Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Waxing and rolling

One of the stranger blog post titles I have used, but I was doing two different things but not enough of either of them to warrant their own full post, so here they are together.

Firstly, the waxing.  We recently purchased some really large chunks of bees wax from a friend's garage sale.  The wax was pretty icky (a technical term) and it was a little bit hard to see the beautiful swan underneath the ugly duckling outside, but Barry encouraged me to buy it so that I could use it for encaustic and other lovely wax things.

I'm sorry there are no before shots; nor any action shots of Barry going at it with the machete to cleave off the worst parts and make the chunks small enough for me to manage...

We thought that if I melted it down, then strained it through fly-screen wire, and poured it into waxed paper cups, then it would be in good shape for me to use, and it was!

Here are some of the 'ick' bits I strained off, and some cooled wax - you can see the perfect soft, creamy golden colour of it.


As I was melting, straining and pouring them and letting them cool, I couldn't help thinking I was making lots of coffees for folk. They even look like black coffee, white coffee but then when they harden they don't look like coffee at all...


Here they are finished and stacked in the cupboard under the electric wok for easy access. You can imagine the simply divine smell that came from an a afternoon of melting kilograms of wax.  It was interesting to see quite a few bees buzzing around the studio door.



I have used about 2/3 of my first cup and the wax is simply gorgeous to work with. Sometimes you spend a long time doing background work or preparation work just so that when you need to use something you can - this was one of those tasks, and a good one for the start of the year when I am full of good intentions!

And then to rolling.  On my list for about a year has been to have a play with a 'roller' Barry purchased years ago.  It is for for rolling jewellery metal through but I had some ideas of things we might be able to do with it - just had to find time to play. So we did.


Firstly I wrote out some words and cut them from stiff card.



And then we got going with some aluminium and the roller, and tried to press the words into the aluminium. Impossible to photograph, I'd have to say that nonetheless I was pretty happy with the marks we managed to make.

In case you're wondering, my iPhone has a purples case which gets reflected beautifully...


Lots of food for thought and opportunities to see if we can take this places I think. We have a bit of work to do getting the balance of the rollers right and working out how to not have it pull too much to one side, but oh, the possibilities do excite me!


16 comments:

  1. Hi Fiona, I find the best place for large chunks of beeswax is the freezer, it makes it so much easier to beak down into smaller pieces. I have a collection of silicon muffin tins that I pour my molten wax into, once they have hardened I release them and stack them in a box and then the muffin tins are ready to reuse. Have fun with the wax.

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    1. What excellent tips Trace! I'll keep a look out for silicon muffin tins and also think about freezing some of my 'cups' in case it gets too hot in the shed...thanks!

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  2. Love Trace's tip about freezing the bees wax. All you'd need to do here right now is set them out on the back porch. Brrrrrrr!!!! Computer says it's -9C this morning. Not that bad all in all, but still too cold for me.

    Will you be using the bees wax for encaustic or on paper and cloth? It's beautiful on thin papers - adds a translucent quality once it's ironed back out.

    Happy waxing!

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    1. hmmm -9C is a little bit on the chipper side! I think I'll mostly use it on paper, hadn't really thought about cloth but am now pondering...and had never thought to iron it out! I love that about arty-friends, they always give you new ideas and directions!

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  3. I look forward to seeing where you go with the aluminium experiments. Isn't it great when you find a new and exiting way of using tools and stuff

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    1. It is wonderful thing indeed Jac to be able to explore new ways, new tools, new things...it's also good to have them nearby and somebody who knows how to use them! Happy New Year to you, go well.

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  4. ~something i have always wanted to do...have had the beeswax for a few years just never got around to working with it on paper...made some lip balms though..lol...you have inspired me to revisit the idea of creating some encaustic art...the embossing looks gorgeous...i would say a job or jobs well done...much love light and blessings~

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    1. Thanks so much Brandi, and yes, please do go melt that wax and see what happens when you dip paper in it, or paint it onto paper or...all good experiments. The lip balm is also a fine thing!

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  5. I tried the roller idea at a local art centre open day. It was amazing. We were given a little bit of brass about the size of a dog tag. then layered a skeleton leaf onto it and rollered through. And wow, that fragile leaf was strong enough to leave an impression in the brass! and you could still reuse the leaf as well.
    Sandy in the UK

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    1. How amazing Sandy - that would have been beautiful. It is great to have the chance to try things out and then see how they might apply to your own work; or how you could add it in a little bit. I am still pondering where to next with this...

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  6. I worked with was several years ago and yes, kept it in the freezer too... the beer fridge worked quite well... I used to use a quilting iron to smooth it out.. if I remember correctly..

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    1. I shall definitely look at the freezer differently now Cat - thanks! I think I also need to get ironing now...go well!

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  7. I love those 'what if' situations and think buying the beeswax was a good move. It looks like you've got enough for a lifetime but I doubt it will take you that long to explore its potential. It's a beautiful colour and I can almost smell it from here! I shall, as always, be intrigued to see what happens next.....

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    1. I expect I do have more than enough for quite some time Lesely - but I have already used up one, 26 to go! It smells divine and the colour is so soft and gentle. I am very very happy that my husband is a smart one and convinced me of the value of buying the ugly duckling wax...

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I appreciate your thoughts and comments; thanks for taking the time.