Preserving Leaves with Beeswax for Floating on Water : A Tutorial

It was a work day today but I just had to get outside for a walk on this perfect warm autumn day filled with light and color. I collected a few leaves for a quick little project I wanted to try before supper. This little project arose out of a desire to preserve some of this amazing art show that nature is putting on and not wanting to use the traditional methods using petroleum based products ( waxed paper) or chemicals. I wanted to use natural, wonderful smelling beeswax. The materials you will need are leaves ( of course) , parchment paper to line a baking tray with sides, natural beeswax sheets, and oven, oven mitts and tongs or tweezers for handling the hot leaves. 1. Gather up your materials and choose which leaves you want to preserve. 2. Line a baking tray/sheet with parchment paper. Place another sheet of paper on the table to transfer the warm leaves to later. 3. Place a sheet of natural beeswax on the paper in the tray, cutting to fit. Then place your leaves on this sheet. Be careful not to overlap them unless you want little clusters. 4. Place another sheet of beeswax on top of the leaves. 5. Heat the oven to 250 degrees and then place the sheet in the oven. Now is not the time to take the dog for a walk or make a long phone call. The wax can ignite if it gets too hot so please stay in the kitchen and watch over it. It only takes about 5 minutes or less for the wax to melt and coat the leaves. Carefully remove the sheet from the oven and before the wax has hardened transfer the leaves to the paper on the table using tweezers or tongs. The leaves are HOT!!!! 6. When they have cooled you can peel them off the paper, trim off any uneven wax dribbles and you are done. I poured the excess wax into a old pyrex cup to use to make some floating candles out of walnut and horse chesnut shells and also acorn caps. You may have noticed that I did not press , flatten or iron the leaves before waxing them. Leaves are not flat in nature so I wanted mine to hold their natural curves. It makes them more beautiful when they float in the water and allows them to hold wonderful little droplets of water on them for hours. I am almost certain that this will be part of my thanksgiving table in a few weeks. I lit one little acorn cap candle for my big brother. Happy birthday Robert!!!

Comments

[sosser]

such a wonderful fall craft! i want to try it, but i only have golden beeswax pellets for melting. do you think this will work as well? those tiny acorn cap candles are my favorite. thank you so much!

[Brenda]

Love this so much! Thank you for the wonderful tutorial!

[Patricia]

I'm awestruck!!

[Melissa]

A Genius Project! This is great, thanks for sharing!

[bluemountainsmary]

Two things.

It is my birthday today too!

And I am very struck with the cloth with galahs and kookaburras and sturt desert peas!!!

[sarah]

Beautiful photos. Waxing leaves is a favorite fall craft in our house. We dip the leaves though. Here's my post from last year about it:
http://maymomvt.blogspot.com/2007/10/waxing-leaves.html
I can't wait for the leaves to turn a bit more so we can do this.

[karen]

Lovely! And your not pressing the leaves flat does mimic nature - I'd try floating them on green water to bring to mind the sight of all that colour on green grass. The method of doing this is clear and helpful - thanks.

[Carrie]

I am new to your blog and just want to say that all that you do is so inspiring and I look forward to reading each morning. Thank you!

[The Mommy]

Beautiful. I've just discovered your blog and I'm so glad that I did. I love your projects and tutorials...they really fit well with my style and with my family. I'm so thankful for you!

[jessicajane]

oh, how cool! love the little acorn candle.

[Elizabeth]

Acorn cap candles? SO cute. And I love the leaves. I've never heard of that before.

[Annie]

I really love this one. Where do you get the beeswax sheets?

[Elisabeth]

Great tip, thank you!

[Sonya]

Lovely idea. There is just something about beeswax isn't there?

[Emma]

Someone else said: I'm awestruck!

And that's exactly what I want to say, too! I have never seen this done before. It's GORGEOUS. I love the leaves AND the tiny, little candles!!!!

[Bev]

what a lovely way to preserve the gorgeous leaves and the little candles are just adorable!

[Maria]

This tutorial is fantastic, and for shore I will use this idea for my home as wheel. Also some of this marvelous leafs are going to fly with me back to Portugal. Is already on my souvenirs list.

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I really like this blog, you are very good making them. I say that the issue discussed in this blog is quite interesting and of high quality.

[Ajf 6]

You and I have common interests! You are my part of the story!

[Retro Jordans]

Thank you for that great tutorial. I think it is the only one on the Web. The three parts with the picture are in my files, now.
You make me happy :-)

[Ruth]

Wow, it is wonderful!:) I like very very much!

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Im in to that. Im an advocate in saving our planet.

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