Beeswax - Bloom, Just, Peace

After a bit more research on the internet and watching a few videos I have made a few more beeswax collages. In this one, I used design elements I had left over from this project. I started with a coaster which I discovered is very absorbent - it would have been better for me to glue the light blue background to the coaster and then add my elements with beeswax but with enough wax all the elements are now firmly attached to the coaster. I drew the stems on the background paper with a green marker, used layered punchies for the flowers and added some die cut butterflies. The fence die cut was attached with wax and the words were laid over it. I coloured my letters with pencil crayon, outlined them in black Sharpie and cut them out before adding them to my collage. All the elements were dipped in the beeswax using my new tweezers, laid on the collage and burnished with an old gift card (any piece of hard plastic would do) to ensure that the elements are well attached. I started with the fence and words, added the letters and flowers in layers and finally added the butterflies. I did add some wax with a brush over some areas to make sure that all the elements had enough wax to keep them in place and used my heat gun to settle all elements into place. The elements do float when you heat the collage so sometimes it is tricky getting everything to stay in place.

Once I was finished collaging I buffed the wax and added some mica poweder (Pearl Ex - interference blue) to the edges and a bit on the flowers and butterflies.

For this one, I glued the stamped background paper to the coaster before I started and that worked well. I used die cuts, punchies and some laser printed words I had in my basket of scrap goodies to work up this collage.

In the final stage where I was adding wax and making sure all the elements were secure, I added a puddle of wax on the left hand side and pressed one of my embossing folders into it. I left it in place until the wax harden - a trip to the freezer encourages the process. Love the look of it!! Very dimensional! You could press a rubber stamp in the wax as well to get a nice impression.

I added mica powder to the edges of this one as well in a gold interference colour as well as regular gold to highlight the embossed wax area!! Very cool!!

For this collage, I used ripped pieces of book pages and music sheets to create an all over collage look on the coaster by dipping the pieces, laying them down and burnishing with the gift card. The elements I gathered from my collage bucket - newspaper stamped with acrylic paint using an embossing folder, laser printed "Peace on Earth", die cut and punchie hearts, punchie "R" and the other words were cut from stamped newspaper.

It was difficult to get the foil heart to stay embedded in the wax. I expect because it does not absorb wax so maybe it should have been added last with a dab of wax. I used silver mica powder on the edges, in a few places on the collage and to especially highlight the texture on the bottom edge.

I have really enjoyed doing these collages. For anyone trying it for the first time I would recommend starting small - ATC size would be great, prepare all your elements and build from the bottom up. Tweezers are great for dipping the small pieces and keeping "floaters" in place. Don't be in hurry - take your time and add items in one at a time. Use your heat gun carefully and not too close - if you have a one with variable speed and temperature, use a slow speed and medium - low temperature.

I will finish these off with hangers and enter them in the Art Lottery on AFTCM!!

Therese