Been a bit slow in the studio this month. So much going on with kids and family. It's my studio time that is often first on the chopping block (hmmm.. make that second -- housework is first!). But a time and place for everything. The moon waxes and wanes, and so does the work in the studio. Speaking of waxing... I'm experimenting with sculptural waxes right now. Still looking for that perfect medium. I have certain ideas brewing that would work great with wax, but need to find a wax that's easy to manipulate. Earlier in the month I tried sculpting with melted plain beeswax, since I already have boxes full of it. Came up with an interesting figure sculpture, but it's quite brittle and fragile, and trying to build form with dripping melted wax is... well, you can imagine. But there are several specialty sculpting waxes available, so I'm trying out a few different varieties right now. Soon I should be getting some wax samples that don't require heat to manipulate, but for now the waxes I have all need heat to soften. And to soften these waxes evenly, I've heard it's best to melt them down and pour them into thin flat sheets, which is what I spent my time doing at the studio yesterday. I think this particular wax is called "Victory Amber Sculpting Wax" --

Poured into the pan and starting to cool... you can see my face reflected in the sheen of the still-liquid wax in the middle --

Another recent project in the studio has been collage work. It's another experiment, really. I have no interest in doing collage work on any large scale. Instead, this was more an exercise in deep personal inquiry. I have a friend who speaks glowingly of something called Soul Collage, and since I'm a believer in the existence of meaningful imagery and symbolism lurking in the subconscious, it seemed like a potentially very interesting exercise for me. Still haven't done a "reading" on these yet (a Soul Collage thing). I tried to create these with very little conscious thought and simply guided by intuition, but am looking forward to revisiting these soon to see what might be there --