House No. 121: Spring Cottage
encaustic and ink on cotton rag paper with flower petals
6 in. x 4 in.
121/365; 05/01/11
As
Thomas Morley wrote, and I dare say put it best,
Now is the Month of Maying. In honor of
May Day, I created today's house out of a piece of handmade flowered paper that had been an invitation lining that I had been holding onto for some time.
The oils from the wax caused the ink to spread, and I really like the soft lines that it created. Also, the absorbent paper changed the feel and look of the encaustic. It made it possible to layer the wax more and caused it to spread less.
The wax was less creamy and malleable on this paper, but it gave me the opportunity to build up on the paper and treat the wax more like paint.
The petals were in danger of charring a bit, and I had to work fast and continuously pull the paper off the heat. The ink seemed to react to the heat, and the paper smoked just on the spots where the ink was, creating smoky, brownish-grey areas.
