Ok, to clarify things, I keep referring to these ‘things’ I’m making as ‘quilts’. I know they are not really quilts and to any quiltmakers out there among you this is probably annoying. A ‘real’ quilt has a front, (typically of cloth, yes) some sort of batting (typically cotton or wool) and a backing. That are attached in some manner (typically sewn, though they can be tied). What I am making are at best quilt tops. If I were describing the medium of these pieces I would call them encaustic collage. But instead of referring to them as encaustic collages with quilt motifs I prefer to refer to them as quilts to save time and not sound silly.

Most quilts also have a border, and I kind of knew I would end up adding a border to Boo’s quilt but didn’t know which color print would work. So when the interior was all done and I looked at it I decided I’d add a 2 inch strip of the green around the edge with red squares in the corners. Except I hadn’t planned ahead and made any extra of the green when I did the original printing. So, yesterday was a printing day.

A lot of people are confused when I say I print with wax or that the quilts are made with encaustic monotypes so here is a quick overview of printing with wax (not including encaustic collographs – that’s something else entirely – google it). To begin with a monotype is (according to Dictionary.com) “the only print made from a metal or glass plate on which a picture is painted in oil color, printing ink, or the like”. With an Encaustic monotype, heated encaustic paint takes the place of the oil paint or ink.

I do my printing on a Paula Roland HotBox, A wonderful device designed just for this purpose with an anodized aluminum plate on top. Here it is all set up with the light green background ready to print:

Paula Roland Hot Box

Want to know how inefficient your old lightbulbs are? This thing is heated with 4 incandescant lightbulbs on a dimmer switch (how clever is that?). I usually print at around 165 degrees farenheit, depending on the type of printing I’m doing and the colors and paper I’m using. That is an exhaust system you can see at the top of the frame to draw out any fumes, not really needed for printmaking (though I always turn it on out of habit) but I also do dipping and regular encaustic painting at this station so things get hotter and fumes are a concern.  To the right are wooden batik blocks that I use to add patterns to my prints. The next time I use them I’ll show you the process. No, I do not know why I have 2 thermometers.

I print on Rives BFK Lightweight paper. It’s a fairly standard printmaking paper and I’ve found it works good for what I’m doing – it sews well. I tear it in quarters because it’s easier to handle that way and fits in my paper cuter better. For the green print that I’m trying to recreate here it’s a two layer print. First I print the light green that I laid down by running the cold wax paint across the hot metal plate to melt it then ‘scrcunching’ it up with a paper towel to add some texture for the back ground. Then I lay the paper on top of the wax:

Paula Roland Hot Box with paper

Then I cover the paper with a folded over piece of newsprint, hold it in place with one hand and rub across it carefully with the other with a Japanese Bamboo barren (a printmaking tool). This ensures even contact between the paper and the surface of the aluminum so that the encaustic paint is evenly absorbed into the paper.

Printing with Barren

Here is how the background layer looks along with the paints and some of the tools I use:

Background Layer printed, Catalyst printing tool, R&F Paint, paper towel used for scrunching, Hylla Evans Pine Green paint stick, Print trying that I’m trying to recreate

Next I lay down the dark green layer (Hylla Evan’s Pine to be exact). For this layer I use the green silicone ‘squeegie’ looking tool in the photo above (made by Catalyst if any of you are printmakers – also good for acrylic painting I’ve been told). Silicone is great for encaustic because it doesn’t melt, I have silicone baking sheets lining my work table. So here’s how the dark green looks when I’m ready to print this layer:

Dark Green layer ready to print

Then I just lay the paper with the light green already printed on it on top of the dark green on the hot box and add that to it following the same process as with the background layer. If I wanted to be more precise I could get into registering my prints by a number of different methods to make sure that I was lining up each successive printed layer precisely but with this type of print it doesn’t matter. You can do representational printing with encaustic monotypes but I am only interested in creating texture, color and something vaguely ‘cloth-like’ so that has yet to be much of an issue for me. Here is how the final print looks:

Final two layer print

Next week will be the start of Halice’s quilt.