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