basic material checklist

Grounding:
To ground is to prepare your painting surface much like ‘priming’. Adding a white ground helps the upper layers of colour show through more prominently in your painting.

Grounding with Encaustic Paint:
To ground start by applying a layer of white encaustic paint on the raw surface of your support. Second, smooth out wax by fusing with heat gun. Bee’s Knees Encaustic Titanium White paint works well as a ground. You may also use clear beeswax and/or medium to ground.

Paper Grounds:
Water-colour, printmaking and rice paper work well when ‘grounded’ to a wood surface. Note: The thinner the paper the more the ground will show through when hot wax is applied. Tip: A tacking iron works well to adhere the paper to the initial wax surface.

Palette Tins:
You may find various styles of tins in craft stores, kitchen supply stores and beekeeping supply stores also look around your local salvage store for old pots and tins. If you buy or find a good quality tin you’ll never have to replace them.

Griddle/Hot Palettes:
Encaustic Hot Palettes are available now and you can find them all over the Internet. They have great, even heat surfaces and temperature control and are reliable. Griddles can be great too, used or new. However, depending on the make, they can sometimes heat unevenly and their temperature dials can become faulty over time and with extended use. I would recommend spending the money on a quality pancake griddle. You can find them at most kitchen supply stores.

Heat Gun, Torch, Tacking Iron:
For a heat gun it is best to find one with a good dial so you can control the temperature. You can find both at most hardware and some art stores. The torch is handy when working on large scale painting as it makes it easier to move around the perimeter without having the cord get in your way. A tacking iron is great for imbedding collage materials such as fabric and images to your painting and for grounding thick paper to your painting surface. They can be found at most arts and craft stores.

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