Encaustic Collagraph Monotype with Elise Wagner

Combining monotype with encaustic’s textural elements is a process that explodes beyond the boundaries of printmaking! With this technique, encaustic wax is applied to a plexiglas printing plate rather than a traditional painting panel. Equally, collagraphs, which are traditionally made with collage materials printed from a plate or matrix, in this instance, the wax becomes the collage material and is used to build up for relief or intaglio printing.

The collagraph technique, pioneered by Wagner, allows artists to “break all the rules” of encaustic and reuse the plate again and again. The non-toxic soy and honey based Akua ink applied onto the collagraph merges with encaustic’s natural resistance to moisture making it ideal for printmaking. We will be using a wax writer and incising tools to create line and a tacking iron to emboss various textures into the encaustic plate.  Incising the surface employs methods of intaglio printing and dry point etching, building such a wax surface and combining it with the inks offers a variety of exploitable textures.