How to make beeswax wraps

At the risk of repeating myself (which I never do of course) I thought I would do a blog post specifically about how to make beeswax wraps to make it easier to find in the future even though I wrote about the process in my last post. Racheal now has the instructions written out in the post War on Waste and the Beeswax Wraps on our Simple Living Toowoomba website so it will be better to keep everything in the one post.

I will refer to Racheal's instructions as I go along but you might like to print them out from our Simple Living Toowoomba website if you plan to make some in the future. Firstly, you will need some cotton fabric and beeswax. There are usually local beekeeping clubs in most regions where you could buy the beeswax or try a market and if all else fails it is available online.

Racheal has experimented with using different methods and brought along the results for us to look at but for the workshop she demonstrated the beeswax/resin/oil option. The ratio is 1 part pine resin to 4 parts beeswax and 1Tablespoon of argan oil. She used 8T beeswax, 2 heaped Tablespoons resin and about 1T argan oil. Other oils can be used instead such as jojoba, olive, coconut and avocado oil.

Put the beeswax in a glass jar in a saucepan of water, add the resin and oil and melt. Then turn on the oven to about 150C and when the mixture has melted turn off the heat but leave it in the hot water to keep it melted while you prepare for it to go into the oven. 

 

 

Lay the cotton fabric on a baking tray and if your wrap is too big just fold the fabric in half. Then pour some of the mixture onto the fabric and....

....using a silicone brush or the back of a dessert spoon, spread it over the fabric. Put the tray into the oven for about five minutes by which time the wax would have spread and soaked into the cloth.

Take the tray out of the oven and quickly lift the fabric off the tray to let any excess drip off it. You might like to use tongs for this but Racheal used her fingers. An open window will help it set and then you can put it down or pass it around like we did at the workshop :-) 

There is no need to use pine resin but it makes the wrap more clingy apparently. Racheal bought hers on Etsy from Fine Cosmetics but it is also available from Ballina Honey.    Beekeep also sell a blend of beeswax, jojoba oil and pine resin.   

I hope this post as well as Racheal's instructions helps those who would like to use this method to make some beeswax wraps. Let me know how it turns out.