Myrrh, Benzoin, and Franincense Tears as Resin base for ET

[KristyM]

I am a newbie-still waiting for my 2 deliveries of product from Blick and Sinopia.
My website www.kristinmorrill.net shows my work - mostly Watercolor to date but some oils and acrylics.
My question: Has anyone ever used Myrrh, Benzoin, and Franincense Tears as Resin base for ET?

[Salamander]

Nope ..... sounds pricey though ...... what gave you the ideas to use them?

[KristyM]

Old masters sometimes made a sheer varnish from these types of resins- also from copal...just wondering- because I :lol: happen to have a pound or more of each that I use as incense.

[Dimitris C. Milionis]

also from mastic

but I just burn them for the atmosphera

[turlogh]

Old masters sometimes made a sheer varnish from these types of resins- also from copal...just wondering- because I :lol: happen to have a pound or more of each that I use as incense.
I'd be very dubious of any resin base for ET. If you want to experiment, try making varnish and using that to provide a protective layer on top of ET. That would be much more in keeping with traditional "Old Master" practice.

[Alexandra van Cruyningen]

Hello Kristy,
What I know about the resin Benzoin is that it was very rarely used in some of the old varnish recipes, only for its odor. So it had no real use. I paint in egg tempera as well as in oil and you can use resin in tempera grassa, a mixture of egg yolk, destilled water, standoil and dammar varnish. When I paint with egg tempera I only use egg-yolk and distilled water. With oils I use natural resin very sparingly as they tend to yellow. If I use any for glazing I only use dammar together with standoil and turpentine. Resins are insoluble in water. So to use it in Egg tempera you have to make tempera grassa, which resembles oil in my opinion.
Hope this gives you an answer.
greetings, Alex.

[Khem Caigan]

My question: Has anyone ever used Myrrh, Benzoin, and Franincense Tears as Resin base for ET?

Hi, Kristy ~

I haven't yet gotten around to trying these resins in tempera grassa, but I have made varnish from myrrh and frankincense.

Recipes for these varnishes occasionally turn up in publications for luthiers, seldom for painters of any sort.

There is some very good advice in Sourene Arakelian's little pamphlet, *The Violin : Precepts and Observations of a Luthier : My Varnish, Based on Myrrh*, for anyone that cares to prepare either myrrh or olibanum/frankincense as a varnish.

Cors in Manu Domine,
~ Khem Caigan