Homemade Beeswax Ornaments

with David Fisher

If you like making candles, then you can use your hobby's supplies to try out a fun and simple craft: beeswax ornaments. Add a personal touch to your Christmas tree with these easy to make beeswax holiday ornaments.

http://video.about.com/candleandsoap/Homemade-Beeswax-Ornaments.htm

Transcript: Homemade Beeswax Ornaments Hi, I'm David Fisher for About.com. Today we are going to make some ornaments out of bees wax. Many people still make their own ornaments out of cookie or candy molds. But soap molds work just as well, so we're going to be using soap molds to make them today.

Beeswax Ornament Supplies

For this project you'll need some bees wax in either block or pellet form - scraps from sheets of bees wax work too.

You'll need some molds. I have some of the old fashion cookie molds, some soap molds and these really great new silicone baking molds. Then depending on how you want to hang them, there are several options. But you'll need some string, some wire or some ribbon.

Heat the Beeswax. Melt the bees wax in your melt pot in your double boiler. Once it's melted completely, let it cool to about 170 degrees. A little bit cooler if you're using one of the light weight plastic molds. That's what's really great about these silicone molds. They can withstand really high heat.

Add the Wax to the Ornament Molds. Set your molds on a flat surface, and pour the wax into them. Now if I was making soap I would fill the molds all the way. But with these ornaments, I generally pour just a 1/2 an inch to 3/4 of an inch of wax.

String the Ornaments. Now while those are cooling, I'll show you a couple of options for hanging them. While the wax is still melted, put a piece of string or ribbon into the melted wax. You want to wait until the skin is formed on the bottom of the mold cavity but hasn't form the skin on the top. If the skin does form, a quick blast with your blow dryer will re-melt it. You just dip the string in and let it sit. You can use a chopstick to make sure it's aligned right at the top. The other option is, once the ornament is completely cooled, pop it out of the mold and, in using a hot piece of wire or wick pin, make a hole for the string or ribbon. And then tread the string into the hole. While this is a little more work, you do have a little more control over just how the string is going to sit on the ornament and how the ornament is ultimately is going to hang.

Beeswax Ornament Storage and Care. Use a knife to trim off any edges or imperfections you might have, and that's it! These ornaments will last indefinitely if you keep them in a cool dry place. They may over time start to loose their sent and they may develop a sort of a white powdery substance on the top of them. This is called "bees wax bloom" and it's completely natural. The best way to both refresh the scent and to get rid of the bloom is to just heat them up a little bit with a warm hair dryer. You could also add color or scent to your ornaments. You would add the colorant and scent at the same time as in any other candle, when the wax is melted and before you pour it. Thanks for watching! For more information, visit us on the Web at About.com.

Source: http://video.about.com/candleandsoap/Homemade-Beeswax-Ornaments.htm