ENCAUSTIC 3D! PLAYING HOUSE: MOLDMAKING, WAX AND FOUND OBJECTS! with Bridget Benton, June 6th and 7th (10AM to 5PM ET both days) 2024
ENCAUSTIC 3D! PLAYING HOUSE: MOLDMAKING, WAX AND FOUND OBJECTS! with Bridget Benton, June 6th and 7th (10AM to 5PM ET both days) 2024
Thursday June 6th and Friday June 7th - 10 AM to 5 PM- $375 - All materials included, but please see below for suggestions.
Come play house with me! We’ll start with scrap wood cut into rough house shapes and then embellish them with collage, chalk paint, found objects, and your own cast materials. We’ll layer them with wax-based encaustic paint for even more texture, and add on any final touches to create whimsical, one-of-a-kind creative homes! Students will learn not only mold-making and basic casting, but also how to use scrap wood as a starting point for encaustic. I can guarantee that each student will have the opportunity to work on at least two houses, but based on the scrap wood in my shed, we should be able to do make even more!
Bring your favorite found objects and bits of nature, and you’ll learn tips and tricks to make reusable molds that capture intricate detail and then learn to successfully cast them using different materials - including encaustic-friendly paper clay. You’ll also learn different methods for incorporating your cast objects into your encaustic pieces! Shells, small metal objects, little fossils, and even pine cones work well.
Enough mold-making material is included in the class for you to make molds of 3-5 objects that average 2” square in size – and you’ll have access to enough casting material to make multiple casts from each mold. And yes - not only will you be able to cast multiple items with your molds, you’ll take the molds home with you to use again and again.
This class seats 8 students.
Bridget Benton is the lead instructor in Encaustic Methods, Nature Print, ecoprint and collage methods at 310 ART. In addition to local teaching, Bridget is a faculty member of the international encaustic online encaustic masterclass, Painting with Fire, as well as the author of the award-winning “The Creative Conversation: ArtMaking as Playful Prayer”. Teaching credentials include at the Creative Problem Solving Institute in Buffalo, NY; the Newport Visual Arts Center in Newport, OR; Art Unraveled in Phoenix, AZ; and Collage in Portland, OR. as well as the Nature Printing Society’s Annual Workshop where she served for several years as the event’s Educational Coordinator.
All materials provided, including collage packs. I’ll even have things you can cast, but you’ll probably want to bring some of your own things to make molds from!
(Note: These are press molds, meaning that the resulting form will be flat on the back. Ideal objects to cast include items that are firm, less than 3" long or wide and have a stable, nonporous surface. For example, it will be easier to cast a shell or acorn than a twig covered with flaking bark. And, it will be probably be easier to cast a twig than a leaf or bit of moss. Due to possible copyright infringement, I recommend against reproducing commercially cast items.)
Students are also encouraged to bring their own collage materials including ABSORBENT, UNCOATED decorative and vintage papers, book pages, fibers, fabrics, and tissue papers. And you can bring any cool vintage, rusty, natural, or found objects that you might want to incorporate directly into your piece.