Have you been interested in making your own encaustic medium? Are you wondering why you can’t just use any wax and melt away? Here’s some answers!
Have you tried melting wax on a piece of canvas? It looks cool! But then you move it to a different room, and BAM, some of it chips off! Why does that happen?
Wax is not strong enough to adhere to something on its own. You need to take some precautionary measures to make sure your work stands the test of time.
- Use a hard, absorbent substrate: cradled panel, MDF board, raw wood are all very good surfaces to work on. Wood is naturally absorbent and the hard surface makes it easy to melt wax onto, scrape back, and there’s no warping.
- Use a white ground: white encaustic gesso, white chalk paint, venetian plaster or joint compound are all perfect grounds to use on your wooden surface to get a clean, white background. That helps to brighten up your colors without having to use so much white pigmented wax.
- Fusing with a heat gun, craft iron or torch: Fusing is a must! Fusing is the process of heat setting each layer of color or wax that you lay down. When you fuse that first layer of wax, I prefer a torch. I like to start with a smooth surface and make sure the wax really melts into my substrate. If I’m laying down collage, I’ll use the craft iron. If I’m adding pan pastels, I might just heat lightly with the heat gun. Whatever you decide, keep it moving but experiment with the different techniques achieved.
- EVERY LAYER MUST BE FUSED TO THE LAYER BEFORE: I’m not yelling at you, it’s just that this is that important. If you do not fuse every layer, there will be air bubbles trapped or moisture could appear. Sometimes you don’t notice it until a couple days later, and then you will have to scrape back and fuse again.
- Use encaustic medium: Encaustic medium is made from beeswax and demar resin. Different companies all have different ratios of besswax to demar resin. Watch my video to learn how I make my own:
Hope that helps to answer any questions you might have, but feel free to ask more questions! Have fun creating!