Ten Year Course Member Celebrations! 🎉
Last week, we celebrated ten years of our Encaustic Wax Online Course Members group…!
Ten years ago since I first took the first steps to bring what I’d been sharing in my real life workshops onto the online space…
Well before the lockdown era and everyone suddenly jumped onto Zoom…
For those of you who were part of the journey back then, we were the fore runners 😅 The internet seemed so much simpler, and a very different place back then… 😆 Here’s my celebratory screenshot below!
We’ve had many twists and turns since those early days… everything was flying, then life has those funny ways of throwing you a curve ball, or three… I look back and realise across that time, I’ve undergone four studio moves, a huge house renovation, a serious wrist injury where I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to paint again. I was left little choice but to move all of my online course softwares to a new platform, which has been a huge task, and I’ve relocated from Hertfordshire back home to Cornwall… (and still got work to do to get things straight!!) I sometimes question how the heck we get through all this turmoil… 😅
One thing I know to be true however… the main thing that continues to keep me sane(ish!!!) is honouring the space for myself to create. It’s often not perfect, it’s messy, it might be snatched moments of time in amongst a busy day or week… but it’s important.
Another pivotal anchor outside of my own personal practice is our monthly membership ‘The Wax Works‘… every two to three weeks a small group of us get together on Zoom, where we catch up on our creative endeavours, and create together for three glorious hours… we always come away feeling uplifted.
Each session takes it own path… last Sunday the conversation was flowing and we seemed to cover all sorts of subjects from stylus tips, to stencils, to parchment paper and glitter… we had an idea for an August charity / thrift shop ‘best buy to use with encaustic’ challenge!! 😆 We also got onto how to make our own watercolour paints, so it’s not all wax based… other weeks we are more sedate and simply loose ourselves in our painting and share our progress at regular check in points.
It’s a space with enough freedom to allow members to create in their own way, whilst providing guidance and support for those who need it…. I love it… I always leave, look back and think wow… what happened in there is far beyond what I could orchestrate… it’s the space and accountability we all seem to need, in amongst the less than perfect backdrop of life…
Here’s to the next decade… lets see what new artworks and creative journeys unfold…!
If you’d like to join us, check out ‘The Wax Works‘ here. There are three membership options, starting at just £9 per month… There’s always a recording for you to catch up on, and you can ask questions ahead of time if you can’t make it live! 💫
Beginners and people who claim not to draw a straight line are more than welcome… as are experienced artists… it’s a space to make some marks, start your journey, and trust that the rest will unfold from there.
Julie x
🎨🐝✨💕
