Class...class...CLASS! Ahem, thank you. Today we are going to learn how to grace the beauty of our art with a layer of the next best thing to honey. (covering our art in honey is not a good idea and taste too good to waste)
Facts on Wax I found here:
Beeswax is a byproduct of honey production. It makes wonderful lip balms, hand lotions, hand creams, moisturizers, in cosmetics, wood finishes, waxes, leather polishes; waterproofing products, and dental molds.
It is impervious to water and unaffected by mildew. It has a melting point of 143 to 148 degrees F. and should only be heated using a double boiler as it is flammable when subjected to fire and flames. It is pliable at 100 degrees F.
Beeswax is produced by the (female) worker honeybees. The wax is secreted from wax glands on the underside of the bee's abdomen and is molded into six-sided cells which are filled with honey, then capped with more wax. When honey is harvested, the top layer of wax that covers the cells, the cappings, must be removed from each hexagon-shaped cell.
Bees use their wax to "glue" together the wooden frames in their hive, and that must be scraped off so the frames can be separated. The beeswax, which contains some honey, bee parts, and other impurities, must be melted and filtered or strained.
Most beeswax is gold or yellow but can also be in shades of orange, brown, etc. The color of the wax is in most part determined by the type of plants the bees collect nectar from. Beeswax has a delightful, light fragrance of honey, flower nectar and pollen.
Beeswax makes superior, slow burning candles. Beeswax burns more beautifully than any other wax. It exudes a faint, natural fragrance of honey and pollen. When candles are made with the proper size of wicking, they are smokeless, dripless, and burn with a bright flame.
If you wonder why beeswax is so expensive, consider this: It has been estimated that bees must fly 150,000 miles to produce one pound of wax. Bees must eat about six pounds of honey to secrete a pound of wax. For every 100 pounds of honey a beekeeper harvests, only one to two pounds of beeswax are produced.
Now you have the facts, next the warning This is just the way I have played with beeswax, nothing official, I can not be held responsible for injury. With that all said and done, may we finally beegin???
First supplies you will need or improvise safely. (stems from the my creative needs to do when I wanted to, and not wait for proper supplies)
matte gel medium or matte sealer, more on that in a minute
tart burner with tea light candle
all sorts of yummy wax, I use pellets, rolled, and white bleached. The white pellets are found in the candle making sections of craft stores and make the finished item a little harder, just a pinch will do.
old paint brushes to donate to this cause.
craft heat tool
very important...your coffee or tea with honey, you will need something to sip peacefully while waiting for the wax to melt
Next add a little bit of everything or what every you have in your tart burner. As it melts, grab your hot beverage of choice( if it involves a pinch of hooch do not breath too close to the lit candle). Turn on my blog, enjoy the music. Your wax will bee melted shortly.
Ready, lets play!
Grab your art....hmmm this random piece that I found laying around in a pile of....Kidding, I threw this together the night before I decided to do this post.
MAKE SURE YOUR ART IS SEALED IN SOME TYPE OF MATTE SEALER OR MEDIUM AND DRY BEFORE YOU BEGIN. IF YOU SKIP THIS STEP YOU MAY END UP WITH A WEIRD DISCOLORED OR PARTIALLY SATURATED LOOK TO THE PAPERS.
I start by brushing a little bit here and there.
Below are some thicker strokes, I like that for some art pieces but not this one so...
...I heat it a bit to make it all nice and smooth. I work over a cardboard tray lined with waxed paper so the drips do not get everywhere.
So I brush and heat quickly at the same time making sure it is all uniform (I am not that talented enough to take a picture of that. You can actually see in the above picture some brown spots where it might not have been sealed well. In this case, it enhances the look, too much or in the wrong spot might spoil your over all look.
Speaking of drips...I do like to prop my piece up if it is thick and coat the sides in the event there was a drip. Usually I can prevent them, less is better but not too thin
Here she is the finished project. More on that in another post.
Have fun, Bee Safe and do not fret. I have never taken the temperature of the wax nor do I let it stay heated longer than needed. I do not think it gets that hot, remember a tea light on the bottom, not anything taller as tart burners are meant to warm the wax just enough for melting and releasing the fragrance. Speaking of fragrance... melting bees wax is just the best ever. So nice to do this project on a rainy day with 3 wet German shepherd dogs running in and out in the rain all day.
