And We're Puttin It On Wax

I'll just drop these off at the top to get them out of the way:

Legit Hotel Bathroom Art #1:

This is what I figure a quality establishment would have in the washroom. Not that I would know.

True Love:

Fairly substantial piece of my little Bubble's shed skin in the center of this one, DAWWWWWW!!

I Used To:

Sometimes a pretentious title is just the way to go.

Now that that's out of the way, I wanted to share photos of my setup for encaustics. We'll start with the griddle.

I got this one at walmarks for like $17 or something, so cheap that I literally spent five minutes standing in the aisle just trying to decide if I should go ahead and get two of them. Sitting on top of it is a grill surface thermometer which I don't really pay attention to because I have my Super Awesome Ryobi Infrared one. The metal trays I got at goodwill. The one sitting on the griddle has plain R&F medium, the two on the table hold white and black wax. (Incidentally, behind the griddle on the shelf are my 800-year-old Airwalks that are now my "outside only" shoes. They still have stage blood on them from the first GWAR show I ever saw in the early 90s. Those shoes have seen some things, y'all.) Please note that I covered the tops of the worktable in my garage with sheets of cardboard that I stuck down with thumbtacks, because this is super messy work. Especially if I'm doing it.

The muffin tin I got at goodwill, and I used it to mix up small batches of the colored wax discs in the blue container. You take your R&F medium, mix in some pigment stick, then let it cool and pop it out of the tin. (Yeah, pop sounds real easy...actually you have to stick the tin on the griddle for a mo and then pop them out. And at least one has to be pried out because it is afraid to leave the nest.) Then when you want to use the dark red, you just take the red disc and rub it on the griddle to melt some off, and use a brush to paint the color where you want it.

The box in the front right is my pile of expensive pigment sticks. Just suck it up and get the R&F, don't waste your time with the inferior stuff. And the bright green thing at the top is my Super Awesome Ryobi Infrared Laser Thermometer, also expensive, but totally rad.

Here we have an empty bag of R&F wax pellets, heat gun, and a Bernzomatic propane torch which you can just straight up walk into a walmarks and purchase and they will just sell it to you with no question, god bless America. Your only challenge is to fend your way deep into the bowels of the walmarks and somehow find the plumbing section. Pack a lunch and say goodbye to your family.

At the back center of the table stands a brand new 2lb bag of R&F wax pellets, and a whole pile of pigment powders. I cannot remember who makes them so I'll report back later. On the right is a plastic bin with all sorts of natural bristle brushes, clay carving tools, various types of metal leaf, popsicle sticks, scrapers, a spoon, anything else I seem to need. Except booze, that's usually found on the left side near the griddle.

Hey, here's a fun tip: See the blue light coming in at the top of the photo, above the new bag of pellets? That's my garage door, which is open a couple of feet for ventilation purposes. The day I forgot to do that? I was nauseated for hours. HOURS. I probahbly hav brane damage.

So that's where I'm slinging wax. The encaustic products are not cheap, but pretty much everything else is. AND YOU GET TO USE A TORCH. AND A LASER. So I'm having a blast.

FYI, no one is paying me to shill this stuff, this is just what I use. And while you're piling tools and wax in your Amazon cart, go ahead and get this great book. I've got mine marked up with all sorts of post-its and flags because I plan to try every single technique.

Is this post long enough? I think I'm done for now.