When Steve, my beekeeping neighbor, took away my hive (sob) I vowed that I wouldn't give up all the beekeeping activities I had planned. Candle making was one of those activities, so I asked Steve if I could have the wax leftovers from his honey harvesting. Here they (it?) are (is?). What you see are one nice clean piece of cappings and a whole lot of wax mixed with bee parts, honey, and propolis. I'm going to follow the advice found in the book Plan Bee by Susan Brackney. I'll stuff bits of this into old pantyhose, put the stuffed pantyhose into a pot of water, heat the water until the wax rises to the top, wait for it to cool, and then lift off a disk of pure wax. That's the theory at least. Then I'll slowly melt that wax and pour it into candle molds that I bought back in the days when I dreamed of being a real beekeeper. Before I learned that I'm a wus about the whole thing.
6 comments:
Wow--that process sounds intriguing. Do you add scent in the process too?
I think it will be especially fun to lift that disk of wax out of the water! What do you do with the "bee parts"?
Now that you mention it Margaret, I WILL add scent. Maybe vanilla?
Jenn, I'm not sure what I'll do with the leftovers, which have the delightful name of slumgum. I could just toss it into my compost pile. It's all organic so all those microscopic creatures and worms and insects will enjoy it I'm sure. If I actually end up with slumgum I'll post a picture of it.
I wouldn't know where to get old pantyhose, it's been so long.
I am curious to read how this works out for you. I tried processing the wax for candles and I failed :(
Its fun to try something new.
And i m definitely going to try this out.
Thanks for sharing.
Keep sharing more and more.
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