These are my "go to" tools, the one's I find most frequently in my hands as I go about a day painting in my studio. It is always fun to discover new tools and what other artists use in their trade. Sometimes a creative repurpose makes a great tool, a tools that is purchased with a single intended use becomes a studio essential in an unexpected new use.
A fair amount of tools that are in use for encaustic are cross over tools, intended for use in clay work or in the kitchen. The main reason being that they are metal or silicone and work for multiple uses and can be cleaned with high heat without melting or otherwise altering. Once a kitchen tool is used with wax, it is a studio tool and does not return to the kitchen for safety purposes. So the buy 2 rule goes into effect!
Here is my #1:
It gets ranking as #1 by my scientific usage meter. It is always to my left side (lefty here) while I am painting. I get a little anxious when it goes hiding, because I am so accustomed to it's shape and size in my hand, other tools can do the same job, but they just don't feel right. Yes, a simple silicon kitchen squeegee/scraper. I remember purchasing it for a cold wax workshop-not for encaustic painting. But it quickly became a hot wax studio essential! I use it mainly for puddling up hot wax on my palette as it tends to spread out and become hard to mop up with the brush for painting. It works great and is super easy to clean up with a few minutes against the hot palette surface and a paper towel wipe off.
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| kitchen squeegee |
Tool #2:
The award goes to this sharp pokey ceramic tool, since I am not a clay worker, I do not know it's proper name. It is the go to tool for getting shed brush hairs, little imperfections or dog hairs out of a painting surface. (yes those cute dogs sometimes like to hang out in the studio), if I pay attention and don't put paintings near the floor I don't have very many dog hairs to deal with---learning.... This is also a good tool for fine carving in a cooled wax surface as well as signing an encaustic painting by carving in my name. It is always within reach on a painting day.
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| sharp pokey clay tool |
This is my trusty Iwatani torch. I do have a couple other torches, using either butane or propane, but this is the workhorse of the studio. Painting in encaustic utilizes fusing with a heat source, there are many ways to accomplish this, depending on the style of painting that is being done, for my painting purposes I find this torch my favorite. It provides a reliant and adjustable flame source and it is fairly small, pretty ergonomic, and not tiring to lift for many minutes/hours of fusing in a painting day.
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| The lovely Iwatani torch head |
Lucky #4
A long awaited visit to "Toyland", aka The Clay Store at the Archie Bray Center in Helena yielded a quick intense shopping spree. If you live in Montana and have not been to the most wonderful place on earth, hint hint, it's not Disneyland....get in your car and take yourself and your camera to the Bray Center, trust me! I have posted a few times prior of visits to this wonderful place, check my archives. Okay, back to the subject of tools.
I discovered all sorts of clay tools I had not seen yet in my limited exposure in general art store shopping. The first time I used this tool (another one I don't know the proper name for-help me out if you are a clay artist), I understood why it was a little more expensive than the prior versions I had used. It was sharp and solid and easy to control when needing to scrape or adjust a small area of wax. Wow, what a difference a higher quality tool can make!
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| sharp wonderful clay scraper |
Last but not least #5
Upon discovering what fun could be had by using a pattern marker, my hunt for this tool was on. Quickly to my dismay, I learned that the newer versions of this classic sewing tool were sad imitations of the former glory. They were flimsy, with little noticeable imprinting from the barely shaped wheel. Lucky for me, I have a willing sister who frequents thrift shops and she found some older models of the pattern makers that have stood the test of time and make great marks on a waxy surface. While I often shy away from stencils and tools that make a more manufactured look, but this baby can be used to make marks that are both whimsical and organic appearing. And it's Red.
This red baby is easily the most popular tool of students in my Intro to Encaustic Studio classes.
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| the magical red vintage seam marker |
