AisA Academy

My encaustic set-up August 14, 2009

Here’s a few photos to show the simple set up I have—just in case you want to “try this at home.”  I also can’t recommend enough Lisa’s series on encaustic techniques over at Open Studio. She taught me the basics to get me started.

I bought the claybords from Blick Art Materials.

The wax and paint I bought from R&F Paints.

For the summer, my son is borrowing the palette, heat gun and some brushes from his school’s art teacher. I am taking advantage of that since a palette can cost close to $300 if you include the thermometer. another alternative is to use a $30 griddle from some place like Target or amazon.com, but the surface is black and makes the colors harder to see.

My son did the initial set up so he could watch TV while he worked.  I would have set it up to look out our window at the ocean, but otherwise I like his set up.

Note the heat resistant table top and lots of paper towels.

Heat gun, my paint box and a close up of the palette and brushes.

The small bread pan holds paraffin for cleaning the brushes between colors, and the larger pan holds clear bees wax or medium. (Medium is a mix of bees wax and damar –a tree resin which serves to harden and stabilize the wax.) The thermometer is to help you keep the palette at around 220 degrees–hot enough to keep the wax melted without scorching or burning.

I buy my brushes at our local hardware store which is the place in our small town that sells art supplies. Once you dip them in the wax though, don’t expect to use them for anything else!! Another tip is not to use plain aluminum or iron pans as they will discolor the wax over time.  Galvanized steel is ok.

I think that’s is for now. Off to more painting!