Colouring beeswax

[Tengu]

I plan on doing some scrimshaw and so will need some black beeswax.

...Or red...

...Or possibly other colours.

how do you colour beeswax?

or do you find some coloured beeswax candles?

 

[Graham_S]

Last time I did it, I used Charcoal powdered very finely, mixed with the wax for black.
For red, you could use ochre perhaps?

 

[Tengu]

Thats an idea.

anyone got any ochre?

 

[jojo]

I have heard, but not tried myself, of people using artist's oil paint to fill the scrimshaw's lines. I have used artist's paint to colour linseed oil and I don't see why the oils couldn't be used with the beeswax.

 

[Jimmy Bojangles]

Try a shop that supplies French polishers, they usually sell powders to be mixed with the button polish but I've used it mixed in molten wax before. I bought red ochre, and raw umber from this place. I've no link other than being a customer. W S Jenkins

Cheers

Mat

 

[Eric_Methven]

Cheap wax crayons will do the job. No need to spend lots of money.

 

[British Red]

What eric said. You can buy candle makers pigments to mix with beeswax to colour it. But its no better than wax crayon

 

[Toddy]

Crayons are good but if you really want authentic, then very old beeswax is dark brown/black. I have a block that's ideal for contrasting agin white......somewhere, I think it's in my leatherworking kit. If I can find it you're welcome to it Tengu.

If you really want to colour it red then there are two easy ways. One is to melt the wax and add cochineal.....I have some of the wee beasties dried out if you want a shot of it really as it was, and the other is to add some alkanet root. Alkanet doesn't give off colour in water or in alcohol, but it does in oil, and it'll flood warm oil with a rich dark purple if left long enough, but the first colour coming off is red. Add that to your wax and it'll colour it nicely. It's used in traditional recipes for cosmetics, like lipstick. If you use lots of wax though it won't melt like the lipstick, but it'll give you the colour.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Tengu]

I found this;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Earth-Pig...Crafts_DrawingSupplies_EH&hash=item1e56c694df

But I have some oil paints. Ill experiment with those. let you know how I get on