Distemper Recipe

Soft Distemper

Also known as Size Paint or Calcimine Distemper it is made from a mixture of Gilders’ Whiting (Calcium Carbonate), pigment, water and an animal glue size as binder.

It gives a smooth, matte finish, which, although having no shine, avoids a dull, lifeless look
 and is particularly suitable for use on molded plaster as it can be washed off before repainting so there is no build up of paint that can fill in and obscure intricate details.
Soft Distemper cannot be washed so it may not be suitable for areas that are likely to get a lot of human traffic.

Suitable surfaces
Best applied to bare plaster, lime plaster or a surface previously painted with a similar coating.
Seal first with Rabbit Skin Glue to reduce absorbency and prevent the paint being sucked
too quickly into the surface.
It may be possible to paint over acrylic emulsion paint but it is not as durable and in some instances, may not take at all. The only way to find out is to do a test swatch. Rubbing down the surface with fine sandpaper can help create ‘tooth’ to the surface for accepting Soft Distemper on top.

How to make Soft Distemper

Ingredients

200 gm Rabbit Skin Glue
1400 ml water
500 gm Gilders Whiting
1500 ml water
Pigment of choice

Process

Soak 200gm of Rabbit Skin Glue with 1.4 litres of water for two hours. This softens the granules. Dissolve the glue in the water by melting in a double boiler. This can be easily made by sitting one pan or bucket in a larger pan or bucket of constantly simmering water.
Stir until the glue granules have dissolved
Mix 500 gm of Gilders Whiting with 1.5 litres of water in the bucket and whisk to remove the lumps. Set it aside for 2 hours so that the whiting sinks to the bottom.
Carefully pour off the surplus water from the whiting. The Whiting will have fattened up in the water. Pour the hot, liquid glue through a strainer into the whiting. Whisk together to remove lumps.

Pigment may be added to colour the distemper. Mix well. Do a test swatch as the paint will dry lighter and more opaque.

Apply warm using a wide, flat decorators brush (We recommend a Spalter brush)
If Distemper cools it reverts to a gel and you may need to place bucket in sink of hot water to reliquify. Soft Distemper is a one-coat material so the paint edge has to be kept wet as you work.
If the edge dries and the coating has overlapped, the edge will appear darker.
Open windows when finished. Wash brushes in warm water.