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Thursday 5 April 2018

Dried up Cosmic Shimmer Gilding Wax- A fix that works!

Right, so this problem appeared a few days ago. I was gifted a whole bunch of these pots, about a year ago, and hadn't as yet used them. I tried to use one last weekend, only to discover it was totally hard inside the pot. And I mean hard- almost like a stone! No amount of rubbing the surface, or even trying to scrape it yielded anything at all. So, I made use of Google to see if there was a way of retrieving them, as of the 15 or so pots I had, almost every single one was solid.
 As you can see from these two pictures, the wax has gone totally solid in the pots. The pink one has even shrunk away from the sides of the pot.
 What I did discover was that apparently this issue of them hardening in the pots had appeared a while after the product had been available. The info I found said that Creative Expressions, who make this product, had released a Blending Solution to help. As far as I knew, I didn't have any- but later discovered I did- but in the info I found, one person suggested using turpentine to soften it, as it was wax based. I didn't like that idea at all, as for starters, I hate the smell, and I also thought that the turps smell would linger in the product, especially as they are in closed jars.





After giving it a little thought, I wondered if other products you can buy- Gamsol/Low Odour Thinners( Daler-Rowney) or Zest it would do the job, as they are meant for blending wax pencils?

 I actually first did this experiment with a pot of blue, which I didn't photograph beforehand, but it was exactly the same.
 The first product I tried was the Daler Rowney Low Odour Thinners, and I have to say, I really can't smell anything from it at all. I made a few grooves in the top of each pot, and added 1millilitre to the green one, which was how much I ended up using in the blue one.
 I put the lid back on, and left it to soak in.

I gave the pink one the same amount of Zest-It, and by then I'd discovered I also had the Creative Expressions Blending Solution, I must have received that along with the waxes, so I used that one with the gold pot.

 I put the lids on them all, and left them overnight.
By the way, if you do have a problem with any chemical smell, as the name suggests, the Zest it has a Citrus smell.




 I have some small syringes I use for silicone glue, so that's how I knew how much I was adding. I'd guess it amounts to about 10 drops.






  Next day, I took off the lids, and the wax had softened enough I was able to smoosh it round with a palette knife. Yesterday, I'd struggled to score lines in them with a scalpel!









This was the blue after I'd softened it.













I've rubbed some onto some textured black card, so you can see they are now useable.


I can't honestly say any one of the solutions worked better than another,they all did the job perfectly well.


So, if you have a bottle of Gamsol/ Low Odour Thinners , or they can be easily found in a local art supply store, then I'd go with that for ease of availability. Zest-It is available through Amazon, certainly, and the Blending Solution is available from a number of craft stores, if you run a Google search for it.

 What I don't know is why they had a problem with it hardening. I don't know if it was a problem with the product itself, or, as I suspect, it's the fit of the lids which don't to me seem to be airtight. They are also very easy to cross thread, which is annoying.
 I hopefully have a solution to the fit of the lids, which I'm trying out.




What I've done is add a square of cling film over the top of the pot before putting the lid on, and I'll report back in a few weeks if the newly reconstituted wax stays soft.



So, I hope this is helpful- these pots of wax are not cheap, and certainly I'd not be happy about having to just toss them out, especially if I'd gone out and bought them.

One thing I would suggest is to carefully assess just how dried out your pots are before deciding how much solution to add, whichever one you choose.  Like I said, mine were rock solid, and I tried it with one pot first, figuring as it was unusable anyway, I had nothing to lose.
 I'd say try a few drops- maybe 5- first off, scoring lines in the top of the wax if you can. Leave overnight, and if need be you can always repeat the process.
 The info I found about the CS Blending Solution says you can add a few drops to a little wax, and mix to make a paint, so it would be possible to thin them down too much to use as a gilding wax. You can always add more if needed, but you're not going to be able to take it away, unless you left it open to dry out again!

24 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Hi Shaz, thanks for this information. As we no longer have a handy art shop, I'll be doing an online search. I have asthma so the low odour thinners or the Zest It would probably be best. Hugs, xx

BethB said...

I haven't even used gilding wax but found this fascinating. So thank you, Madam Scientist!

(bjeans from SCS)

cuilliesocks said...

Hi Shaz, great informative post, thank you. I had some of the gilding wax yonks ago and the same thing happened, so I binned them all, meaning that I've never bought any of the was again, but now I know what to do for the future if I fancy buying more, thanks again, Kate x

Mrs A. said...

I bought Inka Golld gilding wax several yrs ago now and it has done the same thing so it isin't just a brand thing. Thanks for the remedies you have suggested. Hugs Mrs A.

Welsh Dors said...

Thanks Shaz. I have had this problem with Inka-gold and Creative Expressions gilding wax, and vowed not to buy again, it's too much trouble trying to soften them. I wish pebeo would do theirs in smaller pots, the 30ml pots are far to expensive for my occasional use.

Sarah Brennan said...

I already threw out several of mine but will try it on some of the others as I do have the blending solution.

Aimeslee Winans said...

Food-grade glycerin will work too, although I have no idea if it works comparable to your helpers. This problem is with Nuevo Mousse and Inka Gold and DecoArt Metallic Lustre as well. xoxo

Carmen said...

This is really helpful - I too went to use a gold gilding wax I'd been given but never used and it was rock hard. I have some zest it so will give that a try - thank you :)

Zsuzsa Karoly-Smith said...

Great idea, Shaz! I have had trouble with those dried up waxes as well. I think I have some of the zest solution lying around so will try to save them. I used to put the pots in hot water to soften them, but it didn't really make much difference.

Shaz in Oz.CalligraphyCards said...

Lashed out years ago Shaz and bought two of these and they’re rock hard very sad think stillhave them, and have odourless mineral spirits so will try recall that .. ta muchly. Xxx

Harne Angelic said...

Many thanks for this help . 2 out of 3 of mine have hardened and I was also under the impression I would have to throw the: away but thanks to you I will now be able to salvage them . Shame Cosmic shimmer don’t supply something along these lines or at least information about the issue . Thanks again for you working it out and saving us all a lot of wastage .

The Wandering Wells said...

A really informative blog. I have a couple of Cosmic Shimmer Building Waxes that have dried up too. I had some low-odour turps which has softened them really well so they are now all usable again.

Vikvik said...

Brilliant piece of info ty.Now all ive gotta do is find out if theres something i can do with Creative Expressions glitter kiss thats now dried into a pretty rock!

Joan said...

Thanks for this information.I bought some of the gilding waxes a few months ago and had never used them, tonight I found one of them is drying out, more like a jelly than a cream and doesn't go on smoothly, I have some low odour thinners and may have some gamsol so will try a drop or two of that, I also have some Inka golds that are drying out too so will try it on them as well. Thank you for sharing your expertise

saltylass said...

Thank you for sharing your experience. Much appreciated

Craftydot said...

Hi Shaz, I have quite a few gilding waxes not cosmic shimmer but larger pot, and they have all gone hard so I will give this a try.craftydot.

Shoshi said...

Very helpful, Shaz. Probably any oil-based thinner would do. I wonder if WD40 would work? That stuff is amazing! What about alcohol ink blender or rubbing alcohol? I've got some Treasure Gold gilding waxes and so far they seem to be OK - I use the gold one mostly. I've got a little palette somewhere of different coloured ones. Not sure what make they are, and I haven't used them for so long that they are probably dried up. I'll have to look for them.

Shoshi x

Jules said...

Thank you Shaz! - I went to use mine last week and found they had all dried out too. I will be giving it a go and will be delighted if I dont have to throw them all away. I am wondering if it will work with the glitter kiss also. I feeling hopeful! Thank you.

Unknown said...

I work as a professional sprayer for a joinery company and love these waxes. The odour doesn't bother me personally because I deal with cellulose 2 pack paints and lacquers. You can add a few drops of cellulose thinners to soften or alcohol. Isopropyl or likewise. The best thing though about these waxes is that I can gilt a piece of furniture if I choose and then seal them in by spray lacquering over the top..
It dries perfectly. In addition clear car lacquer in a can which is weather resistant of course seals them in as well.
To me this gives them the advantage over water based waxes which are not quite as cooperative with lacquer. BTW. I seal the waxes in because we cannot send furniture out with products that can rub off through cleaners dusting them. Tim Vigo

Unknown said...

Hi Shaz, Oh, am I glad I found this very helpful tip!!! Thank you for sharing. I have so many pots of gilding waxes in beautiful colours and practically all of them have hardened. Three years ago I contacted the company I had bought a set from and they sent me a complimentary set as replacements saying that they had experienced similar problems and were looking into redesigning the pots. Now these have gone the same way BUT I can reliven them all thanks to you. I have now ordered some of the Low Odour Thinners and can't wait to get started.

Mrsdantheman said...

Hi,

I'm so glad I found this. I went to use my gilding waxes the other day and they have all gone hard. Yours was the only information I found that was helpful. I did try to find the Creative Expressions blending solution, but no on has any, so I have used the Zest It. Can I ask, you did this blog in 2018, are they still usable or have you had to add some more solution to them? Thank you

Unknown said...

I posted a comment on 24 May about your post and thought you'd like an update. The Odour-free Thinners arrived and I treated ALL my gilding waxes with it. I left them all overnight - with a plastic film between pot and lid - and mixed them all the next day. I found that the majority were fabulous but there were a few REALLY dry ones which I treated again. They are now kept stored with plastic film in place with lid firmly screwed on. I suspect periodic treatments will be necessary but at least they are all now perfectly useable. Thank you. For the cost of the thinners I have saved a lot of money on replacements!!

Unknown said...

would this work with gilding polish?

Sue Abbott said...

It seems we have all had this problem and I was just about to thro whine but I thought I would google it. Thank you so very much for the help and suggestions x

An End of an era

An end of an era

I write this with a broken heart, that only time can heal My beautiful, wonderful wifelet Shaz (Silverwolf) passed away peacefully in the ea...