Make Encaustic Medium
Once you learn to make encaustic medium, a whole new world of painting has opened up to you. This ancient art medium makes a wonderful addition to your artistic techniques - use it on your paintings or collages to give them a different, luminescent look.
Instructions
1. Purchase Damar crystals, encaustic paints and beeswax from a local art supply store, or order online from one of the supply stores such as RF Handmade Paints.
2. Grind the Damar resin crystals into a fine powder with a mortar and pestle. You can also place the crystals in a plastic bag and crush them with a hammer or rolling pin.
3. Heat water in the double boiler until it is hot and add approximately one third of your beeswax to the top of a double boiler. The wax will start to melt when the water temperature reaches 140 to 150 degrees F.
4. Measure one part Damar resin to eight parts of beeswax. You can easily adjust the ratio to make the encaustic medium the consistency that suits your painting style the best. Add more dammar resin to max the wax harder, however if you add too much Damar resin, the encaustic medium gets brittle.
5. Raise the temperature gradually making sure to watch the reading on your thermometer. Stir the wax until it melts completely.
6. Add the powdered Damar resin when the temperature of the wax set reaches 200 degrees F. Keep stirring it until the resin melts into the wax.
7. Mix in the rest of the beeswax stirring constantly until everything has melted together.
8. Pour the mixture into the paper candy cups or cupcake pan liners making sure that each one contains approximately the same amount of encaustic medium. Allow the wax mixture to cool.
