Mind your own beeswax; Sustainable food wrap

In my pursuit to reduce our waste. I came across an adorable eco-friendly glad wrap alternative; Bees Wax Wraps! 

I originally purchased a lovely Honeybee Wrap from the gorgeous store String and Salt in Warragul. Honeybee wraps have much more to them than the ones I attempted below. If you're not wanting to go to all the trouble, I highly recommend them, they come in various sizes and in a range of beautiful fabrics.

Honeybee Wrap - Pic courtesy of Honeybee Wraps

I have an abundance of beautiful cotton that I purchased many moons ago for my small business which tried (and mostly failed) at selling iron on letters. This was the perfect use for these. Before I started, I washed the fabric first and gave it a little iron too.

Cotton and Beeswax

The only problem was, where to find beeswax? I tried a couple of health food stores half heartedly, knowing I wouldn't have any luck. Then, we attended a local farmers market and I asked the honey man from Pure Peninsula Honey (honey man isn't his official title by the way) I bought a small soap like bar of it and was even more excited to get making.

Not cheese, grated beeswax!

I followed the tutorial by Karen B at The Art of Doing Stuff. 

I love her take on the whole sustainable bit... It's not going to be possible for 99.9% of people to go 100% green, however if we recognise that we can help reduce waste, it's going to help make a big difference. (she says it much more eloquently than that)

I put my oven on 70 Degrees Celsius (for those not in fahrenheit) and it took about 5 - 10 minutes for the wax to melt and soak in. I also popped into my local op shop and purchased some old trays and an old grater just for this purpose, this cost me a whole $2. Mainly as I think if I'm trying to reduce waste, throwing foil in the garbage might be a little counter productive.

They've turned out beautifully, although I did end up repeating the process as I wasn't liberal enough with the wax the first time. Next time around I may concoct a mixture from beeswax and coconut oil. Thus far, I've been using them to wrap cheese and cover bowls... I am also keen to make some for gifts.

My Wraps

Have you attempted to make beeswax wraps? Do you have a special recipe or formula?