It is too fun to play with encaustics (AKA blocks of colored wax). I bought an electric griddle at Target that fits six slices of bread. Then I melted portions of the encaustics in a metal mini muffin tin that is resting on the electric griddle with the temperature set to 150 degrees (recommended temp for encaustics is only 80 degrees but that wasn't melting the blocks through the added layer of the muffin tin). I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to use/dip the wax from the muffin tin-but at least I have the palette set up and a way to easily melt and access the colors. Next, I tried melting small puddles of color directly onto the griddle and then dipped a metal paint palette knife in the puddle of color and pressed it onto a journal page to make shapes of flowers. Different shaped palette knives of course make different sizes and shapes of flowers. It is an easy peasy way to experiment with encaustics. Tip: It is important to place paper towels between pages when you turn the page and apply way to the "next" page because the heat from the new page will make the wax applied on the previous pages stick together.
