Of the many appeals of encaustic is it's stability and permanence, the speed with which it sets and the ease with which it can be re-worked. While ancient encaustics survive intact, the medium is best known from the Fayum Portraits (portraits placed over mummy wrappings in Hellenistic Egypt). Unless subjected to severe heat and mechanical abrasion, encaustic is extremely long-lived. The paint sets as soon as it comes off the brush and can be opaque or have a beautiful translucence or transparency that can be worked up in layers without the wait associated the drying of other paint films. The paint can be scratched into for pictorial effects and can be blended with direct heat from metal tools, heat lamps or hair dryers. The finished work has a velvety, rich quality but can be buffed to a lustrous sheen. Encaustic medium is a mixture of clarified bees wax and damar varnish with turpentine... a dangerous mixture to make at home because of the danger of the vapors flash igniting. For a palette, you can use a cheap flat hot-plate rather than a special encaustic palette heater. Heated electric styluses, knives, and brass bristle brushes are available especially for encaustic painting, but you can use regular bristle brushes and painting tools almost as well. You can work oil colors into store-bought encaustic medium on a hot plate or just mix dry pigment into encaustic wax. For a traditional look you might want to stick to using earth pigments such as Venetian Red, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber, Terra Verte, and Mars Violet. A pound of these pigments is quite inexpensive.