Titania - queen of the beeswax

Since joining Michelle Ward's Green Pepper Press Street Team activities, I've been feeling pretty motivated to actually make art, instead of just think about it. That, and I've been sick for the last week, so I've had some time to actually dream and ponder...let my creative, right-brained mind take over from my left-brained work mind. I would like to say the gears shift easily, but actually, they don't.

Well, when I wasn't fast asleep from taking cough syrup, I finally decided to put my courage to the sticking spot and break out the Melt Art pot and the beeswax. I've been wanting to try this, but too intimidated by the possibility of it catching fire (I hear wax has a low flash-point) and what if it looks terrible, and what if I burn myself, and oh, I just don't know.... Don't you hate it when you finally acquire xyz art supply, all excited to try it, and then you lose your nerve ? So there it sits, taunting you, in your art supply area, until finally, one day, you just can't take it any more.

Finally, the artist comes out, and says, well, it would be nice if the artist said something like the quote by Anais Nin - "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

Actually, this artist said, "Oh, quit havering and just bloody well do it!"

Whatever works.

So, the result of my experiment with beeswax collage is above. I have to say, I really like it! I had so much fun with it that I made two more pieces of art today as well! Now I just need to figure out how to get the right lighting to show them to you. The light in my studio/library/lair just wasn't adequate so I'll keep trying with them, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy this one.

Oh, I should tell you what I learned right? I learned that alcohol ink shouldn't be used to change the color of wax - it stains the melt pot (duh, me! it's metal) and that wax melts a lot more easily than embossing powder. When you hit the wax with a heat gun, it turns liquid almost instantly. Interesting effects can be had as far as moving it around that way, but it gets a little too random. I'm going to try using the quilting iron (as Claudine Hellmuth suggests in her book "Collage Discovery Workshop") next.

In the meantime, be brave with your art! You'll be glad you did.