It depends on your use. I’ve never used soy wax, most that I have come across are too soft, though- Made for candles… Might be OK if Damar is added.

Beeswax is preferred- at least by me, and the majority of encaustic artists I know. Some use it pure, others mix it, with Damar for hardness and a bit more heat tolerance. You can also mix it with parafin. Beeswax is pleasant to work with, and non toxic.

Parafin does have its uses in art, too- But it is FAR more brittle than beeswax, and its probably not a great idea to use it alone unless the support you are working on is very rigid. I do know of some artists that use it in more sculptural work. Often, though, they will mix it with other waxes, like beeswax, to make it a bit more flexible. Parafins are petroleum based waxes, and don’t have that nice pleasant smell that beeswax does. The advantage, though, is parafin is CHEAP.

You can get beeswax online various places, and it’s usually a LOT cheaper than the stuff you buy at art supply stores. I use pharmaceutical grade, white beeswax, filtered as opposed to chemically bleached. ‘Natural’ beeswax is yellow, you want it white so it doesn’t interfere with the pigments you add to it.

-Andrew

Some great information about wax so far!
This is how I use wax…

Soy wax is CHEAP so it’s a great way to clean brushes
Paraffin wax is CHEAP as well, so I use that to clean brushes as well

Bees wax is INCREDIBLE, the smell, the texture. I make my own medium following the recipe posted here on wet canvas, using damar crystals to make it a little harder. I use both refined and unrefined depending on the need for the piece. I mix all my mediums with oil paints.

Microcrystalline wax is a great alternative to bees wax, it’s cheaper than bees wax but more expensive than soy or paraffin. I generally use this when I’m experimenting with pieces, and then when I’m happy, I use bees wax to make the final piece. You don’t have to mix damar crystals with this wax, it has a higher melting point than bees wax, but it’s not nearly as pleasant to work with as bees wax. (aboveground art store in toronto sells it about as cheaply as I’ve found)

A friend I know mixes paraffin wax with micro at about 1/4 ratio and uses that as their medium, it further cuts down the cost.

Hope that gives you some more choices

Elinor, one thing to remember is that paraffin melts at a lower temperature which means that the flash point comes sooner so you do have to be very attentive when heating (mind you you need to be attentive when heating any wax).

If you know anybody who keeps bees you may be able to get the raw wax from them (dirty & full of pollen, bee parts, dirt & general debris) which keeps the cost way, way down. I’ve gone that route and it is not hard or too time consuming to clean/filter it to make it usable. It does retain it’s golden yellow, and I find it wonderful to use as my base layers on the encaustic paintings. I save my white filtered wax to mix with colour pigments.

Over time pure beeswax will naturally produce a hazy bloom which may obscure your collage however when this happens just lightly burnish it with a soft cloth and it will disappear.

Elinor, I agree with sue, price isn’t the only point to consider when you work with wax. Melting temperature is definitely a key point. One thing I’ve been playing around with is putting different kinds of wax over each other, when you play with the temperature interesting things happen with the waxes and the elements in them, especially when you fluctuate above and below melting points of the different waxes! Another point that Sue mentioned is clarity, I find microcrystalline wax a little foggy (maybe it’s just a bad lot I got), but bees wax absolutely transparent. I agree with you about the natural element as well, I really like that idea.

Sue, I stopped at the Cheeky Bee in Warkwarth tonight and bought 5 pounds of white bees wax! 10 dollars a pound is a GREAT price, and it’s nice to know that it’s naturally refined, not bleached or mixed with other wax. The smell is AWESOME!
Sue, you wouldn’t know where you can buy damar crystals cheaply do you?
I’ve found some places in the US that sell it pretty cheap by the pound, but no luck so far in Canada.
LOL sorry for hi-jacking the thread for my own purposes.

Ah great, thanks for the advice!
I’ll keep looking around. I’ve been reading on the internet and it’s used for alot of things, and readily available, so I don’t understand why it’s so hard to get in bulk here in Canada. I read that it’s the same substance that’s used to coat the outside of boxes for vegetables that you find in grocery stores.

btw Elinor, damar resin crystals mixed with bees wax does a couple of things, it makes that wax alot harder, and it makes the wax crystal clear so you don’t have to worry about blooming (whitening, bees wax over time turns white, and you have to buff it to make it clear again).

One more word on soy wax – it is water soluable. So it will wash out, this is good if you want to get it out and bad if you are using a water medium that will erode the wax if you put a lot of washes or heavy washes or dye baths. this might be why it came out ‘indistinct’.

for Batik parifin cracks more than beeswax so I use a mix depending on the crackle wanted.

I think you might see running in warm weather on that piece, especially if it is humid.

Elinor, my recommendation is to call ahead to the Cheeky Bee in Warkworth to check on availability. Amanda may need to pour some of the 1lb white. Mind you, The Cheeky Bee and many other shops in Warkworth are such neat stores you may just want to go for the fun of a road trip.