2013 Maiwa Textile Symposium

Encaustic With a Textile Sensibility

Daniella Woolf

Encaustic—the use of heated beeswax mixed with pigments—opens up a vast new territory for exploration when combined with textiles.

In this mixed-media encaustic workshop, students will gain a thorough knowledge of the encaustic technique. Participants will learn the basic materials and formulas used in encaustic, proper safety procedures, and the preparation of appropriate supports and grounds. 

Techniques will be taught sequentially and build upon one another. Demonstrations include: image transfers, metallic leafing, collage, line, edge, and three-dimensional work. This workshop is an exciting opportunity to expand your visual vocabulary with wax. 

Encaustic has texture and translucency beyond your wildest dreams! It is an amazingly versatile art medium and is truly the glue that will allow you to use all the materials you’ve been collecting for years. 

All skill levels are welcome.

Daniella arrives from California where she is a principal of Wax Works West, a school for the encaustic arts. 

Instructor Bio

Daniella Woolf holds an MA in Design with a specialty in Textile Structures from UCLA. Over her career she has worked in a variety of media, including fibre, collage, jewellery, installation, and most recently encaustic. She is a principal of Wax Works West, a school for the encaustic arts, in Califonia. She teaches in the western states for R&F Handmade Paints and globally for Wax Works West. She is a 2007 recipient of the Gail Rich Award for excellence in the arts in Santa Cruz and the 2008 Rydell Visual Arts Fellowship. 

Her current work is exhibited nationally and internationally. She has a very popular teaching DVD, Encaustic with a Textile Sensibility, and a  book which is a “gallery between pages” under the same title. Her newest publication, The Encaustic Studio: A Wax Workshop in Mixed-Media Art, was  published in 2012 by Interweave Press. She blogs at Encausticopolis under the name Dotty Stripes.