Memory Sealed in Wax

Since doing a beeswax collage workshop with the lovely Claudine Hellmuth a few months ago (click HERE for those details) I've been meaning to try another one at home.  But you know how that goes.  Other projects, deadlines, and that pesky thing called life got in the way.  The other day I glanced at the calendar and thought, "holy crap, it's almost Mother's Day!"

What to send to mom this year?  It was just her birthday a while ago and the big box of Godiva dark chocolates were a hit, but too soon to send another.  How about making something?  What a radical idea.  I make things almost every day.  Why don't I send something to her that came from my hands as well as my heart?  DUH!  Well, that thought collided with the beeswax thought, and this little 5x7 canvas was the result:

The photo is of my parents, taken shortly after they married.  The gorgeous frame was cut with a nestabilities die from Tim's new glasseine paper.  The canvas itself was first sprayed with colorwash and perfect pearls mists, then I just started adding stenciling with paints, bits of paper, including color saturated paper towels, and more layers of spraying.

It was at that point that I began adding the beeswax, which is all I used to attach the photo, the frame, the papers, the flower, ticket and butterfly.   And I was happy to discover that even rub-ons can be adhered to a waxy surface and then covered with more wax without any damage to the rub-on.

Maybe not quite as good as a box of Godiva, but I think mom will like it.

Waxing Poetic

I'm not quite finished with my Keys4Art posting, but had to pause to share some photos from the wonderful class I took on Saturday with Claudine Hellmuth.  Claudine called it Waxing Poetic, and we learned many techniques for creating collages using only beeswax as our "adhesive."

The class was sponsored by The Ink Pad, and held in the community room of Westbeth, which aside from being an affordable residence for artists (high ceilinged loft style apartments), it also contains many such spaces for classes, exhibits, performances and the like.  A very nice place to come and make art.  We arrived early and hung out in the courtyard.

Claudine began the class with a long demo, in which she showed us the many ways to use beeswax in collage making, as well as the tools and supplies.  We'd all brought copies of photos and collage elements, and there was a large pile of various papers and fabrics on the share table.

Before long, our work table looked like this:



After the demo, Claudine circulated around the room offering help where needed.  Below, Teri and I using the quilter's irons to apply wax to our surfaces.  Teri is working on a box, covering it with wonderful photos she took of horses on a trip to Wyoming.     I am working on a 6x12 stretched canvas that will include an old photo of my grandfather Abraham.



Towards the end of the class (we worked from 10am to 5pm) we put our pieces on the floor so we could ooh and aah over each other's art.

Pat is understandably pleased with her whimsical piece.

Corris did a wonderful series of tiles, applying her images right over the existing ones, repurposing tiles she might have otherwise discarded.  I think these will look fantastic hung together on a wall.

My completed (maybe) canvas:

The great thing about a beeswax collage is you can always remove unwanted elements by reheating them, or add new ones, so who knows if this is actually finished.  And as Claudine pointed out, a workshop is for experimenting and learning, not creating masterpieces.  Having said that, I think everyone did a fantastic job.

After lunch, I worked on a second piece, an 11x14 canvas board.  I used lots of tissue paper, patterned napkins, old text and music sheets as my background.  I added some bird clipart and in the center, a combination of dark paper and fabric, over which I placed some old family photos.

 Claudine poses with my friends; a great ending for a great day.

                    Back row:  Michelle, me, Claudine, Pat, Teri      Front row:  Heidi and Corris