ecobites.com

Making your life greener - one bite at a time.

Beeswax is a wonderful and natural alternative to the synthetic modeling materials available (which are too bright and smell bad not to mention TOXIC!). It is all natural, non toxic and it smells so nice when you work with it. Another benefit is that it doesn't tend to really blend like the play dough - so you can use it time and again. Do-it-yourself beeswax candles.

Primarily though, I think what is best about it is that it takes human warmth to make it work. The other "stuff" feels cold and is non reactive. You can feel the warmth and love of the bees when working with beeswax! 

You can place it into your bras or  pockets to warm it up before the lesson begins! Another purpose of using the beeswax vs. play dough is that you have to sit patiently and slowly work the wax. Children learn patience...

In a Waldorf setting, beeswax is introduced very early, in preschool. Generally the children make gnomes, flowers, frogs or bugs. Starting with quite small pieces helps. The children find it very relaxing and it is a calming activity. Good tip: Buy many colours and pack in a ziplock baggie.  On long vacations it literally works wonders as children get very creative when sitting still for so long - you'll be amazed at the creative settings they will come up with! Pack it for long drives, planes, trains, ferries etc.

A good idea is to tell a fairy tale and let the little ones keep their hands busy warming the wax during the telling of the story. (Remember that you should also be working a piece to correctly model it for them.) Please by all means let the littlest helpers work the wax too - they like to just pinch and squeeze and feel the warming effect and will feel so "big" when allowed to participate with older siblings or friends.

THEN as they get ready for lessons, you can shape the figures, or letters that go with the story for the days lesson...

Here is a sweet beeswax verse:

Little bees give their gift of gold
For you my little dears to warm and hold.
Story time is here to tell
Come listen to the fairy's spell
Create with your gift of gold
Something kind, true and bold.

Modeling Beeswax

Modelling beeswax - 15 assorted in a box, 100 x 40 x 6 mm
Because of its aromatic beeswax content, Stockmar modelling beeswax is
favoured by many people. Stockmar modelling wax is an ideal modelling material:
clean in handling and absolutely hygienic. It doesn't smudge, crumble
or bleed and its colour is pure and bright because of its high transparency.
By working with modelling wax, children train their fine motor skills.
By transforming the material children have sensory experiences that stimulate
the imagination and develop their feeling for shapes.

colours: 00 transparent, 01 carmine red, 02 vermillion, 03 orange, 04 gold
yellow, 05 lemon yellow, 06 yellow green, 07 green, 09 blue, 10 light
blue/ultramarine, 12 red violet, 13 red brown, 15 black, 24 pink, 27 beeswaxcolour

Stockmar Beeswax Crayons

The Stockmar products have received certifiedapproval from the Arts and Crafts Material Institute as beingof extremely high quality and completely non-toxic. These crayons are the waldorf mix and are characterized by brilliant color, smooth
application and durability. They come in a tin box of eight colors in either Block or Stick form.

The Waldorf Mix includes:

Carmine Red, Vermilion, Orange, Gold Yellow, Lemon Yellow, Green, Ultramarine, Red Violet.

Another great activity is polishing beeswax on..

Treehouses, Ecostands and Christmas Trees. We rub a thin layer on with our hands, then buff after a few hours. It smells heavenly and feels so wonderful rubbing on the wood, and the children love helping arouind the home. We purchase from our local bee supplier at the markets,and the beeswax block to make candles.

For wooden toys you can make your own polish/finish/protectant :mix equal part organic coconut oil and beeswax (ie: 4 oz coconut oil to 4 oz beeswax). Heat/melt over low heat (careful with heating wax as at high temp can burst into flames. I heat in a double boiler and rub on furniture or toys, then buff off excess. Recipe from a maker of wooden spoons, etc from a craft fair.

More about beeswax..

Beeswax is a byproduct of honey production. It makes wonderful lip balms, hand lotions, hand creams, moisturizers, in cosmetics, wood finishes, waxes, leather polishes; waterproofing products, and dental molds. Grate beeswax before melting, with a hand grater using the larger holes.
It is impervious to water and unaffected by mildew. It has a melting point of 143 to 148 degrees F. and should only be heated using a double boiler as it is flammable when subjected to fire and flames. It is pliable at 100 degrees F.

Beeswax is produced by the (female) worker honeybees. The wax is secreted from wax glands on the underside of the bee's abdomen and is molded into six-sided cells which are filled with honey, then capped with more wax. When honey is harvested, the top layer of wax that covers the cells, the cappings, must be removed from each hexagon-shaped cell.

Bees use their wax to "glue" together the wooden frames in their hive, and that must be scraped off so the frames can be separated. The beeswax, which contains some honey, bee parts, and other impurities, must be melted and filtered or strained.

Most beeswax is gold or yellow but can also be in shades of orange, brown, etc. The color of the wax is in most part determined by the type of plants the bees collect nectar from. Beeswax has a delightful, light fragrance of honey, flower nectar and pollen.

Candles

Beeswax makes superior, slow burning candles. Beeswax burns more beautifully than any other wax. It exudes a faint, natural fragrance of honey and pollen. When candles are made with the proper size of wicking, they are smokeless, dripless, and burn with a bright flame.

If you wonder why beeswax is so expensive, consider this: It has been estimated that bees must fly 150,000 miles to produce one pound of wax. Bees must eat about six pounds of honey to secrete a pound of wax. For every 100 pounds of honey a beekeeper harvests, only one to two pounds of beeswax are produced.

DIY Beeswax Candles

Cut the beeswax sheet diagonally – from one corner across to the other. You will use one triangle per candle.

Place the wick onto the shortest edge of the triangular sheet, leaving about 2cm of wick sticking out of the top. (The top is the point where the short side meets the diagonal side.)

Tightly roll about 5mm of the wax over onto the wick, enclosing it tightly in the wax. Press gently, but evenly, along the wick to make sure that it is well surrounded by the wax.

Roll the wick end of the candle towards the small end, keeping the roll tight and the bottom even. Gently press and "seal" the final corner to the base.

Use the other triangle to make a matching candle.

Fancy Candles

Use a triangular shaped piece of wax to get a spiral along the outside. 
Lay two colors of wax on top of each other to create multicolor candles.  Be sure to warm both sheets when rolling the candles.
Add decorations to your finished candles.  It could be found items from nature, or small items that fit the theme for when the candles will be used.