This weekend, I’m going to take a workshop on encaustics. It promises to be fun and informative.
When I first heard about encaustics, I had little desire to do them. “Yeah, yeah, that’s nice, dip stuff in wax,” I thought to myself. I mean, sure I’ve liked some of the work that I’ve seen done that way but, I don’t know, it just wasn’t all that exciting to me. It wasn’t pulling me in.
It took me a while to think about it, to really think about how I could work with encaustics, about what I could do with it. Once I started to go over it in my mind, once I started to imagine the possibilities, that’s when I started to get drawn to it. Now, I really want to try it out.
Sometimes things are like that. You get a taste of something, a hint, a gleam, but it’s not enough. You have to process it. Maybe think about things for a little while. Turn it over and over in your head before you can make it click. It can feel frustrating when you’re in that phase of things-like wheels are just turning without any results. But then, somehow, the moment it clicks, that’s when it starts to come to life and you can really see it.
Right now, I’m seeing it in my head but my hands haven’t done it yet. I’m a little anxious about that too. I mean, I’ve not worked with encaustics before, right? Will I take to it? Will I like it? Is it something I want to do? Will I burn my eyebrows off in the process? (It’s hot, right?) Then I think about those wheels, that turning, that inspiration and I think, yes, I owe it to myself to at least give it a try, right? I mean, that’s the adventure in life, trying new things. So, I’m going to give it a go.
I had this great idea to do something Asian inspired for my encaustics. So, I went to the store today and tried to find some Asian inspired stuff. The problem is, they’ve got nothing but Christmas decor. Oh rats! I thought to myself. But then, I continued to shop. I got some ornaments. I was fascinated by snowflakes. I got a purple snowflake and a gemstone one too. And some fake leaves. I love fake leaves, autumn is my favorite time of year actually. It never goes out of style for me, even though those damn stores are already playing holiday music and decking the halls with holly. So, I’m going to try my encaustics with fake snowflakes, fake leaves, little angels, and some other stuff.
Wish me luck.
Until next time…
