Countdown to Christmas - Day 14 (Beeswax Ornaments)

3 Beeswax Ornaments
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann

These are three of the eight ornaments that Sophia and I made. It takes about a pound of wax to make eight ornaments. In the window, the sunlight reveals the pattern.

I have wanted to make these ornaments for several months now after purchasing the beeswax and molds.  The ceramic molds were originally for cookies, but the designs lend themselves well to ornaments.

The first step was to melt the wax.  Sophia emptied a huge can of black beans and washed out the container.  I put the wax into the can and then into a heavy pot with a few inches of water.

One pound of wax melting on the stove.

The next step, once the wax was melted, was to pour it into molds.  Initially, we poured the wax directly onto the mold.  It ended up sticking.  One of the ornaments came off easily, but the rest stuck.  After getting the wax off, I put some vegetable oil onto the molds.  We re-melted the wax and tried again.

This time, there was too much oil and the ornaments looked greasy.  Removed all the beeswax and re-melted it.  Wiped off some of the oil so there was barely any there.

Third time...re-poured the wax in the molds and put little holes where the ribbon would go through.

Pouring the melted beeswax into a mold.

The beeswax hardens quite quickly.  For the initial ornaments, Sophia and I made holes with toothpicks through the wax so a ribbon would go through them.  For the last batch, I put the ribbon in the back of the hardening wax.

Three different stages of wax pouring and hardening.

If we had trouble taking any of the ornaments out of the molds, we put them in the freezer for a few minutes.  Then they would come out easily. 

After drying them for a couple of days at room temperature, I took a paring knife and cleaned up the edges as well as put a ribbon through the holes for hanging them. 

Sophia and I enjoyed making these ornaments together, and look forward to making more of them.