Beeswax collage with Claudine Hellmuth

Two weeks ago the Art League of Bonita Springs sponsored Claudine Hellmuth in a three day intensive on Beeswax Collage. The Art League has a beautiful facility. It was a terrific class and Claudine is a fantastic teacher. Even with a very large class, 24 students, she was able to spend time with each student each day, working on design issues and whatever. She is a bundle of energy and creative ideas. Many of the students were repeats and she is slated to return again next year.

I had a lot of problems to begin with. Doing collage with beeswax is very different than gluing. It took a couple of days to figure out that you really have to have different expectations as well as using different types of paper. Some papers will be too thick. Anything cardstock weight is too thick. What happens is that you get this build up of wax around the edge. So anything that has any height to it, compared to the prior layer, is going to have this filling in around the edges. Also, some pictures from magazines won't stand up to the heat. This can be used to effect, but you have to be expecting it...

Tissue papers work really nicely. And here's something way cool, use your Pitt pens to draw on white tissue. The white tissue disappears, and the drawing looks like it is on the previous layer. See the cat tails and leaves on the first Heron Collage here.

Lately I've been drawing herons. I want to do a mosaic medallion for the entry of our new home. I'll be using ceramic tile, indirect method. Wish me luck!

So these are several layers of tissue paper on canvas with beeswax. I drew on white tissue with Pitt pens. The herons are on computer paper. I drew the originals on watercolor paper, scanned them into photoshop and resized them. Then printed the pencil drawing. Colored with Pitt pens on the computer paper and cut out with Xacto.

You can polish the wax with a paper towel.