Another prep day in Studio Grande, making encaustic wax medium. Which is basically beeswax and damar resin crystals magically melted together with much hocus pocus and chanting of spells. Bats flying around the room and everything.

Oh, sorry…Halloween. That time of year, you know, and I’ve been pretesting the candy. Mini-Reeses. Oh yum…. Now back to encaustic medium.

I learned how to make my own today in Judy Wise’s Hot Wax on-line class.

It’s killer expensive when you buy it ready made in stores. Roughly about the same price per ounce as gold. Which is why encaustic artists are all independently wealthy, every one of ’em. Don’t believe me? Well, you shouldn’t because I’m lying to make a point exaggerating a little. But just a little. Check out the photo.

See that thing in the middle, that little bitty microscopic tin of wax—that’s commercially prepared encaustic medium. And that little thing cost as much as all those other BIG, FAT. ROBUST cakes of homemade medium combined. And mine were made with love. Because I loves me my wax. Seriously, do you think wax factories do ruffles?

Here are some others I added oil paint or powdered pigment to, although it looks like there are still three virgins in the crowd, right there in the middle.

The four in the front, the ones that look kind of boring, are anything but. Those are magic shimmer and shine interference colors. The ones that look white–one is shimmery gold. The other is shimmery, just shimmery.

Here’s a close up. This one is red/blue. I can’t wait to see what it does in a painting.