All of the key raw materials that go into making premium quality Langridge products are also available to artists for their own studio practices.
We offer are a wide range of gums, resins, waxes and other ancillary raw materials for the home manufacture of paints, varnishes and other coatings. At Langridge we encourage and support artists who are forging their own way.
Langridge also offers traditional drawing inks and specialty finishes for artists and artisans.
Resins are available from either natural or synthetic sources. Traditionally, resins were derived from exudations of trees and shrubs. In essence they are oleoresinous saps where the volatile solvent content has been removed. Balsams fall into a class of oleoresins where the volatile compounds are still present. Synthetic resins are built from acrylics or other petro-chemical bases. They offer greater resistance to yellowing, embrittlement or blooming than natural resins.
Resins are supplied in a dry form, either lumps or beads, and need to be dissolved in an appropriate solvent to make fluid. They are very solvent specific for complete solubility. Natural resins should only be dissolved in genuine Distilled Gum Turpentine. Synthetic resins are most successfully dissolved in Artists White Spirit.
Natural resins, in particular damar are still used to this day. Damar is a key component in late nineteenth and twentieth century glaze medium recipes. The resin adds a hardness and clarity to the medium different to a simple oil medium.
Synthetic resins are employed for the manufacture of artist’s varnishes. Their relative easy resolubility in solvent makes them unsuitable for addition to oil mediums.
Gums are water-soluble binders and paint modifiers derived from both natural and synthetic sources. Their ready resolubility in water makes paints that can be rewetted for adjustment of the painting. Their use in watercolour, gouache and soft pastels, amongst others is due to binding qualities in low solids binding solutions.
Waxes are used for fine art applications including:
As a paint vehicle for encaustic and cold wax methods.
Also as an additive to oil mediums for thickening and matting.
Can be made into a final varnish for oil, acrylic and tempera paintings.
Waxes for artistic use are thermo-plastic, meaning their physical state can be altered between solid and fluid by altering their temperature. The melt-point needed to make our waxes fluid are relatively low and can be easily achieved in the studio.
Langridge glues are mostly animal derived adhesives. Their individual qualities and application depend on animal source and the manufacture process.
These protein colloid glues are formed through hydrolysis of the collagen from skins, bones and other tissues.
In addition to being used as adhesives, they are used for sizing canvas and as traditional binder for fine art and decorative arts.
Fillers are used for extending, altering the body or add texture to paints, mediums and grounds.
Chalks can used for the manufacture of traditional and modern primers.
A range of chemicals used in the manufacture of the following:
Water-based acrylic polymer bases and classic adhesives available for use by artists.
Useful for applications such as extending acrylic paints, reducing absorbency of substrates and as permanent, non-yellowing adhesives.
Traditional drawing inks built for their unique qualities of subtlety and variation in tone.
Following original recipes, these are not facsimiles or modern copies of the original inks, but built from the true raw materials and created through fermentation or steeping to produce genuine drawing and sketching inks of historical significance. They can, of course, be used by contemporary artists for modern applications.
Highly pigmented acrylic paint that dries to an super-matte finish with incredible colour vibration as if looking directly at a pure pigmented surface.
Inspired by Yves Klein’s ‘International Klein Blue’.
This powerful colour can be used in limitless ways from standard acrylic painting, wall coating, to application on sculptures.
Langridge’s Antique Metals range are genuine metal coatings for achieving specialty finishes on virtually any surface.
Paint on rust & verdigris finishes simply and easily with our complete system of primer, metal base, oxidiser and sealer.
For interior and exterior application. Water based acrylic-styrene binder gives the paint excellent weather resistance in outdoor application.
