Alice Fox final day

On the last day of the course Alice left us to develop our own ideas from the techniques we had learned. I loved this because it gave us the chance to make the work our own and each person came up with such interesting ideas.

I loved the waxing of papers and fabrics. I'd wanted time to play with encaustic techniques for ages but could never find the time to cover a surface and find an iron to use with wax and to just play with a new technique so this was such a great chance to do just that.

I'd loved the way that the beeswax made the papers translucent and that we could make the layers bind together as one. This technique also enhances the textures and colours of the papers and fabrics and makes them glow!

I used some of my favourite papers and fabrics from the past few days to make a tiny book 3" tall. I love this range of fantastic marks that have been made on these surfaces. 

I waxed the pieces by laying them onto parchment paper on the ironing board, sprinkling them with beeswax pellets, placing another piece of parchment paper over the top and smoothing over the layers with the hot iron. 

Easy! Why didn't I try this before? Definitely doing it again!

In the photo above, the top piece is eco dyed cartridge paper on the left and rusted embroidered fabric on the right.

In the photo below you can see printed tissue paper which has been bonded with wax to some rust dyed habotai silk.

I used buttonhole hole stitch to edge some of the pages. 

You can see some of the reverse sides and other pages in the photo above. Look at the print that was made by a rusty old nail! and the rusty lace.

I added vintage bone and MOP buttons and a bone fish counter with needle woven details. I also stitched across some of the pages. The stitch really complimented the waxed pages and matched the binding stitches which bind the little book together. I'm going to make more of these little books!

Thank you Alice for such a fab course! I loved every minute.