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Okanagan, BC, Canada
Welcome to my crafting blog. After retirement, my husband and I moved to a beautiful location in the Okanagan area of British Columbia. I love all paper crafts including mixed media, journaling and cards. I also dabble in papermaking, photography, fibre art, and altered books. I am an active member of several card and mixed media groups and on the design team of several challenge blog. I love the world of blogging, it has opened many doors for me. My favourite quote is by Maya Angelou. “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” I hope you join me in my search for my creative side. Thanks for stopping by!

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Thursday, October 1, 2015

Bees Wax Dress with Tea Bag Background




This is my project for this month's Altered Eclectics challenge.  Altered Eclectics is always an anything goes challenge (mix media, recycle, upcycle,  altered art ....... but no cards or ATC.  It is a fun place to try something new. 

I thought this month I would try an encaustic board for my project.  My friend Yvonne gave me a handkerchief  that had a crochet lace trim that was made in to a dress.  I thought I would try incorporate it into my encaustic piece. I made lots of mistakes and took it a part several times. 

The background is sun bleached bees wax, several types tea bags, and Barbara Trombley's Elements, Earth Textures.  I added the tea bags to my board with bees wax and wrapped the sides also in tea bags.  I melted some of the earth textures also into the wax. I tried to tea dye the hankerchief and it came out this pinky colour but I did not like what it looked like with the bees wax. 

This is the dress before I started.


This the tea bag coloured handkerchief.   I thought it looked dirty with the tea bag wash.

Once I had gotten the colour out of the dress  I dipped the dress in bees wax and added the dress to the board.  I used a stylus to add several layers of dark blue wax to colour the bodice of the dress and the dotted trim. 

Before I decided to take my project a part. 


I thought that the dress looked too flat so I heated the dress body up and stuffed the dress with tissue paper dipped in the wax to give it body.   My next step was to added layers of brown and blue wax with a stylus in a striped format until the dress was covered with many layers of wax.  I had to wait several hours between each step so that the wax would set up.  

I dipped some fabric flowers in wax that the added to the lace and dress to tie in the colours I had used.   My final step was with my stylus add a blue trim around the edge of the board and buff the piece once it had some time to cure. 

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my misadventures in bees wax.  Come join us this month at Altered Eclectics. Try some thing new  You never know where it will take you.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Crafting with an Attitude - Anything Goes
Crafty Girls Creations -Always Anything Goes
Crafting By Designs -  October Anything Goes
Through The Craft Room Door - Always Anything Goes
Rhedd's creative Spirit - Anything goes


7 comments:

  1. I have to say and mean it truly - this is stunning and very clever hun xx

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  2. I have to say and mean it truly - this is stunning and very clever hun xx

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  3. Awesome job Judy, very creative idea!

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  4. Your card is gorgeous !
    Thank you for joining us at Crafting with an attitude !
    Good Luck and hope to see you again.

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  5. Wow, this is gorgeous! And so much work went into it! Thank you for entering your project at Rhedd’s Creative Spirit. Sammy-x

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  6. Judy I enjoyed reading your process for problem solving and the lovely result you got to. I read about encaustic, I have the bits to do it but never have! I like your clever idea of dimension! Thanks for joining with Rhedd's Creative Spirit this month.

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  7. Wow Judy - your beeswax dress is absolutely stunning. I have absolutely had no idea what was involved in using beeswax. The details of the dress are striking. I love how you showed your entire work in progress. The final dress and how it started out with the first attempt. Brilliant to use tissue paper to give it such depth and dimension. And of course - fabulous work with the tea bag too. I tried the technique a long long time ago and had forgotten all about it. Absolutely stunning.

    Hugs
    Laine K

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