It is amazing how just a bit of wax...

can totally change a piece.  While I do really like the work that I did on that poor little juvie bird that failed his first flying lesson - there was something just a bit too brash about all the colours.  I don't really love the plastic nature of acrylics, and they did not lend any of the softness to the bird that they needed to.

So, as all good cakes are better with icing, I slathered some encaustic medium over top of the whole shebang.  It is a nice cold wax formula called Dorland's Wax Medium that I picked up at Mona Lisa.  I love encaustic work, but I am not set up to work in a space with lots of solvents and other such things.  So I decided to try encaustic in a more mixed media capacity.  Using cold wax as opposed to hot, means that I am not heating the damar crystals to make it extra toxic stinky.  As it stands, the cold wax formula just smells a little bit like when you walk by the swimming pool.  I am impressed, and I will use it again.  It went on mega smooth and after two coats, I am really happy with the way this piece looks.

Not sure if the photos will really show how the work has changed, but here they are anyways!!

 Back to the silkscreens I go!

xoxo

Jen