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Beewax colors
#1
So here is the question.

How to dye naturally beewax? How many colors, especially for tablets, Romans had used?

For the black, I need charcoal.

But what do I need for red color to make it accurate?

And what others colors were in use? Green? Blue?

I want to use same ways for dying like Romans, not our modern ways to dye beewax.
Damian
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#2
(06-01-2016, 06:33 PM)Damianus Albinus Wrote: So here is the question.

How to dye naturally beewax? How many colors, especially for tablets, Romans had used?

For the black, I need charcoal.

But what do I need for red color to make it accurate?

And what others colors were in use? Green? Blue?

I want to use same ways for dying like Romans, not our modern ways to dye beewax.

Use any suitable natural pigments these can be obtained from any good artists suppliers, the method is called Encaustic (wax) Painting...
Ivor

"And the four bare walls stand on the seashore. a wreck a skeleton a monument of that instability and vicissitude to which all things human are subject. Not a dwelling within sight, and the farm labourer, and curious traveller, are the only persons that ever visit the scene where once so many thousands were congregated." T.Lewin 1867
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#3
Yea, in the end I was thiniking about it but first I want to try 100% accurate ways of dying like charcoal but I have no idea what kind of plants/minerals/anything I should use for it.
I could not find any references in the Internet about ways to dye beewax in ancient style.
Damian
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#4
(06-02-2016, 06:09 PM)Damianus Albinus Wrote: Yea, in the end I was thiniking about it but first I want to try 100% accurate ways of dying like charcoal but I have no idea what kind of plants/minerals/anything I should use for it.
I could not find any references in the Internet about ways to dye beewax in ancient style.

This is what I mean by natural pigments:
 
http://www.kremer-pigmente.com/en/pigmen...1.01..html

as you can see there are many mineral and organic derived colours available... Kremer are experts at producing historic colours and will happily answer query's in my experience...


You can read Pliny the Elder on Art and colours here:

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text...hapter%3D1
Ivor

"And the four bare walls stand on the seashore. a wreck a skeleton a monument of that instability and vicissitude to which all things human are subject. Not a dwelling within sight, and the farm labourer, and curious traveller, are the only persons that ever visit the scene where once so many thousands were congregated." T.Lewin 1867
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#5
What's our sources on staining beeswax being used historically? Nowadays they mostly stain wax (for modelmaking at least) to distinguish the different types except for when making candles and the like. I've only just started to look into this for displays myself.
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#6
I have been using natural pigments from Sinopia to dye my wax for wax tablets. Red ochre and black iron oxide, though maybe they processed these to some extent.

I understand that only black and red are mentioned in literature and depicted in wall frescoes.

I do have friends who have asked for blue and purple. I tried adding chalk (was out of white pigment) to lighten the blue but the wax dried dark anyway.

I have found pure beeswax too soft to be used for painting anything you will handle. Encaustic artists add some resin to it, say 10%, to create a harder, stickier, and higher melting point wax mixture.
Richard Campbell
Legio XX - Alexandria, Virginia
RAT member #6?
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