Quark and Oil Glaze

Introduction

This glaze is a sophisticated variation on the milk paint theme, allowing for beautiful effects of layering one or alternate colors over another. Use on absorbent surfaces, white for a base background or the color of your choice. It also makes a wonderful topcoat over milk paint (lime or borax type) to deepen the color, make it more waterproof, or provide a medium for special effects.

Ingredients

  • Quark (see our Milk Paint recipe)
  • 1 cup Boiled Linseed Oil
  • 80 grams of pigment or Mica powders
  • Water for slaking pigments and lengthening glaze

To create a glaze, follow the milk paint recipe to create your quark. For this amount (800ml of quark made from 1 gallon of milk) you would add 1 cup of Boiled Linseed Oil. Once your quark is created, rinse the curds with fresh water. Place them in your paint container and whip them with an electric beater while slowly drizzling in the oil until completely emulsified. Next add your pigment or mica powder that has been slaked (soaked) in an equal volume of water to make a homogenous paste. Once fully mixed, dilute with water to create a glaze consistency. Apply with a wide brush suitable for glazing. Each coat will take 2 or 3 hours to dry. Once complete, the oil in the glaze will take several days to completely dry. Wash tools in warm, soapy water. Glaze can be a wonderful medium for experimentation. Some pigments will work better in glazes than others, depending upon their transparency.