3/52 Bird a week - Love bird

I did an encaustics class with my mum this week.  You'll see the first painting I did in an earlier blog post but just before the end of the class, I asked the teacher about adding metal leaf to the paintings.  She had some aluminum leaf and so I quickly use the last few minutes we had to make my bird for this week.

Love Bird

The lime green is the beeswax with pigment and resin which I applied in a few layers.  I fused each layer and then scraped it flat with a razor blade.

I asked the teacher if I could cut up the metal leaf - which was actually aluminum.  She said she had only ever applied it whole - as a square on the backing material.  I had nothing to lose, so decided to cut out shapes of aluminum leaf and apply it to the solid green wax.

To do this, I had to warm the wax a little, apply the leaf and press/brayer. Then you add water and gently rub off the backing sheet. It worked just fine with the shapes of metal leaf - no problem at all. I then fused the leaf to the wax and over-fused the birdie to try and get a crackle effect in the metal to indicate a feathery feel. The result is:  Love bird or I love birds or ???

If you are part of the bird a week challenge, please add you link below to this week's photo or blog post.  If you want to join in our challenge, please visit the flickr group for more info. You can join at any time.