Third Iteration - Melting Enkaustikos Hot Sticks

This time it was my objective to make an abstract painting using professional grade encaustic paint -Enkasutikos hot sticks, which are made out of denmar resin, beeswax and pigment.

These are nothing like crayons.

The paint was thick and difficult to manage with a paint brush, I also can't help but think that the hotplate just wasn't hot enough? It just dried solidified too fast. I had no time to blend the wax on the surface. I would not be able to create a  more technical painting, only an abstract.I also really missed the watery quality of the crayons.

I also tried to make a pattern by pressing a doily onto the wax, and half of the wax ended up coming off when I pealed the doily back.

Wax Medium

The only tool that actually helped me was the modified hair straightener (that was still working!)  I melted the wax that was already on the surface and dripped the rest onto the abstract. I also used a semi bleached wax medium that just gave the abstract a yellow tone. The paint and the medium were both rather expensive too.

I've come to a conclusion that the beeswax is a lot more difficult to melt and requires higher temperatures in other words - using special paints requires special equipment - such as a craft iron, or a hotplate with temperature control, or wax melting pots, or a stylus...

The only positive thing I see about the Enkaustikos Hot Sticks is that the beeswax is that it adheres to the surface really well, and makes a smooth strudy finish - which is  not something that can be done with crayons.

I would consider this a failure in terms of material handling, but it does make a nice abstract.

Final Product -"Bubble and Simmer"

Second Iteration - Melting Candles

This time I made a small sculpture out of candle wax.

It mostly went according to plan, except for a little technical error with the legs (they should have been placed diagonally not parallel to each other.) I had to work section by section, and wait a few minutes for the wax to completely solidify before starting on the next section.

The material itself was easy enough to use, the challenge was mainly with the tools. I used : a lighter, a tin can, wax paper and a modified hair straightener.

At first I started by dripping the wax into the shape of the feet, it was slow both because it needed time to solidify and because it took time for the wax to drip. I eventually got to the knees and had to find a way to sculpt the leg into a forward motion - so i used wax paper as a mold. I also used the left over wax for the mold by heating it up in a tin can with a candle - which was a much faster process.

Souce: moma.org

It was still too slow so eventually I began to cut up chunks of the candle and fusing those together. It was time to try out the hair straightener. I plugged it in. Turned it on. Melted the wax. It worked well enough, until I turned it off and it cooled down. As it turns out,  the wax managed to get inside and when I turned off the appliance the wax solidified ; rendering the my tinkering useless. It did work again, but only after I took it apart and cleaned out the wax. The trick is to keep it hot at all times, (Ah the electricity bill.)


I did have an inspiration this time, maybe even an attempt at emulation - a sculpture by Umberto Boccioni "Unique Forms of Continuity in Space."


I would consider this a successful iteration since nothing caught on fire.

Final Product

First Iteration - Melting Crayons

For my first iteration I used Marvel Crayons, by melting them into paint.

I found crayons to be a suitable wax medium - it produced a bright painting because of the rich primary pigments in the crayons.

The hotplate was definitely useful. The crayons melted easily, but the paint dried fast and application of glazes was possible but only with thick globs of paint. I had to apply the paint with fast bold strokes otherwise it would solidify. The melted crayons where also very watery, so the paint needed to be applied in layers to the illustration board. I was even able to build up on some areas and create a bit of a 3D look, like the nose, the chicks and the chin.


I did need to keep the room well ventilated because crayons are usually contain paraffin which releases toxins when its heated to high temperatures, (there is debate on how safe paraffin is.) It was easy to mix the colors on the hotplate, but blending was impossible to do on the illustration board.

I also had to take cleaning up as a consideration, since wax is not as easy to clean as acrylics( my preferred medium of choice) I needed to get something to clean the brushes and the hot plate - I bought soy wax since it was the safest and an environmentally friendly solution. It turned out rather well.

Before starting I did wonder if I should use a wax medium to dilute the colors, but I decided against it since the primary colors just brighten my day. I would totally use this for other mixed media projects.

I think for my next iteration I would like to explore the ability of  "building up" that the medium has.I will make a sculpture. I will be using candle wax next time though, since the crayon wax crumbles easily.

Final Product

History and Materials

My medium of choice was not a usual one, it was first used by the Ancient Greeks; however, its use died out in the renaissance. So all the examples I had of paintings made in wax were centuries old.

Even Leonardo Da Vinci abandoned the medium -  The Battle of Anghiari.

There were two reasons why this medium was rarely used:

1. It was less convenient than fresco, oil, or acrylic.

2. It was costly besides all the equipment and  the paint itself cost twice that of acrylic.

     

Amazon /eBay $70 hotplate

I didn't mind the inconvenience nearly as much as the costs.

Electric Skillet from Target 

My most costly piece of equipment was a hot plate, based on eBay and Amazon prices the cheapest would have cost $70. I needed an alternative.

Haley Nagy suggested to purchase an electric skillet from Target, which would have only cost $25.

I decided to do some thrifting and after hitting up a Value Village I emerged victorious. I got myself an old hot plate for $ 7.99 in perfectly good working condition, with a great ability to melt wax!

The best hotplate in the world

I also needed to acquire a hand held heating instrument for my second iteration, to shape the wax - something like a craft iron or a heat gun. Those two would cost in the ball park of $30 each and why would I cash out on those if I can find a suitable alternative? It was time to do some more thrifting.

Revelon mini hair straightener

 I didn't find a heat gun, or a good replacement for a heat gun, (although I herd an hair dryer can do the work,) I did find a replacement for a crafting iron - a mini hair straightener for $3.99. The idea was the same: it was electric, it had  plates that would heat up, it was a hand held device and was small enough to work on the details of my second iteration. It just needed a bit of tinkering.

So I took it apart. Cut some wires.Removed the top plate. Put it back together. Plugged it in. Turned it on. The light blinked red. The plate heated up and nothing bad happened in those 7 minutes. So I consider that a success. <3

Ready for work

Spare Parts

As for my materials I will be using crayons fro my first iteration, candles for my second iteration and enkaustikos hot sticks ( made speificaly for wax painting.)