Category Archives: Encaustic

eBook and Friday Freebie

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TGIF, y’all – some of you hopefully downloaded the free eBook I did on Dimensional Collage for the Gaian Soul Retreat on Whidbey Island  in March. And some of you have asked for more information on my new beeswax collage process, especially since last weekend’s workshop was such a success.

3 So – tah dah! I’ve written a new eBook called Behind the Veil: Beeswax and Collage.  The 34-page PDF eBook describes my new encaustic process, gives suggestions for photo sources, and includes a gallery of examples.

This one isn’t free. I’m embarking on my first step toward a publishing empire – yahaha. Only kidding. But I did want to see how selling eBooks online worked, so I figured out how to set up a PayPal button on my website. And this little gem of a book can be yours for a mere $5.99. That’s less than a Double Meat Whataburger! I started to ask $6 but marketing people say do the 99 cent thingy. Here’s the link to my first-ever “eBooks For Sale” page.

beescoverwebadMy friend Rosemary, who encouraged me to get this thing done and out there, just read it and said, “It’s like being in the room with you!  Everything seems to be here, the pictures make it clear.  It’s really wonderful!” My first review! Yay!

Anyway, Behind the Veil: Beeswax and Collage is available on my website, and I will give away a free download as a Friday Freebie to one lucky subscriber to SHARDS, name to be drawn Sunday night.

If you decide to buy the eBook, and something doesn’t work, for heaven’s sake let me know! But so far, so good. Thanks for reading my blog!! Happy weekend.

veilcvover

Beeswax Collage Workshop – five stars!

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noraIf you’ve kept up with my new work, you know how excited I am about my beeswax collage series using early 20th-centure photographs.

Along the way, I’ve developed some techniques for using beeswax and pigment on paper that have worked well for me, but I hadn’t taught the process until yesterday afternoon at the Studio.

I wasn’t sure if other people would be able to get the same results, but it was fantastic! Everyone was so happy with their finished pieces, and had a million ideas about taking this process to new levels with their own personal photos. Take a look!

 

Easy color-to-sepia photos for beeswax collage using iPiccy

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Sunday’s workshop at the Studio is Beeswax Collage (it’s sold out, yay!), and I’m going to ask the participants to bring a sepia-toned photo to work with. I’m sending them the link to this post to show them how to do a sepia effect with iPiccy, and you can find out, too, by following these instructions!

First, you need to choose a photo that you want to transform to sepia, and remember what file it’s in so you can find it to upload it. Then go to iPiccy and choose Start Editing!

sepia

You’ll see a window that asks you to upload a photo.

sepia0 Browse to the file on your own computer that has the photo you want to change from color to sepia and select it

sepbird    Your photo uploads into the editing window.

sepia 5

Look on the left side and find the bar that says Colors.

sepia5Click on it and scroll down that list until you come to the bar that says Sepia – choose the sepia tone that you like.

sepia3Once you’ve transformed the image to sepia, you can click on the Save icon at the top right and save it back to your computer

sepia7Give it a different name so it doesn’t overwrite our original color photo. Now you are ready to print it out and use it for your beeswax collage – or whatever creative purpose you desire!

Happy weekend, everyone!

A HUGE wake-up call – thanks to my fellow art educators!

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If you read my recent post, you know how excited I am about working with beeswax and digital photos (thanks again, Clare O’Neill). Friday evening I got a wake-up call – literally – validating my artistic intuition. Thanks to two super friends, Gloria Hill and Melissa Wittman, I made a last-minute entry in the Artists Who Teach show at Blue Star which opened Friday. I chose a wax and tissue photocollage titled – guess what – “Wake-Up Call.” And it won Best of Show!! I was stunned and incredibly grateful, both for the astonishing award and the validation of a new direction.

It is an especially meaningful honor because it came from one of the most talented group of friends and peers that I know – art educators. Take time to thank an art teacher today – what gifts they give. And support the San Antonio Art Education Association. They rock!

Special thanks also to juror Jim LaVilla-Havelin, artist and poet and mentor, for the conversation we shared after the awards. He is so wise! I’ll share his piece of wonderful advice with everyone – Jim said, “Never paint for a specific juror – it will backfire. Paint your heart, paint you best without compromise.” . . . . Wow. Life is good.