Tyra L. Smith Cloud9@netnet.net
The damar crystals are actually a resin collected from a tree and can be found in most art supply stores (I got mine from Dick Blick). Damar Crystals are quite interesting to work with. First you get them and they are in these big chunks. So you need a pestle and mortar to crush them. Yes you NEED a marble pestel and mortar (which are cheap, around $10 or so, look at cooking supply web sites). You could put the crystals into a zip lock bag and bang the heck out of them. However, using a pestal and mortar allows you to full crush them to a nice powder consistancy that makes it much easier for them to melt. When you crush them, be sure you're wearing gloves of some type and a paper mask. The "powder" sort of gets on your hands and is sticky and you sure wouldn't want to breath in the damar crystal powder. I guess if you were crushing just a little, it wouldn't be a big deal. But I crushed a lot of it at once and took precautions. I also purchased refined beeswax (which is pure white) to use, it is in these little pellets and makes it very easy to measure and use.

I did some experiments mixing and the melting beeswax and damar crystals. I did use my melting pot and it does get hot enough on the highest setting to melt this mixture, but I had issues with it melting mixtures with a higher damar content. When working with the mixtures, I used non-stick aluminum foil as my work surface-it works great for this!

I started out with a ratio of 2 parts beeswax to 1 part damar. This melts to a very thin consistancy (almost like water), pours and moulds extremely well. When cooled and dry....the piece is very much like beeswax, soft and easily marred with a fingernail. Very pretty though. It is easily trimmed too.

Then I did 1 part beeswax to 1 part damar. Once again, melts thin, pours and moulds well and is still very similar to beeswax once cooled....soft and easily marred with a fingernail. Also easy to trim if needed.

Then I did 1 part beeswax to 2 parts damar. This takes a little more time to melt and you need to stir it a bit more to mix. It is thicker in consistancy, but still pours and moulds beautifully. When cooled, this is harder and more like resin and less like beeswax. Once cooled...when you hold it the heat from your hand makes it slightly tacky. I need to see if I can spray it with a sealant to get away from the tackiness. Easy to trim if needed, but it tends to trim differently. Its not like using an exacto to trim wax (like the above ones are)....its different, but you can still trim them.

Then I did 1 part beeswax to 3 parts damar. This also takes more time to melt and mix, but does so nicely. It is fairly thick like honey and cools to a nice hard resin-like piece that you cannot mar with a fingernail. You can trim this one too...though it want to "break off in tiny pieces" more than trim. If you are careful with an exacto, you can get a good trim on it. I did some small mask moulds with the eye holes and was able to trim the eye sockets nicely, but it took some time and patience. This mixture also goes a bit tacky from the heat of your hand.

All mixtures are remeltable.

I didn't have any real problems with air bubbles. When it all melts, there are lots of bubbles on the bottom of the pan, but as it reheats to max temp, the bubbles pop. The higher the damar content, the thicker the mixture becomes, but the bubbles really aren't a problem.

The higher the damar content, the more the brittle the piece becomes too. At a 1 to 3 mixture (beeswax to damar)....if you have a piece that has some points or areas sticking out of the main body....they can break off if the piece is dropped or heavily abused. The other mixture ratios don't seem to have that problem.

I also played around with tinting the mixture. I used oil pastels to tint. Just shave off a few tiny pieces and drop it in and mix. I used cray-pas oil pastels. This would mean that you could probably use crayons too. I also stirred in some pearl ex...works nicely. I brushed pearl ex into one mould and then poured the mixture in. What I found was that the area that had pearl ex on it did not get tacky when holding it. Very interesting. I did not try using any heavy moisture content products (like liquid or tube watercolors, acrylics) to tint with. I would think that the higher the moisture/water content is, the less likely the product will be to mix thoroughly into the damar/beeswax mixture. If you had cake watercolors...I would imagine you could shave or break off parts of it and put that into the beeswax/damar mixture for tinting. I think you get the idea here!