How to Choose Encaustic Wax Supplies for Jewelry Making – Yes, Jewelry

How do I love encaustic art? Let me count the ways:

wearable encaustic shrine by linda lenart mcnulty
Wearable Encaustic Shrine by Linda Lenart McNulty.

1. I love it on wood.

2. I love it on paper.

3. I love it with fabric.

And now I’ve found yet another way: with metal bezels in jewelry. Yes, you can wear encaustic art!

Linda Lenart McNulty has used metal bezels with encaustic wax, offering all of the creative play of encaustic painting, but in smaller bites, to make Wearable Encaustic Shrines.

The secret to creating wearable encaustic art is in using the right mix of wax and tree sap or resin. Linda explains the difference in these encaustic supplies this way:

Encaustic medium is a mixture of beeswax and tree sap, and is used as the luminous carrier for encaustic paint.

Encaustic paint is an extremely dense concentration of pigments that add color to encaustic medium.

The more beeswax the encaustic medium contains, the softer and milkier the encaustic wax will be; the more tree sap, the more petrified and transparent the encaustic wax will be.

Luminous Encaustics Wax Blox is a jeweler’s grade encaustic wax that has a ratio of tree sap and beeswax specifically designed for encaustic jewelry. It has more tree sap in it than an encaustic painter would use, and it has a more petrified quality, creating stronger jewelry.

Linda used a Luminous Encaustics Wearable Encaustic Shrine II Kit to create the shrine shown here. But, she writes in an upcoming article in Cloth Paper Scissors, this technique incorporates everyday studio supplies (with the exception of the encaustic wax), so you can just rummage through your studio for supplies and get started right away.

You can learn the steps to making these Wearable Encaustic Shrines, plus Alexandra Reid’s technique for encaustic mosaic, in the September/October 2013 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors. Subscribers will have it delivered right to their door or in-box. If you don’t subscribe, you can make sure your don’t miss an issue by signing up now.

P.S. If you were to make this wearable shrine, would you prefer to use a kit or supplies you cull yourself? Tell me in the space below.

Categories

Art to Wear, Blog, Encaustic, Mixed-Media Jewelry, Mixed-Media Supplies, Mixed-Media Techniques

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