Why I make my own cold wax

I didn’t start making my own cold wax out of principle. I did it out of necessity.

Commercial waxes have their place, but they assume a certain way of working — a certain pace, a certain scale. Once my paintings grew larger, those assumptions began to feel restrictive. Drying times didn’t suit the way I moved across a surface, and the viscosity wasn’t always what the painting required.

Making my own wax changed that relationship completely. I could adjust the balance — stiffer when I needed resistance, looser when I wanted flow. I could slow the drying when a painting needed time, or tighten it when it needed decisiveness.

Once the medium became something I controlled rather than accommodated, the process opened up. The wax stopped being an effect and became part of the structure of the painting itself.

That freedom — especially at scale — has been quietly transformative.