The Hive Encaustic

Last time I described the vicious feline attack on my favorite encaustic piece, Accidental Sea. Yesterday, several people gave good advice on how to TRY to fix the damage, and a dog person suggested recipes for cooked cat.

Because the damage is closer to the middle than the edge, I couldn’t use my regular-sized iron. Betsy suggested using a small tacking iron, which would probably be the ideal tool. If I had one. I couldn’t touch up with new paint because the yellow wax is made from dry pigment while the blue is made from wax medium-tube oil. Presumably the paint had a drying oil of some kind in it. These two paints may have aged differently.  To top it off, I was stressed out because I sent an image of Accidental Sea to a show.

So I decided to repair the damage with a mini butane torch, allow the piece to thoroughly cool and then, if necessary, attempt to smooth the area with an iron.

Mini butane torch has a tiny point and not much force. Great tool for small repairs.

By holding my breath, refraining from coffee, and offering up my first born son (I’ll tell him later), I was able to get very close to the damage and direct the torch point to the channel edges. It didn’t take much. As the paint melted, it back-filled the channels. The lifted wax around the site bonded to the substrate again. It actually worked! Here’s a before and after:

On the left is a close-up of the damaged area. On the right is the same area after I went back in with a mini torch. There is a little bloom on the before picture which I polished off before attempting the repair.

If you get really close, you’ll see the surface is a little wavy over the damaged area but I decided not to muck around with my iron. Thanks to everyone for the great suggestions. I am happy to report that Marzipan is back to his daily Chef’s Plate and all is forgiven.

Asleep again, just the way I like him.