That would have been a great name for Lynn Bregman Blass' exhibit opening Sunday at Minata Jewelers in University Mall. The reception is 2:30-5:30 p.m.

Her paintings are a wonder to view, a dreamy blend of realism and abstraction, and will surely be talked about long after the seven-day show is over.

It is the paintings' three-dimensional quality that caught Minata owner Linda Kornberg's eye.

"The work is almost like a jewel," Komberg said. "It is very tactile. The technique is unusual. I find it wonderfully interesting to be around."

The technique Blass uses and loves to teach about is encaustic painting, or painting with melted wax. This medium, which has a history of over 2,000 years, was used by the Egyptians to create face masks for mummies.

"I'm so in love with this medium," Blass said. "As opposed to the static nature of acrylic or oil, it's very alive."

Blass invited me to her Chapel Hill studio, where she teaches private classes and students from the Carrboro ArtsCenter, to show me how the process works. Before one such class started, Blass gave me a quick demonstration of encaustic.

She takes beeswax that she has mixed with a dammar resin (which is harvested by tapping a particular species of tree in tropical Asia) and melts it, usually on a pancake griddle. This results in a clear wax to which color can be added.

The griddle in her studio holds many little containers of wax that have been tinted with color -- perhaps with pigment or with oil paint. The griddle is set around 200 degrees to keep the wax fluid. Once it's the right consistency, the painting can begin.

She lays down a layer of the tinted wax on a board and then uses a heat gun to fuse the wax to the surface. As many layers as the artist wants can be put down and fused.

An endless list of materials may be added to any layer -- handmade paper (Blass has used paper made from sliced fruits and vegetables), copper wire, photographs, gold leaf, impressions made with batik stamps, etc.

"What is interesting is that you scrape back," Blass said. "So if I have built up ten layers of images and colors or wire and collage, then I can use pottery tools or razors and scrape down and find the history of the painting in there if I want."

In her hands, the result is absolutely fascinating. After watching her and seeing some of the paintings that are going to be in the show this Sunday, I found myself not wanting to leave. So I didn't. I stayed as her ArtsCenter students arrived for their class. They graciously let me wander around and watch them work and ask questions.

Bonnie Cohen, who is a creative art therapist and a creativity coach, said she is enthralled with this wax method. "It's messy, goopy and unpredictable," Cohen said.

It's this unpredictability that drives Blass, but it is this same quality that almost made her give up the medium.

As an acrylic painter, she was not satisfied with the reality that when acrylic paint is put down on its intended surface, it covers whatever is there. There was no way for her, or eventually a viewer, to explore the history of the work, to enjoy the interplay of a piece of cooper mesh peeking through the image of a dog's belly.

After she discovered the encaustic method, she spent an intensive year working to learn its basics, its quirks, and at times asking herself what the heck she was doing.

"As approachable as it is, you have to be willing to give up a certain amount of control, which is the beauty of it," she said. "Once you let go of control, you can get into a place where real creativity comes from. So every time I was ready to give up, it would give me something and I go, 'Oh, that is how I do that.' Every time I wanted to walk away, it would give me something and lure me back into it."

We are lucky she has not only stuck with this method, but continues to explore its possibilities and to share her artistic insights with students.

"I feel like I am teaching the next generation of encaustic artists," Blass said. "I can't get people out of the studio when they get started."

Bingo. I didn't want to leave, as it was so intriguing to watch people painting with wax, choosing what ephemera to fuse into a layer, figuring out where on their board to scrape away, what to leave.

I drove home making a mental list in my head of the people on my holiday shopping list and who would be the lucky ones to get gift certificates to take an encaustic class from Blass. One of them just might be me.

A list of upcoming shows and classes can be found at www.lynnbregmanblass.com.