Waxing Poetic about Metallique Waxes

I’ve noticed an influx of artwork being sent to us that features gorgeous gilded shapes, with beautiful metallic elements being brought to life upon a black background. As I edited a few articles in which artists used this technique, I couldn’t wait to try it out myself. When our first supply of Metallique Waxes arrived in The Shoppe at Somerset, I immediately grabbed a few colors.

After watching a quick video from Finnabair, I was inspired by the way she used black gesso to add a base color to various elements from the Relics & Artifacts line. I went through my collection and chose some wings, which had a lot of detail, and a heart, which didn’t have as much, but I still thought would work well.

To begin, I applied a layer of black gesso to a canvas, as well as my chosen Relics & Artifacts. I allowed everything to dry completely. Then, I touched my finger to the Metallique Wax, picking up just a bit of it, and rubbed it wherever I wanted to add color. It was so much fun to see how much color was added to all of the areas with raised details. I played around with how much to use, and found that less is more. A little bit of the wax goes a long way.

I was so pleasantly surprised that such a small amount of work (and product) produced such an amazing result! My mind is completely overloaded with all the ideas I have for ways to use these great waxes, and I can’t wait to get started on them.