Creative Paint Workshop for Mixed-Media Artists

You can buy beeswax in bulk too. If you do this, make sure
that you buy filtered and refined beeswax, not bleached
(which will lighten your colors) or unfiltered (which is yellow
and will change your colors).

Drawings and marks can be made on cold wax with oil
sticks, just as you would with crayons on acrylic paint. Oil
sticks should contain very little filler; otherwise the parti-
cles will break up and float away when the wax is reheated.

Paraffin wax, available in powdered form, is best for clean-
ing up your hot plate. Just melt a little on your hot plate
and wipe away the paint.

Encaustic paints come in bars or cakes for melting on Q hot plate.
Oil sticks ore used like crayons and can be rubbed into the hard-
ened, textured wax surface.

Companies like R&F offer premixed mediums in cake form. You
can also make your own from powdered beeswax and dammar
crystals. Powdered paraffin wax is used for cleanup.

MAKING YOUR OWN WAX MEDIUM

To save money you can make your own medium

with beeswax and dammar crystals.

Recipe for Encaustic Medium

You will need:

• 4 oz (113 g) dam mar crystals
  
  
  • 1 lb. 2 oz (510 g) beeswax (Buy the
    powdered kind.)
    Method:
  
  
  
  

1. Put dammar crystals in a double plastic bag and
   batter with a mallet until they form a coarse pow-
   der. Put through a sieve to filter out any extraneous
   plant matter.


2. Melt the beeswax in a clean skillet (not cast iron,
   as this will alter the color of the mixture).


3. When the beeswax is thoroughly melted, add
   the dam mar crystals at 250°F (121°C) for approxi-
   mately 30 minutes, or until the entire mixture is
   molten. Do not overheat. It's best to use an electric
   pan with a thermostat. Stir regularly to ensure that
   the mixture does not stick to the bottom of the
   pan.


4. Lower the heat to 225°F (107°C). Continue
   to heat the mixture for another hour, stirring
   occasionally.


5. Ladle the mixture carefully into a saucepan, leav-
   ing larger bits of debris (bark, elephant hair, bugs,
   etc., from the dammar resin) in the bottom of the
   skillet. Wipe these away with a paper towel. Then
   pour the mixture through a strainer or a fine metal
   sieve back into the skillet.


6. Finally, ladle the medium into pre-oiled muffin
   tins and allow it to set. You can cool them in the
   refrigerator and pop the cakes of medium out of
   the molds when they are very hard.
   Warning: Never use these utensils again for cook-
   ing, even if they do look clean.

WORK.INC WITII ENC .... USTIC M .... T E R I .... I.S I 101