Grid Collage with Beeswax

 I had the pleasure of spending Sunday afternoon with two girlfriends for a crafty play date.  I made a nice salad with toasted almonds and dried cranberries, Z. brought BBQ chicken pizza, and K. made these delightful strawberry cupcakes - complete with pink heart shaped marshmallows dipped in white chocolate.  Aren't those lace-y paper cups adorable?

 We each created a beeswax coated collaged canvas in the style of Lisa Kaus's "gridlocked" workshop.  It was challenging to get the grid going - but once you had it all laid out - it came together beautifully.  This is K.'s canvas board - her theme was her husbands vintage Dodge and all things automotive.  Isn't it fun how found objects can "represent" other things?  Like the black checkers evoke tires.  The yellow playing pieces could be traffic cones.  Fuzzy dice?
Sorry about the bad camera phone images.  My real camera chose to be uncooperative.  The canvas was not as dark as it appears in the image above.

This is Z.'s canvas with a theme of family.This one still needs the coating of beeswax - which will smooth all the sharp edges.
Also - she might add more colour with some oil pastels. The flash card was altered to read 2 + 2+ 2 which equals 6 - a large number 6 will be adhered on top of the sea glass tiles.  That's for the 6 people in her family.  Actually only 5 - but one on the way!

And this is mine. I went with a lovebirds theme.  Yes - i am obsessed with birds, but i also added a few images and some dictionary pages to represent my husband. I think the central section - underneath the 3-d Victorian window, needs something stronger. there is a page from a book about Mozart and his love for his wife Costanza.  But the skeleton leaf on top is a little pale - maybe a touch of aqua oil pastel will bring out the texture...?
I especially love the effect where i layered napkins overtop of text.  Even the birdcage is from a napkin.  The bird inside - from another paper.  Please click images to enlarge. 

Be sure to check out the world wide web for other examples of Lisa Kaus beautiful work with paper, paint, wood and wax.  And even artwork from students who have taken her workshops and posted images on their blogs.
I'll be doing another one of these collage grids next week with my altered art group.  I wonder what i should do?  How about a moratorium on birds and robin's egg blue...?!