Organic Beeswax Wraps

We have had quite a few enquiries of late about fabric for making beeswax wraps. We have now added another section to our shop fabric menu, so you can see what can be used.

Janette wrote a blog about this a few weeks ago on her Verdant Living Blog:  So we thought we would add it here:

 

A few weeks ago Anthea from Eco Fabric NZ and I, (and my two year old) got together to make some Organic Beeswax Wraps. Anthea was given a kit for Christmas. A catch up was in order so thought we would give it a go whilst keeping Master Verdant old occupied.

Even though I have made Beeswax wraps before, it’s been a bit ad hoc, making it up as I went along, and I haven’t used the tree resin which makes it tacky. I thought it would be good to give it a try to see what using these extra ingredients would do to the finished product.

Here are our results:

We decided to wash the fabrics beforehand.  Because they are going on food, we may as well have something properly clean to start with.

We also gave them a good iron, which the heat just gives that just little bit extra of sterilisation.

We used the recipe given in the kit from Shaman’s Garden. But made a second batch with more wax I had lying around and Jojoba Oil from Kereru Oils.

We decided to use an old formula tin with a lid so we can store the left over for next time. It took a while for the resin to melt. Turns out Pine rosin melts at 100-120 degrees, so it meant that water in our makeshift double boiler definitely had to be boiling.

The oven was set at 150 degrees. And we just used oven trays. (Note for next time: make sure your oven trays are spotless clean otherwise you could transfer oils and stains onto your wraps.

We brushed on the hot liquid with a brush I had lying around. This is where Master Verdant came in. He loved helping out here.*

Then we finished it off in the oven. To let the wax soak into the cloth.

Here’s the result:

The finished product is good. The beeswax and oil wraps I have made previously take a bit of hand heat and moulding to get around the dish. Occasionally I have used a rubber band to get it to stay. The addition of resin in this recipe makes the wraps much tackier, so it can stick to itself more like cling film. Which is great, as that is what we are trying to replace.

Overall we are pretty pleased with ourselves, even if it took longer than anticipated. We got to experiment, catch up work wise and socially, the 2 year old was kept busy, and we made something we could use!

 

Here’s some of Vida’s Organic fabric we used:

*Disclaimer – not wanting to point out the obvious, but I am going to – If you do involve your children adult supervision is recommended. We wouldn’t want any little fingers being burnt with hot water or hot wax.

 

You can also use a number of different fabrics available on the Vida Textiles website, like our plain Organic Cottons, our brightly coloured Retro range, our organic calico, and all the fabrics in the Harmony Arts range.

We are creating a new fabric category under our Shop Button, so you can search there.