I have been fascinated with encaustic painting for some years now and here you can see some photos of the process of making the beeswax and Damar resin medium.
The Encaustic Process
Preparing the Encaustic Medium
2. When it is melted the wax remains on top. Then you let it cool to separate it from the water.
4. Then comes the difficult task of blending the Damar resin into the purified beeswax.
The best way I have found is to use a double-boiler, and add the powder little by little, stirring constantly. It's more difficult than making genuine Italian polenta!!
5. And finally the medium disks can be melted and pigments are added for the desired colors. Some pigments are transparent and others are more opaque. It's part of the art of making your own paints.
1. First, to refine the bees-comb, you have to heat it in water to separate the leftover honey and occasional bee parts which remain inside. This must be done several times with cooling in between in order to get a pure beeswax.
3. After several cycles, you can create very thin disks by heating the wax in small bowls of water. This makes the next steps easier. They can be exposed to sunlight for a long time to lighten the color of the wax...