claudine hellmuth: beeswax collage

I am intrigued by the ancient art of encaustic, but I’m not ready for the steep learning curve required by this medium. When I saw that collage artist Claudine Hellmuth’s latest DVD was about using beeswax with collaged drawings I thought it might be just what I was looking for as a substitute for encaustic. I was right.

Hellmuth, best known for her custom collage portraits, is quick to explain that this technique is not encaustic, rather something that she developed through a great deal of experimentation, trial and error. As I watched the DVD I realized that the wax might be a useful addition to my polymer clay toolbox. I started playing with the technique yesterday and I love it.

Part one of the 90 minute workshop is a primer of techniques. The artist demonstrates how to color the wax, how to use papers as backgrounds, how to make an image transfer on the wax and how to incorporate metal foils and texture tools into a wax collage.

I thought that Hellmuth’s demonstration of how to incorporate line drawings in the collage was the most interesting part of the workshop. She builds layers using the simple drawings, papers and fabrics, illustrating how easy it is to construct the collaged drawings piece by piece. You just have to watch her do it. She instills confidence immediately. I really can’t draw, but after watching her demonstrate the line drawing, I knew I could do this.

In part two, Hellmuth takes us from start to finish with three projects: a stretched canvas collage, a watercolor paper collage card and a metal Poppet folded to sit on a mantle or table top. Polymer clay embellishments could have been used on all of the projects (think cane slices, buttons, flat sheets of clay…) .

Below is a sneak peek. If you haven’t seen Beeswax Collage with Claudine Hellmuth I recommend that you to rent it today. I got mine from SmartFlix – they were helpful and friendly, it came in a clever envelope/return envelope and there wasn’t a scratch or a flaw on the DVD as I viewed the workshop.

Lynn and Jim at Creative Catalyst did a beautiful job shooting the high-quality DVD and the editing is smooth…seamless…it absolutely flows.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDnDAVmpNCc&eurl=http://www.collageartist.com/dvd_inside.htm[/youtube]

When you watch it make sure to watch past the final credits. This delightful artist has included some giggle-worthy outtakes. There are also previews of several workshop videos by other artists.

Beeswax Collage with Claudine Hellmuth is appropriate for the serious artist or those who just want to play! Artists and crafters using a variety of media will find it interesting – the collage project is only the beginning – a point of departure with many possibilities.

Below is a picture of my first experiment – no actual design yet – I just wanted to get the hang of the process (she makes it look so easy…and it kind of is!) and I wanted to see if the polymer elements could actually be encased in the beeswax (they can). I have a few ideas that I will explore more fully in the coming weeks.

Everything you see in the picture above (except the canvas) is polymer clay. Some of the pieces are a continuation of the zentangle texture plate experiment and some are liquid polymer clay experiments. I used bits and scraps in case it didn’t work. My studio is quite the mess with experiments all around me. Anybody want to come over and help me clean it?

P.S. Since people are asking…you can find Beeswax Collage at Smartflix – that’s where I rented my copy!