Playing with beeswax

concord art lorrimarie jenkins

At our January meeting, we were treated to an amazing demo from LorriMarie Jenkins that featured her unique art of dipping vintage baby dresses into beeswax.

concord art bees wax dipping

She also showed us how to dip collage on canvas board. First she brushed it with wax, then after it dried, she used a heat gun to clear excess wax away from certain highlight areas or force it to drip down for texture. When she was happy with the sheen and the wax was dry again, she buffed it with a cotton cloth.

concord art lorriemarie jenkins

Several of us got to dip smaller pieces, like a doll dress - we used wood skewers to arrange the fabric while it sits in the hot wax, then after lifting it out, we had to quickly adjust it and "blossom" the fabric while it dried on the skewers.

sandi sherwood lorrimarie jenkins

concord art cathy mcnutt photo collage

LorriMarie likes to use the Costco green tea bags to embed photos in the wax and attach to her dipped dresses. You can only use laser-printed photos - inkjet-printed images will not work because the colors will melt into each other. So much fun!