10″ Encausticbord, stencil covered with clear Encaustic wax, dipped in Indigo dye vat. Right piece: 8″ x 8″ Encaustibord, words written with Tjanting tool in clear Encaustic wax, dipped in Yellow dye vat, stamped with clear wax, stencil covered with clear wax, dipped in Inigo dye vat. Image on left was left unpolished and image on right was polished before taking pictures.
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