While prepping for a class on using wax seals for RUM, I decided that I needed some hands on experience with beeswax-based (as opposed to shellac-based) sealing wax. That meant that I had to make some of my own. I read up on some other people’s experiences, and then decided to take a crack at it.
I knew that I would need three things: beeswax for the base, resin for hardness and stickiness, and a colorant. I wanted to use readily available materials, so I got some beeswax pellets and frankincense tears on Amazon, and some red liquid candle dye from Michaels.
I started with a 4:1 ratio of beeswax to frankincense. I melted the wax first in a saucepan I got at Goodwill, then added the frankincense.
The wax melted fine, but the frankincense didn’t work quite so well. I had expected it to take longer to melt, so I kept it on the heat and stirred well past the point when it stopped foaming. I was left with a bunch of granules on the bottom of the pot that just wouldn’t melt. It smelled great, but didn’t seem to be working as I’d hoped.
I think that since the frankincense was intended for use as incense and wasn’t a purified resin, there was a lot of gum in the tears that wasn’t going to dissolve in the wax. When I strained out the granules and soaked them in water, they ended up soft and gummy. I thought about trying to find a use for them, but ended up just throwing them away.
I poured the wax onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and kneaded it together wearing nitrile gloves coated with cooking spray. Eventually I was able to create logs to test with.
I cut slices and softened them in hot water, then sandwiched them around a piece of cord to try to make a seal tag.
It technically worked, but the end result was flexible and crumbly, not the hard sort of seal that I was hoping for. Attempting to apply the wax directly to paper gave similarly underwhelming results. The melted as was thin and watery, and didn’t really take an impression at all.
I re-melted the wax and added more frankincense, hoping that I could extract enough useful resin to create a usable seal. While the color worked fine, the end results were pretty much the same.
Ultimately, this attempt allowed me to start figuring out my process, but I was still far from the product I was trying for.