Fused: Encaustics in the Middle School Art Studio
Debora Supplitt M.Ed./M.A. Art Ed.
November 2, 2012
The Encaustic Art Studio Set up
5 stations for 25 students
Items at each station:
Electric strip and heavy duty extension cord per station.
Encaustic heat trays
30 natural hair paint brushes include one(1) 2” Hake brush for clear medium
Heat Tool (paint stripper)
1-Medium loaf pan for encaustic medium (Wooden Clothes pins one per pan)
3-Small loaf pans for yellow, red and blue encaustic medium
1 pound of pre mixed encaustic R & F medium with damar resin.
1 each yellow, red and blue small encaustic cake
1-Roll of paper towels at each station
Wrap your tables or put down splatter paper
Place wood or silicone hot pads
under heating element
The set-up
Getting Started YouTube:
• This video uses Encaustikos products 9:04
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHt-x0yIVXg&feature=related
• There is also R & F products 2:30
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UFAgD-oqlc
Pancake griddle used as a heat tray.
Keep tray temperature below 200 degrees
Clean up after yourself!!!
Roll the brushes on the warm tray and
wipe off excess medium with a paper towels.
Clear the medium loaf pans off the
heat tray add a few drops of clear medium
to thin out the mess.
Wipe down heat tray with of paper towels.
½ the class is set up for heated medium and
encaustic fusing,
½ the class is for adding oil pastel and colorHEAT SIDE
COLOR SIDE
90 - 8x10 cut and sanded birch wooden
panels for 75 students/3 classes
CAUTION: WOOD BURRS MAY NEED TO BE SANDED OUT
Place name on the back with a Sharpie marker
Step one:Warm the board up
After heating place one coat of clear
medium on the substrate and fuse.
Ventilation station fans pointing out the
opened doors. Take the sticky out of the hot
board by cooling the board and medium
down in front of the fans ventilation fans.
School Smart or Pentel oil pastels melt the
best and hold their pigment when fused.
Create a unique background
Add clear medium to first color layer and fuse
Add background color with oil pastels
Fuse the oil pastel into the board
Note if you don’t fuse the oil pastels into the board the next layer of clear medium will pick up the background color.
You then have to stop, fuse the oil pastel layer again and clean the clear medium brush with the picked up color.
Never put the dirty colored brush back into the clear medium.
Transfer toner image site
• http://lexireidstudio.com/
• http://encausticartist.com/techniques/image-transfers/
• YouTube Encaustic Transfer: 5:18
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKcbAq7JJBM
Place transfer image face down rub the
back of image with a spoonCut out transfer image
Burnish with spoon
Place on warm medium
Rub paper off with warm water
Add color with oil pastels and gently fuse
Color Copies of Fayum Mummy Portraits
used for a reference.
Black can be a bully and take over the picture.
Start with your lightest color first
flesh, white colors or yellows.
Use a potters needles or an
Exacto knife to scrape out errors,
runs or smears.
Creative 7th Grade Encaustic Designs
Creative 8th grade Fayum Mummy Portraits
Embedded images
School mascot,
The Timberwolf
image embedded in encaustic medium.
Completed Fayum Mummy
Portraits
7th & 8th Grade
More 7th & 8th Grade Creations
A Egyptian Greco-RomanFayum Mummy Portrait
multi-cultural display