Beeswax

Over on the DoCrafts ATC forum Sheila C is hosting a 'Beeswax Swap', the idea being to create some ATCs which have beeswax on them in one form or another.

As beeswax is my favourite medium at the moment I really enjoyed making these ATCs. The top two ATCs are collages. The first uses an old dressmaking pattern for the background and the image of the model is cut from the front of the pattern packet. All the papers were adhered to the card with melted beeswax. The second one again has part of a dressmaking pattern for the background, and the main image is of a ballerina which I cut out from a newspaper - I had to coat both sides of the image with gel medium otherwise the print from the back of the image would have shown through, as when the wax is applied, the image becomes transparent. Some of the print from the back does in fact show through, but I quite like the effect. I've also scribbed some oil pastel around the image too.

The other three ATCs all have heads on them, made from melted beeswax in moulds. The 'Playing Mind Games' one has some extra heavy gel medium on mainly to cover up part of the background which didn't quite look right.

Although I do have a Melting Pot, I didn't use it at all for these ATCs, Instead I melted some beeswax directly onto the ATCs with a small quilter's iron and smoothed it over the surface. I love this technique and it's a lot quicker and easier than getting the Melting Pot out. I got these ideas from books and a DVD from Claudine Hellmuth whose work I really admire.