Our fall beeswax fun

Last week we spent a couple of days playing with beeswax.  My house has never smelled so delicious!

We don’t have any special equipment for melting wax, and in the past have just used a mason jar in a pot of hot water on the stove.  But, we wanted to make beeswax fall leaves and I knew that would be too much of a mess on the stove.  I remembered this “little dipper” crockpot that came with my full sized crockpot, and had never been used.  It proved to be the perfect thing for melting the beeswax.  Never again will it feel sad and unused, tucked behind my more popular kitchen appliances.  It will forever be our little beeswax pot.

Seth and I made a few beeswax leaves together while Jonny had the other kids out shopping one evening.

The next day, the leaf dipping continued.

There was a continuous influx of leaves as Larkspur, Gabe, and Keats took several trips through the yard to collect them (and they weren’t too picky I might add.  the concern was volume.  they wanted lots of leaves!)

Once we had a nice pile of waxed leaves I threaded a needle and we started stringing them.

Keats strung lots of them, carefully poking the needle through each leaf’s petiole.

(looking through my pictures I realize that I really need to purchase a new fingernail brush!)

My job was to hold the garland up, and to re thread the needle every now and then.

My arms got really tired!

Once our first garland was finished we hung it in the most obvious spot, from the mantle.

It looked really pretty there, and smelled so good too!

But then I came to my senses and realized that hanging beeswax coated leaves over a woodstove that will soon be in use full time was actually pretty stupid of me!

So, they got moved to a window.

And that works for me.  I am thinking that I like these so much that I might want to make some using green leaves too.  It might be nice to preserve a little green through the gray of winter.  I wonder how long they would keep their color?

Larkspur insisted on her own garland made of only leaves she collected and dipped (she got some green ones!) We hung it across the stair railing that is next to her little bed on the floor (which happens to be at the foot of mine and Jonny’s bed. btw is my grammar correct…mine and Jonny’s bed?? somebody correct me please.)

Larkspur loves decorating, so she is really pleased with her garland.  I like to sniff it as I walk up the stairs.

And full disclosure—little children dipping things in hot melted wax–it’s messy.  I recommend layers of newspaper in a large area if you don’t want to be scraping bits of wax off your counters and floors as I will be for the next week.  When we were finished I just unplugged the crockpot full of wax, let it cool and harden in the pot, and put it away until next time.

Oh, and one last thing:

Dipping flowers doesn’t work-they just shrivel up.  Trust me, Larkspur tried. 

p.s. all the photos of the kids, and of me were taken by Jonny

p.p.s.  I ordered beeswax from an Etsy.com shop-just searched beeswax.  You can buy beeswax in big blocks at the craft store but it is harder to work with.  Lots of times you can find it locally if you ask around at your farmer’s market.  Here’s another option at Amazon: BEESWAX PELLETS YELLOW 2-LB.  Those little pellets do melt really easily.

  We dipped each leaf once making sure it was all covered, then held it by the petiole over the pot to drip.  The wax hardens quickly to the touch.  We layed the leaves on wax paper as we made them and then strung them with a regular old sewing needle with regular coasts dual duty “heavy” sewing thread.  From what I understand the beeswax does preserve the leaves.