Beeswax wraps have become very popular, making cling film redundant. Making your own is fun, cost efficient and easy, if a little messy. Just heat a mix of beeswax and coconut oil and use an old iron to infuse it into cotton fabric. Make a few extra as gifts or swaps to make the clean-up worthwhile. Take care with the hot wax and iron, they can be painful in the wrong hands.
WHAT YOU NEED
•Organic beeswax
•Coconut oil (10-15% by weight of beeswax)
•Fabric (100% cotton, hanky weight)
•Pinking shears
•Baking paper
•Old iron (good to share with others)
•Natural bristle brush or ladle, old pot
•Large wooden chopping board
•Drop sheet (100% cotton) and newspaper for surfaces
WRAP CARE
Beeswax and coconut oil are naturally antibacterial. Wraps can be wiped with a warm damp cloth and reused many times.
If your wrap is looking a little the worse for wear, it can be revived with heat. Either place your wrap in the oven on a clean baking tray at 100degC for a few minutes, or place it between two sheets of baking paper and iron it with an old iron (don’t use the iron on your clothing afterwards!). Hang up until the wax resets.
Use 100% cotton and make sure the fabric is clean (avoid using sheets or pillow cases).
Colourfast fabric makes nicer looking wraps. Dampen a small piece of fabric and iron a piece of white fabric on to it. If any colour transfers, the fabric isn’t colour-fast.
Cut fabric to desired size (our standard is 30cm x 30cm for a sandwich wrap). Bigger ones are good for a whole loaf of bread or to cover a big bowl in the fridge.
Cut around the edges with pinking shears (scissors with sawtoothed edges) to reduce fraying.
MAKING THE WAX MIX
Put a mixture of 85% organic beeswax and 15% coconut oil (or almond oil) in the pot. You’ll need about 15g of wax mixture per wrap.
Melt it on a really low heat until all the wax is melted.
Be careful not to overheat the mixture. If the wax starts to smoke, take it off the heat immediately.
PREPARING THE KITCHEN
Turn on the iron to a medium heat.
Cover any surfaces you want to protect, e.g., the floor, the bench
Cover a large wooden board with an old tea towel. Place a big sheet of baking paper over the top.
Place the cut fabric on the baking paper.
Ladle or brush the melted wax mixture onto the fabric. Three to four tablespoons is plenty, dribbled evenly around the fabric. If you are making just a few wraps, solid wax can be grated directly onto the fabric.
Cover the fabric with a second piece of baking paper. Iron until all wax is melted and evenly coating the fabric.
The heat setting depends on the iron, but the cotton setting is a good place to start. If it’s too hot, the wax will start smoking, too cold and nothing much happens. A little trial and error will work it out pretty quickly.
Iron from the centre of the fabric towards the edges. Any excess wax can be scraped off and re-melted.
Once the fabric is covered entirely, remove from the baking paper. Hang the new beeswax wrap on a clothes rack to dry.
Repeat the process. You can keep reusing the baking paper but remember to put the waxy side down so the iron doesn’t get covered in wax.
Protecting your floor and benches with dropcloths makes the clean-up much easier.
A bit of heat helps remove any wax splatters. Use a hair-dryer to melt the wax or place a scrap of fabric over the wax spot and iron it until the wax is sucked up by the fabric.
TROUBLE-SHOOTING
Check the finished wrap with your hands for dry spots and clumps of wax. If you find any, put the wrap back between the sheets of baking paper and keep ironing.
The first one is a tester:
If the wrap is really sticky, add more coconut oil to the mix.
If the wrap is really greasy, add more beeswax to the mix.
Any failures, or wraps past reviving, can be used as fire-starters or composted.
