Mixing Shellac Myself and Using it in my Shellac Burns

mixing shellac

I have been really struggling with my dry shellac burns for a while.  A dry shellac burn is a shellac burn where I let the shellac dry on the surface and then use my blow torch to burn it as opposed to applying shellac and then lighting it on fire.

Dry shellac burns can be a harder than wet burns because the quality of the cells you get depends on how heavy your hand is and the size of the flame you use with your torch.  It can be really tricky to get the balance right.  I also learned recently that the concentration and age of your shellac also makes a HUGE difference.  Shellac is only good fresh, and after a couple months it starts to deteriorate and won’t work as well when you try to use it in your encaustic paintings.

Mixing Shellac

I took a tip from one of my youtube subscribers (thank you Wing Nut Bert!)  and decided to order some shellac flakes and then try mixing shellac myself.

I ordered the 4 color sample pack from Highland Woodworking and bought a container of denatured alcohol from Home Depot.

You can make shellac in different concentrations.  These are referred to as pound cuts.  This refers to the amount of shellac in ratio to the alcohol.  A 1 pound cut uses 1 pound of shellac for every gallon of alcohol.  I did not mix that much shellac, so I needed to minimize the formula so I could mix just a small amount.  In the videos below, I’m using a 1 pound cut, a 2 pound cut, and then in the next video, a 3 pound cut.

1 and 2 pound cuts

I had some good luck with the 2 pound cut in the first video.  The 1 pound cut just wasn’t enough shellac to get good cells.  The colors, though, were really fun to experiment with.  When you buy shellac from the store, you get amber or clear.  Those were the only colors I ever saw available.

Buying your own flakes, however, comes with way more options for color.  I usually add pigment or alcohol ink to shellac, but it’s nice not to have to do that and still have a variety of hues to choose from.

3 pound cut

In this video, I used a 3 pound cut, and it was so perfect!  I’ll definitely be using 3 pound cuts for my shellac burns from now on.

I used alcohol ink to add color this time, and always worry I’m diluting the shellac too much.  But even with all the white ink I needed to add to overcome the yellow hue of the shellac, the burns were beautiful.

My biggest realization with all this has been that my heavy handedness with my torch is not as much of a problem when I’m using my own fresh, highly concentrated shellac.  Getting the balance of burning dry shellac is much easier when the shellac is high quality, thank goodness!  I still need to keep practicing to get as much control over my burns as I possibly can, but the process will be much less frustrating now.

Thanks so much for reading!  I hope this was helpful!  I’d love to hear your questions, and stay tuned for a new video on how I mix my shellac.