#DIY – It’s a Beeswax Wrap

Worry LESS  Smile MORE

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Editors Note: This beeswax wrap DIY has attracted a lot of useful tips from readers which they have added in the comment section below. Please read to the end to take advantage of their advice.

From the minute Lee Delaney began her #DIY Beeswax Wrap demonstration at the recent Less is More Festival my focus was to gather all the information together to share with you. Fun, quirky and once you have your equipment together, all done in under 15 minutes.

Awesome!

A Beeswax Wrap keep food fresh, eliminating the use of single-use plastic. With 5 trillion pieces of plastic estimated to be floating around in our oceans and studies beginning to prove how storing food in plastic is detrimental to our health (read more on that here), it is time for alternatives.

So invite your friends over, source some Funky Fabric and #letsgetcreative.

To Make Your Beeswax Wrap You will need:

• • Cotton material
  • Pinking shears to cut material – this prevents fraying
  • Beeswax
  • Grater – which will only be used for beeswax once you begin
  • Container
  • Greaseproof paper
  • Iron
  • Ironing board
  • Old sheets or material suitable to protect your ironing board

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Step One – Preparation

• • • Prepare your pieces of material, 30X30cm will cover most requirements

Lee recommends to use 100% cotton and had the great suggestion of reusing bed sheets which are no longer needed. Cutting your material with pinking shears gives a zig-zag edge and is a quick and easy method to prevent fraying.

• • • Grate your beeswax into a container

This is the most strenuous and time-consuming part of the process.
Beeswax can be sourced at Local Farmers Markets or alternatively there are many online options. Leftover beeswax candles are another clever way to recycle, reuse, repurpose…

Step Two:

Protect your ironing board by firstly laying down a sheet (folded for extra thickness) before the baking paper (as shown below) and lastly your piece of the chosen material.

Step Three:

Sprinkle an even coating of the grated beeswax, allowing approximately 1cm from the edge to remain free to prevent seepage. The even coverage is important as it is the beeswax which seals the material and prevents air from entering, ultimately keeping your food fresh.

Step Four:

Cover with baking paper then begin ironing, medium heat with no steam, until you completely melt the beeswax. Lee’s recommendation is to use a separate iron for this part rather than your everyday one. Alternatively, you can cover your good iron with foil as shown in image number one.

Homemade Beeswax Wrap Trouble Shooting:

Occasionally you might end up with too much wax. If this happens you can place another piece of fabric over the top to soak up the excess – two for the price of one!

Step Five:

Your fabric is now ready to be placed flat to dry and set. This surprisingly, only takes around 10 minutes or so.

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Handy Tips:

• To prolong the life of your beeswax wrap prevent contact with heat (including hot food) which will soften and melt the beeswax. This means they are perfect to store in cool areas, rather than a hot car, or direct sunlight!
• Use the warmth of your hands to soften and mould the fabric then the coolness of refrigeration to harden the new shape into place
• Don’t place the beeswax wrap in the washing machine to clean, wipe them with cool/warm water (as opposed to hot) and allow them to dry naturally

And that, my friends, is all there is to it – pretty cool aren’t they?

A Beeswax Wrap is perfect for covering containers, wrapping sandwiches, storing cheese and sealing the cut end of fruit and vegetables.

This is terrific news for me as early last year CWMS had the Great Plastic Bag Stocktake and shortly after this initial assessment a decision was made to minimise the use of single-use plastic in our life. Gladwrap had to go. Lunches were already being wrapped in Sandwich Wraps but storing food, although do-able without reaching for plastic, did pose ongoing challenges.

In the end, we settled with food being transferred into containers or stored in a bowl with a plate resting over the top to seal. So the Beeswax Wrap is going to be a welcome addition to our everyday.

Related Post: Starters Kit – 5 Reusable Items to Replace Single-use Plastic

The last quirky idea for your Beeswax Wrap is to use them as a ‘gift which keeps on giving’. Those of you who regularly give homemade culinary delights, produce, or preserves, can seal with a handmade wrap. Once the initial item has been enjoyed the receiver still has the wrap which they can continue to use.

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These are only a few ideas to get the brain ticking. What else have, or would, you use them for?

Another great conversation starter…

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