On my journey to reducing waste I decided that beeswaxwraps would be a great next step. A couple of weeks ago I purchased beeswax wraps from a local retailer. So far I've been pretty happy with the results. I am not even put off by extra effort to take care of them. You can only wash them in cold water and from what I've read it is best to let them air dry. Even with that I love the fact that they are reusable and it's reducing plastic waste.
So onto my "adventure" making my own.
I started by choosing some cotton fabric. I'm a huge fan of colour so i choose lots of different patterns. One of my girls has a bee tattoo so aside from the fact that I'm making beeswax wraps the bee pattern on the fabric made me think of her.
In all I used 3 things for my wraps:
- Cotton fabric cut to various sizes
- Beeswax
- Coconut oil
I read that coconut oil is a good alternative to using pine resin in some recipes. I also read that heating pine resin can release harmful chemicals. I don't have evidence to back this up but would love to hear your thoughts. In any case I decided to try coconut oil since I have some on hand.
There are several methods for making these; using the oven and using an iron. My first try was using the oven.
First I lined the baking sheets with parchment paper and then placed the cut fabric on top. I sprinkled beeswax pellets on top and placed them into my preheated 200°C oven. It only takes couple of minutes to melt so it's important to watch it closely. Once the wax was melted I took it out of the oven and brushed them with coconut oil. The wraps hardened quite quickly so I popped them back to the oven for about 30 seconds so I could finish spreading the oil.
The result was ok but it was lumpy:
The wrap works, as in it clings but its not quite the result I was hoping for so I decided to try the iron method.
Again, more trial and error. Brushing the coconut oil onto the wraps after melting the beeswax wasn't working. The wraps would not stay hot long enough to spread the oil. My solution was to brush the oil onto the parchment paper and then put the fabric on top and sprinkle the beeswax pellets on top. This seemed to work out best. The wraps were flat and I was even able to fix the ones from the oven!
Now for the test to see if all this effort will pay off. Voila! They work!
If you decide to try the iron method I recommend covering your iron with tin foil to keep it clean. I also recommend using old towels below your work area as it can get a little messy. I now have a towel covered in wax and oil that I'll be using just for the wraps.