Encaustic

I've been keeping a tiny notebook of copies of art I like, and on the next page I make a sacrilegiously quick piece to mimic it. Today I'm melting crayons to approximate encaustic. Here's a copy of Bottles, the work of Carolyn Homan, the artist inspiring me:

Read the site of of Ann Onusko, for more about encaustic. You mix wax (usually beeswax), with resin (usually Damar resin). Melt it, brush it down on a sturdy, prepared, porous surface, let it cure for days or weeks, then polish it. I think you add pigment in the first step. I think you can also put color on top. You can scratch in designs and alter it in other ways. A blowtorch is involved somewhere, or maybe one of those little tools to bubble the top of creme brulée. In the end you polish it so it looks like a waxed floor. This is where encaustic loses me. I love its layered-ness and the misty fusion of lines, but I don't like art so slick you can skate on it.

But it was fun melting crayons. I chipped off little pieces and microwaved them on high for 2-5 minutes, depending. Oh -- the encaustic process is toxic and should be done wearing a mask and near an open window. So I'll air out the microwave. 

Here's what my melted piece looks like in the sun.