Gum Arabic, might be more suited to the region. My dabblings with tree and damar is that they are brittle unless very thick in section. Mixed with bees wax makes it much less brittle but opaque and the colour will depend on how dark the wax is. Adding powdered charcoal also seems to add to the hardness. There are resins that when set are not brittle and clear, I have examples but have no idea what the source is.
Picture of resins and small piece of resin with beeswax and 1kg block of beeswax actually two 500g blocks fused together. Dark colours might come from resin found in the wild or locally preperation as opposed to buying an industrial prepared product. Also one has now idea what additions and handling an item might have been through in the original making.
Last edited by Tim Simmons; 19th March 2011 at 09:58 AM.
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