Completely dissolve the ammonium carbonate powder in hot water, strain it if it's not completely dissolved.

Also, the grainy could be two mixes were not the same hot temprature.

"Ammonium carbonate or ammonium hydroxide is common ammonia water found at Ace Hardware, dilute it 1:1 with water. Heat it to where it is just starting to boil before you pour it into the melted wax. The ammonia water and wax should be mixed 1:1. Never boil the wax. Don't stop stirring until it's cool."

Did you have a clear strong smelling ammonia water that you heated seperatly to about the same temprature as the melted wax, so the two would finally mix together without any heat reaction?

"The mixture will expand 10 times larger as it effervesces. Keep stirring it until this reaction subsides and remove it from the heat. Keep stirring for seven more minutes as it cools down. It will become more viscus and finally It should be as smooth and creamy as whipped cream.
The pan should be easy to clean out with soap and water, it it isn't you have a problem, and made it wrong."

I don't understand what mixture "seperated out" the next day and felt grainy. Was it the ammonia water you were making or the cera colla mixture?

Instead of household ammonia that has soap in it, get janitorial strength ammonia from a hardware store. Ace Hardware has it.

Hi Evelyn,

The acrylic mixes with cera colla very well.
I preferred the 1:1 mixture.

This may be a viable new medium.
The addition of acrylic added pliability. Three days of drying and I did another scratch test. Yes it still scratches like cara colla but I think it is a little more resistant. More time will tell.

The next time I use this medium I will make base medium using acrylic gel and cera colla 1:1 and put it in a tube. With that and my dry pigments it should be fun to paint with.

I haven't painted using ammonia yet, this medium uses both water and ammonia like oil paint uses turpentine and a oil additive like wax, mastic or copal. Ammonia is a key ingredient when painting with cera colla and is probably useful with acrylic cera colla.

Ammonia is mixed with acrylics to store and stop mold, so ammonia will probably be key in this new medium also.

http://www.realcolorwheel.com/ceracolla.htm

I shot the picture mixing Golden acrylic Green Gold and cara colla. There is 100% cara colla, 100% acrylic, 75% cara colla mixed with 25% acrlic, and 50/50.
I waited a day for it to dry because that's a knife blob of acrylic and cara colla. The next day I scratched everything. Cara colla is soft while acrylic is stays pliable but will not scratch as easily. If there would be any advantage to mixing the two it would be making the cara colla less likely to scratch, it didn't.

So.. while the 50/50 mix it did make it a little tougher and a little more glossy, the painting and handleing quality was the same.

Just to make sure about the final hardness and scratchability of the mix, I'll let it set for a month and scratch it again.