Encaustic Painting

Yesterday I started Encaustic Painting. I bought the bees wax from a local distributor, and ordered some Damar Wax from a place in Upstate NY. I found a couple of flat irons at the flea market, and bought a hot plate at Sears for 24.99. I went to the public library for books about encaustic painting techniques but they had NONE!
I think for the North Eastern part of the US this painting technique is not as popular right now as to why I am doing it. I love doing things most other artists are not doing so I feel like I have an edge to my unique creating.
I dont take classes usually, however, I did take classes for welding and metalsmithing mainly to learn the saftey of it, and some other key things.... but im not doing that right now. The library did find some books in Greenwich CT that they are bringing to their library for me to research. I love experimental work, and using the natural waxes gives me a sense of wholeness rather than poisionous smelling sealers. I also love the translucence of it with the ability to layer quickly as to not disrupt my process. Not ever attending painting classes has been a down fall for me however, because using color is key I know. I tend to make my paintings very busy, and usually too dark. I noticed that using oil paint under the waxes as a background is not necessarily a good way to go unless your paint is COMPLETELY dry. So, I had some smearing going on after I heated it. One thing I dont like about this technique is while heating it your painted wax moves around. I tried using both torch and heat gun and it did it with both. I put some papers down into the heated wax and that works very well. So layering with papers can be a fun thing. Melting and mixing the waxes was easy.
And today I used my woodstove top to keep my pot of clear wax melted for use when I needed it. I have

a bit of a problem with ventilation... as the Damar smells alittle chemically, so I opened a door and put a fan to move it outside. That worked. I dont have the powder color to color the waxes yet, so I took some of my good pastels and crushed them up. That worked perfectly fine. I think they are oil pastells, but not sure. They did crush nicely and disolve with the wax with a good consistancy. At any rate, I am happy with this medium and will be experimenting and learning more about it.