Drawing patterns on carving wax

When drawing a layout on carving wax, you can use a black brush marker, If you don’t like the pattern, you can wipe it off and draw it again. However, a marker’s ink will tend to bead up on the wax surface. To break this surface tension, you can wipe the marker across a bar of soap before you begin drawing. Now the ink will evenly cover the surface of the wax.

If you are working on darker waxes, instead of a marker, use white tempera paint with a drop of dishwashing soap in it. However, make sure you wash off all of the paint before using a wax pen: Tempera paint, mixed into molten wax, can cause porosity. When the design looks acceptable, you can scribe through the pattern into the wax, then fill the scribed line with the marker or paint.