I’m trying to use less plastic; it seems to permeate our lives these days (and the ocean’s and wildlife stomach’s). And who knows what leaches from the plastic into our food. So I bought some beeswax wraps on line. And I love them. But not the price.

So as with many other things, I googled it. Turns out you can make them yourself. All you need is some fabric – cotton or muslin – and beeswax. That’s the basics, although some website suggest using a rosin and other ingredients. I just went for the simplistic approach.

I already has blocks of beeswax on hand from other projects, namely making wood butter for my spoons and wooden cutting boards. But I did need the cloth. I ended up ordering bunch of inexpensive bandanas and also a bit of cute yellow cloth with bees – after all, how appropriate!

Beeswax by the block is the least expensive way to purchase it, although there are bees wax pellets sold on line as well. This may have some advantage – more in a moment. Since this project involves applying melted beeswax onto fabric, it needs to be in small pieces to melt quickly – it hardens quickly too – and seep into the fabric. The block, while cheaper, has to be grated into fine shreds. I have done this by hand in the past for small amounts, but it’s a rather hard product and requires some real elbow grease to make a pile of grated wax. Hence the pelleted beads might be easier to use.

Since I quickly got tired of trying to grate it by hand, I decided to use the grater attachment of my Kitchen Aid. It actually worked pretty well – I ended up with a big bowl of finely shredded beeswax. Cleaning up the grater parts turned out to be not so easy… I had to emerge the grater in hot water to melt off the fine coating of wax on all the parts (then skim off the hardened wax & throw the water away outside). I figure anything left will come off the next time I use it. After all, it’s only beeswax. I ultimately decided I would not do this again, and bought a cheaper grater attachment to dedicate for this use only.

How to make the Beeswax wraps

I washed the bandanas first, to remove any excess dye. They didn’t really bleed out at all, so I am not sure I would even do it again. I did have to iron them all though! The yellow bee fabric I just cut to size using pinking shears so the edges won’t unravel.

I also assembled my shredded beeswax, and several sheets of parchment paper – very important to make sure during the process the fabric is always on top of the parchment, otherwise whatever is underneath will also be coated with wax.

My google adventure also brought up a number of ways to actually make the wraps. The most common seemed to be lining a cookie sheet with parchment paper, laying the fabric out on it, and then sprinkling with the wax. Pop it in an oven heated to 185-200F for 5-10 minutes until the wax is hot, then using a paintbrush (also dedicated only to this type of project) quickly “paint” the wax over all the fabric.

So I tried this – and quickly decided this approach would not work for me, for a few reasons.

First, I wanted to make larger wraps. The purchased ones of 8, 10, or 12″ square were just too small for some things. I wanted to be able to wrap up a partial loaf of bread, cover a dish, or use it for stalks of celery. Which why I bought the 20″ square bandana’s, and cut the bee fabric to rectangular pieces, slightly large than the cookie sheet.

The second issue was that the pieces were too large for the cookie sheet, and I had to reposition them a couple times to melt the beeswax all over and up to the edges. Not did I really want to ruin a cookie sheet, and have to dedicate it only to this purpose. For smaller project the cookie sheet method would work.

Third, maybe my wax wasn’t hot enough in the oven, but it hardened so quickly that the paint brush soon became a solid mass, and I was unable to “brush” the beeswax on the fabric.

And lastly, I couldn’t do this in my laundry room / craft area, but had to bring everything into my kitchen.

So I remembered reading about another option – ironing the fabric and beeswax between 2 sheets of parchment. I could do this in the laundry room! I use a large plastic tray (from the bottom of a dog crate actually) to protect my counter top from my projects, and it worked great for this as well. I covered it with the parchment paper, laid out a piece of fabric, and sprinkled it well with the shredded wax. Cover with another piece of parchment and iron away! Do be careful to make sure to keep the iron on the parchment, unless you want wax on your iron.

You can easily see the wax melt and seep over the fabric. I ironed from the center out, and the wax continued to spread to the edges ( a couple times I did have to add a little more wax). I pulled off the top parchment, and VIOLA! I had a new beeswax wrap. Peel it from the bottom piece of parchment, and lay flat to dry, or hang over a rod. Any extra wax on the edges I pealed off to use for the next piece. The wax hardens very quickly. They can easily be folded for storage.

I did 3 large pieces, and on another day I’ll do a few more. I may have just the thing to make for some Christmas presents later this year!

So how do I use them?

I use them to wrap up cheese, partially used vegetables like a pepper or lemon, a half a butternut squash – really anytime a plastic bag might do the job. The beeswax wrap will mold to the top of the bottle like a carafe or mayo jar. My new large ones will wrap up a cut open homemade loaf of bread, or cover a pie. You can wrap up a sandwich or snacks for on-the-go times. Just start to fold, and the warmth of your hands will mod it to the object you are wrapping. Get as much air out as you can.

Do not use on hot foods (the wax will melt!) or highly acidic foods like tomatoes.

The life expectancy depends on how often you use them. If they get dirty, quick wipe with a cool sponge or dishcloth will clean it right up. Most of the time I just shake out the crumbs and fold for the next time. After q while the wax will be too worn and won’t mold to the food, so they can be designated for the compost pile then.

While I’m not ready to give up my Food Saver or quart plastic containers yet, I may just be able to give up plastic bags. Now how to prepare my family for the challenge…..

Have you made your own beeswax wraps? How and how big?