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.)