Burn Baby Burn!

Ha....I'm getting bolder and bolder. It wasn't enough for me to just get back into melting wax, not to mention the blow torch.

My latest caper...burning shellac. Yep, that same shellac that used as a finish for wood floors, furniture and the like. Yep the same shellac that says, usually in bold letters, "FLAMMABLE!" Yep that same shellac, I am intentionally setting on fire.

I love texture and random patterns, so I couldn't help but to fall in love with this process. I used some of my "cough cough" not so visually appealing 1st encaustic paintings to test this process on. Wow...who knew a little fire could make something so ugly so beautiful.

I don't have pics of the originals...again, some ugliness should never be recorded, but here is one of the pieces after the shellac burn has been done.

This was the 1st burn that was done. I'ts ok, but I decided to experiment and add another layer in different colors.


After the second layer was done. Marvelous, it I do say so myself.




I've also made my Youtube debut with a quick shellac burn demo.

Getting bolder....Wax and a blow torch...yikes!

Of course, I just can't play it safe and just use the heat gun in my encaustic paintings. Again, I'm putting the blame on youtube. I came across the video of a marvelous artist Shawna Moore and her use of the blow torch.

Her work is breathtaking isn't it.

Laura Moriaty is another wonder artist who uses the encaustic medium and a blow torch to create sculptural pieces. Her work is also breathtaking.


Suddenly I'm feeling all brave and borrowed a blow torch. However, I put the torch out several times....flash-backs to that wax fire kept making me chicken out.

Finally I got brave, lit the torch and actually touched the flame to the wax. After experimenting for a while, learning how to control the flame and the movement of the wax, I wanted to try an actually art piece.
My first attempt with the torch was pretty good. But I still have to work on controlling the amount of time I spend on the wax with the torch.

A friend of mine has titled this "Angels and Flowers"


Oh....here's another reason why I love wax art....scrap wax. I'm from the polymer clay world and you never throw away scrap clay. You can use it as fillers, but that's a waste to me, scarp clay makes the most wonderful patterns itself. I salvage the left over wax from my work surface, tools, scraped sides of the pieces I'm working on and from scraping back an layered encaustic surface to reveal the colors underneath.

This piece, I call the Scrap Yard. The center was created with wax bits fused with the blow torch. The marbled areas were created by layering different colors of wax and scraping them back.

The Scrap Yard

I am very proud of this piece.


But oh-uh I have learned about a new technique involving setting shellac on fire...{gulp}. Better make sure the fire extinguisher works. More to come