Painting with Wax

This project started with a weekend trip to the museum. As I walked through the exhibit rooms, I found a collection of encaustic paintings. I was not familiar with this painting technique. From afar, the images did not look like melted wax, but up close, each picture in the collection featured a unique wax texture. A local encaustic artist presented the encaustic painting technique as part of the exhibition. The presentation sounded interesting, so I decided to attend.

Spending time in museums, craft fairs, and other creative venues creates an opportunity to learn new innovative techniques that can be brought back to the classroom and shared. In school-age care, the handiwork by other artists often inspires our project work. The children and I enjoy exploring new artistic techniques to support our creative work.

The encaustic artist set up the demonstration in one of the museum classrooms. On a table in the front of the room was a heating element, beeswax, a collection of pigments, pallet knives, and a few other tools. The artist created a painting on wood instead of canvas. The artist started the demonstration by sharing the history of encaustic painting. The artist talked about the encaustic painting process as they worked. After an hour, the artist wrapped up the presentation. I left the classroom and toured the rest of the museum. I kept thinking about the encaustic process and wondered if I could do a project like it with the children.

Some artistic techniques transfer to our work in the classroom quickly. Other techniques I think about before offering them to the children. Sometimes the children are in the middle of an investigation, so I hold off sharing a new project or technique with them so the current project can run its course.

On Monday, I was back in the classroom. The children were working on different projects. I had not thought much about encaustic painting since the day at the museum. I shared details of the demonstration with another educator. After we talked, I thought about the materials we would need to try this technique. In our storage closet, we had some paraffin wax for candle making. I wondered if that would be a good material for this work. I looked around the storage closet and found a large bag of broken crayons. We use crayons to add color to the paraffin wax when making candles. Why don’t we melt crayons and use the colorful mixture to paint? A new project idea was born.

Even though I discovered a way to create colorful wax for painting, the children were involved in another project. I set the crayons aside. I planned to introduce wax painting to the children after they finished their current project.

The following week a group of children was looking for a new project, so I suggested we try painting with wax. The group was excited about the possibilities of this technique. I collected the plastic bag filled with old crayons, paraffin wax, small metal containers, and a flat electric pancake griddle. My idea was to place different broken crayons and a small amount of paraffin wax into small metal containers and turn the electric skillet on low so the wax could slowly melt. We used white recycled cardboard cut into small rectangles and squares for a canvas.

I was unsure how this project would work or how the wax would transfer from the electric skillet to the cardboard. Would the wax solidify too quickly? If the wax dried too fast, could we use a hairdryer or another tool to remelt it onto the cardboard? Learning new artistic techniques is a series of trials and iterations. Discovery and learning are exciting parts of all project work.

After melting the crayon and wax combination, the children started working with the material. We used plastic spoons to transfer the melted wax onto the cardboard. At first, I thought the spoon might melt, but wax melts at a low temperature, so the spoons worked well. Some wax dried in the bottom of the spoon, but most of the liquid material ended up on the cardboard. The children worked one at a time on this project so the educators could give one-on-one attention during the process. Other children watched as each child created their painting. Unlike the encaustic painting I saw in the museum, our work was a series of drips and runs that made a design.

A project like this needs careful planning so it is safe. We often cook in our program, so we used the same safety precautions. All the children created a wax painting without any safety challenges. The technique worked well as the children enjoyed the process and the experience.

We tried painting with wax for a few days so all the children who wanted to do the project could try it. The process required patience for each child to get enough wax on the cardboard for a design to appear. Wax painting is a very labor-intensive process. A few children stuck with the work, but many decided it was too much effort to create this way.

Painting with wax was a fun project to attempt. Our homemade tools made the process challenging. It would be fun to learn more about encaustic painting, purchase some authentic tools, and try again. We learn new things about each other when we take a chance and explore the possibilities of our work together.