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Encaustic artists have always been inventive when it comes to tools. After a trip to your local hardware store, homecenter, department store, or a yard sale or two you should be able to put together enough tools to get started. We have some specific tools that R&F has developed in the R&F Tools Section. PalettesA heated palette is used to melt the colors and keep them molten. From archeological findings, it seems that the Greek painters used bronze boxes containing hot coals. Over the box was a grid of depressions for holding molten colors and keeping implements warm. A hot palette can be made with a thick sheet of aluminum on hardwood legs and set over a temperature-adjustable hot plate. Electric griddles, frying pans, or chafing dishes can lso be used as palettes. The palette also provides a platform on which to keep knives and brushes warm and ready for use. Colors can be melted directly on the palette or can be kept separate in cups, such as food cans or muffin tins with non-stick coatings. The melting temperature of R&F encaustic paint is approximately 162° F (72° C). The working temperature does not need to be much higher. Care should be taken. Too high a sustained temperature can decompose the wax and some pigments, making them toxic. A palette temperature around 200° F (93° C) should be adequate. A candy thermometer can be used to determine a proper setting, but the setting does not need to be exact and can be easily judged by eye. The paint should be well melted and fluid. If it does become too hot (about 275°F, 148°C), the sweet smell of the beeswax will become acrid, and the wax will smoke. Some painters keep their cups in a hot water bath. This is a very safe way to control temperature, but it also keeps the paint cooler, so that when the paint is applied, more thorough and careful fusing is required on the painting. Tools For PaintingPliny mentions three tools for applying the paint: the cestrum, the cauterium, and the brush. The cestrum (from the Greek for point),says Pliny, was used for working on ivory. It was pointed on one end like a stylus and flattened or spoon-shaped on the other end. Its use can only be guessed at, but, as noted previously, it may have been to inscribe into the ivory and fill the incisions with paint. The cauterium (branding iron), also known as rhabdion (little wand), was spatular on one end and rounded on the other. Both the cestrum and the cauterium were made of bronze and probably heated on the palette and used to model and fuse the paint. The brush was originally used only for tempera painting. Crude brushes were used for applying wax paint to ships, but early encaustic panel painting seems to have been laboriously done only with the metal tools. Pliny says that brushes were later adapted for encaustic work. Many of the Fayum paintings show the marks of both brush work and modeling. The same tools in modern form are used today. Brushes are the most basic instrument for applying the paint. They are easy to work with and versatile. As with oil painting, bristle brushes do much of the all around work. The softer brushes, such as sable or badger, are good for glazing and other delicate applications. Only natural hair brushes should be used. Synthetic brushes will melt. For textural work and modeling, palette and paint knives, carving knives, razors, spatulas, scrapers, scribers, dental tools, modeling tools, etching tools, electric irons, and found objects can all be used to create distinctive marks. To clean brushes, keep a container of any cheap wax on the palette. Work the brush in this and wipe clean. No solvent is necessary for encaustic painting. If it is necessary to de-wax a surface or a tool, the best solvent is mineral spirits. Beware that the fumes from using a solvent to clean heated implements can be quite irritating and their toxicity is increased. Wear a respirator. Beware, too, that heating a solvent increases its flammability. Tools For Fusing
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Hot Air Guns and Nozzles
Propane
and Butane Torches