Kremer Dammar Gum

• Dammar is a natural plant resin obtained from trees native to Southeast Asia and supplied in irregular lumps or pieces with a characteristic pale yellowish colour.
• Traditionally used in painting for making varnishes and oil painting mediums, adding transparency, brilliance and a glossy finish.
• Highly soluble in gum turpentine (artist's turpentine) and suitable as a base for preparing traditional dammar varnish.
• Dammar solution can also be used as an ingredient in painting mediums and glazing mediums, combined with suitable oils and solvents.
• Dammar varnishes produce a transparent, glossy surface and have traditionally been used as final varnishes for oil and tempera paintings.
• As a natural resin, dammar may yellow and show signs of ageing over time. For this reason, synthetic varnishes are often preferred for contemporary works where greater long-term stability is required.

Preparing Dammar Varnish

• As an indicative traditional ratio, use 100g of dammar resin to 200ml of gum turpentine.
• Place the dammar resin in a clean container, add the turpentine and allow the resin to dissolve, shaking or stirring occasionally.
• Once completely dissolved, filter the solution to remove any natural impurities and undissolved particles from the resin.
• For a thinner varnish or a lower degree of gloss, additional turpentine may be added.

Useful Information

• For preparing artists' varnishes and painting mediums, use high-quality pure or double-distilled artist's turpentine rather than general-purpose household turpentine.
• Store the prepared solution in a tightly sealed container, protected from light and heat.
• Dammar and dammar solutions are traditional artists' materials. The exact resin-to-solvent ratio can be adjusted according to the intended application, desired fluidity and degree of gloss.

No files available