What it’s Like the First Evening at Deborah Stachowic’s Beeswax Encaustic Class

We’re two evening classes into the four of Deborah Stachowic’s Beeswax Encaustic class for September and October 2022 and it has been great, creative fun! 

The first class Deborah briefly talked about what beeswax encaustic is, told us some basic information, and showed us examples of work and techniques we might want to do.  She also gave some demonstrations showing us how to work with the tools and materials and a couple of basic techniques…then we got straight into working on creating our first piece! 

We each began with a 5 x 7 inch Encausticbord or Claybord and began applying our first layers of melted beeswax medium (beeswax + damar resin) once we had 4 or 5 thin layers as a solid base, we began the actual creative process of painting and collaging.  It was so interesting to see the very different directions we each went while creating our first beeswax encaustic painting. Deborah was very attentive while we worked answering our questions, showing us how to get the effect we wanted and cheering us on when we discovered a cool effect on our own!  

One student using the heat gun, made waves for a lovely landscape of moonlight on a beach with waves and she did it in a very unique way as she was experimenting with effects of the heat gun on wax.  Interestingly, it was something that Deborah hadn’t seen done before, so much of encaustic is often simply by playing and trying out different things!  

Because everyone was new to beeswax encaustic, everyone was trying out different things, there is a wonderful sense of play in class which really fosters creativity!

Another student made a beautiful collage that included embedding a photocopy of a very old family portrait.

While another student used B&W photocopies of her own beautiful photos to create stunning collage pieces.

Another student was very interested in trying out and experimenting with different techniques in a fun experimental way. He enjoyed looking through the boards with the technique samples, and asking Deborah questions how the results were achieved, he really was excited by the process and having a good time while he experimented.  

I was playing around with an organic/nebula shape, some colors that appealed to me, and experimented with some techniques using the beeswax encaustic including pushing the encaustic around with the heat gun then “drawing”on it with some metallic bookbinding lettering paper.

Some of us created a second painting and prepped for our second class by laying down a beeswax encaustic base layer on either 5 x7 or 6 x6 inch boards. 

We also took breaks while working on our beeswax encaustic pieces to look at photos in the large collection of Encaustic books that Deborah had out on a worktable to get some ideas.  Also, Deborah has a collection of 5 x 7 boards with different encaustic techniques on them, and several students asked Deborah how to do certain effects which was so interesting to learn, and watch her or a student do it while Deborah coached them through it.

Deborah is a great teacher, she’s patient, explains the techniques well, she’s supportive and encouraging in a peer to peer way so that you feel like a valued contributor during the creative process.  She is genuinely enthusiastic about helping people learn about beeswax encaustic and to enjoy its creative potential! 

All and all it was as Deborah describes it a “very fun class”, lots of creative energy that builds as the class talked and got to know a bit about one another while we learned, shared and created!  We all left looking forward to our second class the following Tuesday!

Thank you Deborah Stachowic!

If you are interested in taking one of Deborah’s Beeswax Encaustic classes, please click for the current class schedule.

~Deborah Burns 

{Guest post as a student attending Deborah Stachowic’s Beeswax Encaustic class}

To find out more about Beeswax Encaustic, 

please visit the Waxing Impressions Blog Article Index for a list of articles.