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Encaustic Paint
If you want to do encaustic painting the best way to learn is to make your own encaustic paint. Even if you prefer to buy ready-made encaustic paints, making your own at the beginning will give you a better understanding of the medium.
The basic method is to melt beeswax and then stir in a colored powdered pigment.
The most common method is to add another ingredient to the beeswax to produce a harder finish and a higher melting point.
The usual ingredient used is gum damar. Damar resin comes from fir trees, and if you have ever leaned against a fir tree you may have experienced how sticky the resin can be. You will not need to collect your resin from fir trees. It can be bought directly from speciality stockists like Daniel Smith.
At Daniel Smiths you can buy all the ingredients (i.e. gum damar, beeswax and powdered pigments) needed to make encaustic paint.
Encaustic paint has been used for over a thousand years and is still widely used to-day.
Its main benefit is that it is waterproof and the colors will not fade. Another benefit is that it can be re-softened and altered.
How to make Encaustic Paint
Basic Ingredients:
Clear or bleached beeswax.(In granule, pellet, pastille or wax cake form.)
Gum Damar Crytals.
Powered Pigment.(For very small quantities you can use oil paint or inks.)
Tools required:
A pan to soften and mix the wax.
A plastic or wooden spoon for stirring.(You can use a metal one but it can get quite hot.)
A heated source like a hotplate to put the melting pan on.
Oven gloves.
A muffin tray to use as moulds.
An empty can to pour the liquid wax into the moulds.
Something to grind down the Gum Damar to make it easier to melt.
An old coffe jar lid or egg-cup to use to measure amounts.(You can also use your kitchen scales but be careful to wash thoroughly if you subsequently use them for cooking ingredients.
1. Put your pan onto the heated surface.(Don't make it too hot; 90°C or 198°F)
2. Add the beeswax and melt it.
3. Add the Damar and stir while it melts. It gets quite sticky so have two spoons or sticks so you can scrape the Damar off when it sticks to the spoon.
4. When everything is melted (don't worry if there are small bits in it from the Damar) transfer to the muffin tray (or other moulds you may be using) using the empty can.
5. Dip your can into the pot of melted wax and just get enough to almost fill one muffin mould.
6. If you have too much in your can pour the excess back into the pot. Do NOT pour the wax directly from the melting pan into the muffin tray.
7. Add your chosen pigment to the wax in the muffin mould. About a teaspoonful should be sufficient. Stir until the pigment is completely absorbed. Don't use the same spoon for different pigments. Always use less pigment rather than too much as it can be melted again and more pigment added. If you feel the wax is congealing too quickly when you are stirring in the pigment rest the muffin tray on a warm surface.
Specialist encaustic tools can be bought including heat-lamps, heated palettes, heat guns and heated metal tools. An old travel iron can be used to improve effects.
Encaustic paint can be used on most surfaces but not on any surface which is likely to get very hot.
To make their ships watertight, the ancient Greeks covered them in melted beeswax and mixtures of wax and resins. Adding colour to the wax and wax mixtures, at first became a way of distinguishing between trading ships from different ports. Later it was used to show the allegience of military ships to warious areas. The decoration became complex.