Beginning Hot Wax Technique

Class taught by Karlene-Frances S. on 1/16/09

See the gallery and upload your own images:
http://orientalstampart.com/osagallery/main.php/v/TechniqueGallery/hotwax/

Hot Wax Class Instructions

I tried my best not to leave anything out, but if I did, please ask questions.
Before I explain anything else, I’d like to say that almost everything I know about hot wax I learned from a dear woman, Suze Weinberg. Encaustic wax art has been around a long time, but Suze brought it to the general population. I learned some from Wendy Aikin, too. At the end of these instructions are some links to Suze’s and Wendy’s sites, and Suze’s videos, where you can learn a lot more.

PLEASE read through all these instructions before class so you know what you need and how to use to the tools that apply to the surface YOU are using.

SAFETY: Wax ignites at a low temperature. For this reason, you MUST NOT put wax or a container of wax directly on a heat source. Do NOT melt the wax in the Melt Pot without a project pan in the pot. There is an air space between the project pan and the melt pot. This prevents the wax from getting hot enough to ignite. Do not melt wax in an electric skillet, etc.. You must use a Melt Pot with a Project Pan in it, a mini crockpot or a double boiler. Be careful not to touch the Melt Pot except for the lid and handles, which do not get hot. The stylus gets hot enough to burn you, so be careful with it. Do not leave the stylus unattended; turn it off when you leave your work table.

Do not use a wood-burning tool! Even though it looks like a hot Wax Stylus, it’s not. It gets way too hot to use with wax. It will ignite the wax!

When I say “wax”, that always means 100% beeswax.

You might want to put a small piece of plywood or thick cardboard (a little larger than your craft mat) under your craft mat to prevent the heat from the iron or stylus damaging your table.

If you’re going to wax an unfinished picture frame, remove the glass or acetate/plastic “glass” before waxing.

Hot Wax Newbies, don’t be afraid. This is really easy. The instructions are really long because I have to keep cautioning you, and because not all of you are using the same tools or surfaces. I have to explain each one of them, so don’t be intimidated by the length of these instructions. Our project is quick and easy. The project is like decoupage with wax instead of glue.

Brush: You actually can get the wax out of your brush (see notes at end of instructions), but unless you’re painting with wax, re-using your cheap chip brush is fine. When finished, let the wax cool in the brush. Wrap to keep dust out and store with your other hot wax supplies.

6:00 PM EST Mini Crockpot users:

Put your wax in the pot, put the lid on and turn it on. Because the heat is low and the ceramic is thick, it takes a long time to melt the wax in a mini crockpot. If the wax melts quickly, turn the pot off and re-melt the wax closer to class time. KEEP AN EYE ON IT. Don’t use the mini crockpot for food once you’ve used it for wax.

The rest of you can put your Chili Con Queso dip in the mini crockpot.

TIP: If you’re making card fronts, it’s better to use thin embellishments like die cuts from card stock or torn papers. I think they would survive the postal system better than cards with thick embellishments. For wall art or altered objects, you can embellish with thicker items.

7:00 PM Eat your snack and/or have your tea.

7:15 PM Go pottie

7:20 PM Melting Pot Users

1. Put a project pan into your Melt Pot, plug it in and turn up to 300 degrees F. Add about ¼ to 1/3 (or whatever amount it states on the jar of pellets) cup natural beeswax pellets and put the lid on. It will take about 30-40 minutes to melt because you have to melt it on low heat. The melted wax should fill the pan up to “Max.” line on side of pot, no more. You don’t want to run out of hot wax in the middle of class, so add more wax as you use the melted wax. Turn the temperature down to about 150 degrees once the wax is completely melted. Each pot is a little different, so your heat settings may be different. Put the lid on during breaks..

a. DO NOT LEAVE THE POT UNATTENDED!!! Wax ignites at a very low temperature.

2. If you’re going to use a mini iron to apply wax to your surface, have your wax cubes/logs/chunks nearby.

3. Prepare your work table: Cover with a craft mat or clean paper. If using your dining room table, you might want to lay a piece of plywood or wooden cutting board under your mat to prevent heat from harming the finish on your table.

4. Put your chip brush, scraper and tweezers on the table.

5. Lay 4 or 5 pieces of white card stock (4.25” x 5.5”, or 5” x 7”), chipboard or practice chipboard on the craft mat. “Surface” is the card stock, chipboard or wood that you want to wax, not your table top.

6. Separate napkin (serviette) layers. Some napkins have two layers, many have three. Make sure you’re using only the thin top layer; save the other layers to use as clean-up rags for other projects. Tear or cut your top layers to fit your surfaces. Keep within reach, but not close to the melt pot.

7. Have your rubber stamp, pigment ink and embellishments nearby.

8. Have perfect Pearls or PearlEx on the table, and a piece of old panty hose or soft, lint-free cloth

9. Glitter glue (dimensional or brush-on, or both)

10. Old scissors (wax will stick to them and you’ll have to clean it off)

7:50 PM

1. If using a Hot Wax Stylus, attach the trowel foot (large one, if you have it). Plug in, turn on and set on your craft mat. NEVER TOUCH the trowel or any tip on the Hot Wax Stylus after it has heated. It will burn you!. To change tips, unplug the stylus and allow it to cool. If using a mini iron, turn it on to about 150 degrees F. You may need to adjust this temperature.

2. Sign into Yahoo and go to OSAClasses@yahoogroups

CAUTION: Do not touch any part of the Melt Pot except the handles and the lid. The rest of the pot is extremely hot.

Please: Use common sense and be careful. And HAVE FUN!!

Step 1

We’re only going to use the top layer of each napkin because it requires less wax and it’s easier to melt the wax up through the single layer.

Dip your chip brush into the melted natural/clear beeswax and “paint” the wax onto your surface. Work quickly and don’t try to get the wax on perfectly or smoothly. The wax starts to cool the instant the brush is removed from the pot, so most of the wax will clump in your brush and not much will get on your surface. That’s normal. Just keep dipping and “painting”. The wax on your surface will be uneven and have ridges. Wax will fill and clump on the brush, too. That’s normal. Stick the brush in the pot and hold it there until the wax on the brush re-melts.

If your surface is a box, wooden block or picture frame, wax the sides/edges, too.

If you don’t have a Melt Pot or mini crockpot, you’ll have to hold your mini iron over your surface and melt your wax by touching the cube/log/chunk of wax to your iron or stylus and letting the wax drip onto your surface.. You’ll have wax in one spot and none in others. Melt it and smear it around with the iron, but don’t over work it. You can always add more wax to bare spots.CAUTION: Do not touch your hand to the iron. (I’m not going to say this anymore. You are adults and you already know better. J)

I do not recommend this method, but you could use a clothes iron (that has no steam holes or Teflon). Many people have done it this way without burning themselves. I only mentioned it because some people do not own a Melt Pot, mini craft iron or mini crockpot and can’t afford to buy any. But they want to work with hot wax. Because you’re an adult, you should be able to do it without hurting yourself. Just BE CAREFUL.

Whatever method you choose to get melted wax onto your surface, don’t try to get a sheer coat. You need enough wax so it will melt up through your napkin. Apply 3-4 coats of wax to your surface. You want to see and feel the wax on your surface, but you don’t want it to be ½” thick.

Step 2

When your surface is covered with wax, lay your napkin layer on your surface. Or, tear your napkin into pieces and overlap them on your surface.

Let the napkin go off the edge of your card. If you’re covering a box or frame, leave enough napkin to wrap around the sides/edges. If one napkin won’t fit, use as many as you need.

Step 3

Stylus Tool/Iron: When your surface is covered with the napkin, apply heat to the top with the stylus or iron. Do not press and rub the stylus or iron as if you were “ironing” clothes, as this might tear your napkin. Touch the stylus or iron to the napkin (no pressure—just the weight of the stylus or iron) and leave in place just until the wax melts UP thru the napkin. The instant the wax has melted in that spot, gently slide the stylus/iron over a little. If you hold the stylus/iron in the same place too long, the heat will also force the wax through to the back of your card stock. (See my example.) You don’t want that to happen (it’s okay if that happens on this practice piece).

If you’re using an embossing heat tool (instead of the stylus or iron) to melt the wax top of the napkin, lay either one piece of napkin on the surface, or the whole napkin, hold down with the tweezers or a skewer and heat until the wax melts UP thru the napkin. Don’t get the heat tool too close, and don’t hold it in one spot; move it around. The napkin and wax could ignite if you hold the heat tool too close or in one place too long. Try holding the tip of the heat tool about 1 ½ - 2 inches away. Each tool is different.

Make sure the napkin is securely sealed to your surface with the wax. Check the edges.

Optional: If at any time you don’t like the texture or there’s too much wax (cloudy puddles) on top of your napkin, use an old credit card or scraper to gently scrape off the excess wax and smooth the surface. Scrape while the wax is warm. (Re-heat if necessary.) You can also remove excess wax by lightly touching the melted wax with a folded paper towel. Don’t remove too much! You want to see a wax coating, not the bare napkin. You’re supposed to see the wax. Your project is not supposed to be smooth as if it were spray painted. It’s about texture. (Your surface will never be perfectly smooth, and you wouldn’t want that; wrinkles and wax add to the character of the art.)

IF your napkin should tear, don’t worry. You can patch it by applying more wax and a piece of napkin, or by covering up that spot with an embellishment.

Step 4

Scrape the excess wax off the scraper, if you used it, and put it back into the pot. Make sure no paper gets into the pot.

Step 5

When your surface is completely covered with the napkin, trim around the edges of your surface to remove the excess napkin.

If you like this look, you can stop right here. Simply tie fibers or a ribbon around the waxed piece and adhere it to the front of a card.

ENHANCE YOUR SURFACE!

Step 6

Perfect Pearls/PearlEx time! With a soft, clean craft brush, apply the mica powder around the edges of your surface—just a narrow strip. It should be irregular; don’t try to make a straight line. With a piece of old pantyhose or a soft, lint-free cloth, buff the mica powder to a shine.

If you like this look, you can stop right here. Simply tie fibers or a ribbon around the waxed piece and adhere it to the front of a card.

Step 7

Rub-on Metallic Foil: If your surface does not have any lumps or bumps or streaks of wax, dribble a little wax here and there to make some raised areas. When cool, lay the foil, shiny, colored side up, over the bumps and rub it on. A bone folder, popsicle stick or the back of a spoon is helpful for this. Peel off and apply in another area. Not much of the foil will stick, and that’s perfect.

Rub n Buff also works on wax! Apply with your finger.

If you like this look, you can stop right here. Simply tie fibers or a ribbon around the waxed piece and adhere it to the front of a card.

Step 8

EMBELLISH!

Apply decorative paper (printed scrapbook paper, photocopy of a photograph, piece of post card, theatre ticket, etc.) by dropping the paper into the melt pot. Pull out with tweezers and quickly lay on your surface. Gently scrape to embed it in the wax underneath. Very lightly heat with the Hot Wax Stylus tool or an embossing heat tool to smooth and shine the surface.

You can apply chipboard shapes, die cuts, Grungeboard, twigs, and any non-plastic item in the same way.

If you don’t want wax on top of the chipboard or Grungeboard pieces, don’t dip them in the pot. Instead, pour some wax on your surface and press the embellishment into the warm wax. Or, if there’s an abundance of wax on your surface, warm it with your heat tool and press the embellishment into it.

To apply buttons or charms, do not dip them into the pot. Pour a drop of hot wax onto your surface and quickly press the button or charm into the warm wax. You might want to use a skewer or the back of a spoon to press. Or,when the surface is cool, attach buttons and/or charms with a thick white glue (that dries clear).

Apply rub-ons as you would to any surface.

To apply crystals, use a thick white glue, or use sticky-back crystals.

Rubber Stamps: Use a deeply etched rubber stamp (not acrylic!) without a lot of detail. To make an impression of a stamp in the wax on your surface, the wax must be thicker in that spot. BRUSH or pour a puddle of wax onto your surface where you want the image. Lay (don’t press very hard) your rubber stamp into the warm wax. Let it set until cool (a few minutes) and remove. I like to ink my stamp with pigment ink before laying on the wax. If you want to do this, ink your stamp then pour the puddle.

To make a separate wax embellishment with a rubber stamp, pour a puddle of wax onto your craft mat. Let it cool a few seconds and lay your stamp into the warm wax. Don’t press hard; Hot wax could splatter. Let cool at least 20 minutes. When completely cool, remove the stamp. When this piece has completely cooled, peel it off the craft mat. Leave as is or trim, and adhere to your surface with a little bit of melted wax. Brush on Perfect Pearls or apply Rub n Buff if you like.

You can also pour the hot wax into molds and remove when cool and attach. You’ll need silicone molds (silicone ice cube trays are great) because the hot wax won’t melt silicone. Or you can make your own molds with Mold ‘n Pour (found wherever UTEE products are sold). Always let the wax cool completely before removing from molds.

Coloring Hot Wax: You can color hot, melted wax with To Dye For colorants before stamping or molding. Just add a drop or to to the wax in the melting pot. Alcohol inks won’t work if you put them into the melted wax. You can also add mica powders to the hot wax before molding. To Dye For colorants are sold where UTEE products are found. They are heat resistant dyes for both UTEE and beeswax.

You can color your waxed surface and molded items with alcohol inks after the wax is cooled. You probably won’t need to do this if you’re using napkins, but you might.

Unplug your Melt Pot, crockpot, stylus, etc. Turn the heat off the double boiler.

To apply glitter glue, squirt a drop on your surface and spread with your finger. Or squeeze line of glitter to outline shapes or make flourishes.

Dimensional paints or pearls can also be used, but the take a long time to dry.

Now, tie fibers or ribbons around the surface and adhere to your card.

Everything you just did on a piece of card stock or chipboard can be done to boxes, paper maché shapes, picture frames, wooden clipboards and so forth.

See More Photos & Links at End of These Instructions

SCRAPBOOKS:

I do not recommend hot wax for scrapbook covers because the books are handled so much and the wax could stick to tables or other books, or anything that might touch it. I don’t recommend wax inside scrapbooks because the pages will stick together and the wax could discolor any page it touches. Colorant could leach thru to the back of the page and onto the next, if you have two pages in a sleeve. I have used wax on altered books, boxes, picture frames or altered journal covers because they are objects d’art and are not handled that much. Wax is fine for anything that hangs on a wall.

Do not leave your project in your car in the summer or severe winter climate. Do not display in direct sunlight; it probably wouldn’t melt, but it would fade and degrade, and embellishments will fall off.

Dust your piece once in a while with a soft brush. It should last for years.

Keep waxing!

Annette, our generous list mom, has asked that you please send her an SASE when you have loaded your finished projects so she can send you a thank you gift your participation.

Here are more samples of hot wax projects I’m working on:

NOTES

Sources for more info on hot wax techniques:

Join Suze’s group: AskSuze@yahoogroups.com

Visit Suze’s blog: http://suzeweinberg.typepad.com/

Suze Weinberg’s Blog: http://suzeweinberg.typepad.com/

Wendy Aikin is a well-known wax artist, who owns a wax studio in Santa Cruz, California. Wendy teaches classes in wax art. Suze learned from Wendy.

http://waxworkswest.blogspot.com/

Suze also recommends “…a very good DVD from a well known (in that field) encaustic (wax) artist named Daniella Woolf” http://encausticwithatextilesensibilit.blogspot.com/

Go to www.youtube.com/ and search for “Suze Weinberg hot wax”. You will get several great videos.

CLEANING BRUSHES: A Note From Wendy Aiken: I’m just going to tag on to what Karlene said. You actually can clean your brushes with a product called Soy Solv II. It will take your hardened wax brush back to its original soft beginnings. Warm your brush and work as much wax out of it as you can with a shim (we like to use old credit cards). Then dip your brush into the Soy Solv II and work the rest of the wax out of it. When the wax is gone, wash your brush in soapy water and it is as good as new.

www.rangerink.com carries melting pots, tools, and natural and white beeswax. You can also buy To Dye For colorants there.

www.blockheadstamps.com also carries these supplies.

For more sources for hot wax information or supplies, just google “hot wax instructions”, “encaustic wax instructions,” or “hot wax supplies”, “encaustic wax supplies.”