How to make cold wax medium
Home made cold wax medium
Now that the Cold Wax Medium is out of stock in both the Netherlands and England (I think the supply was disrupted by the Corona crisis?) I decided to make it myself and the result is fine and actually it is not so hard to make! It is certainly wise to do this outdoors or in a well-ventilated area as fumes can be released!.
Below you find the written recipe and the step by step but you can watch my YouTube Tutorial first (and don’t forget to subscribe for more🔔!:
Cold wax medium recipe
These are the cold wax medium ingredients that you need:
Filtered beeswax
Damar resin (not Damar varnish!)
Odorless Mineral Spirit (I use Odorless Miniral Spirits Gamsol from Gamblin)
and:
An old frying pan
An electric hotplate
Scale
Wooden Spoon
Jar or can to keep the Cold Wax Medium
A jar to mesure the OMS
A hammer to crush the Damar Resin chunks into powder
Infrared Thermometer
Funnel
Measure first:
275 gram beeswax
25 gram damar resin (powder)
275 gram OMS
Step by step DIY cold wax medium
1. Crush the Chunks Damar Resin into powder with a hamer.
2. Warm the odorless miniral spirit in a glass jar/measuring cup without a lid in warm water (room temperature, from the tap, au bain-marie). IMPORTANT: Do not use too hot, boiled water and never place it over a heater, otherwise it can catch fire! The turpentine should never get warmer than 37.8 degrees Celsius (100-120 degrees Fahrenheit).
3. Melt the damar resin in the frying pan on the hot plate, you can add about 1/3 of the beeswax as well. Stir well. Don’t let it get too hot, never warmer than 82 graden Celsius (180 degrees Fahrenheit).
DIY cold wax medium: melt the damar resin
Add the beeswax when the damar resin has completely melted
4. When the damar resin is dissolved completely, lower the temperature of the electric hot plate and add the beeswax. Keep stirring until it is completely dissolved too. The temperature of the mix should be between 65.5 degrees and 82 degrees Celsius (between 150 and 180 degrees Fahrenheit). Remove from the heat.
DIY cold wax medium: Melted damar resin and beeswax
DIY cold wax medium: Pour the mix into a jar
5. Pour the mix into a jar/container to store your Cold Wax Medium (use funnel to avoid spilling). Keep stirring until the temperature drops below 49 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit, this is important because the OMS ignites at 60 degrees (140 degrees Fahrenheit) so if it is still too warm before you add the OMS it can ignite). You can put it in a pan with (cold) water at room temperature to bring the temperature down. Keep stirring.
DIY cold wax medium: don’t add the OMS before the mixed cooled off a bit
Close the lit and the next day, your home made cold wax is ready
6. Only when the mix has cooled down, add the OMS and keep stirring while it cools. Store you Cold Wax Medium with a lid.
The next day your own home-made Cold Wax Medium is ready!
I would love to hear if you managed to make your own CWM, let me know, you can reach me at marinatvb@outlook.com
PS. If you want to learn more about painting with me, here’s things you can checkout now: