Northern Michigan Beeswax

2,000 lbs. of beeswax

2012-02-12T08:36:00.000-05:00

Some Pennsylvania groundhog named Phil may have predicted six more weeks of winter for this year, but it was a lot like spring in northern Michigan as Buster and I traveled this week 750 miles round-trip to get 500 lbs. of beeswax from Sleeping Bear Farms. All but about two miles of this scenic trip is on two-lane highways, and of course one has to cross the Straits of Mackinac via The Big Scary (aka the Mackinac Bridge), my nemesis, rivaled this time by the formidable thought of having to stay in a motel in Traverse City. I did have other layover options, but an impromptu decision found me making online reservations at a chain motel that was dirt cheap, easy to find, and that accepted pets. It's a bit of a competition, what was scarier, the bridge or the motel, but with a "hazardous" wind warning on the return trip over the bridge, the bridge wins out. I am beginning to discern the fear, and it has to do with lines, but that's for another day.

Passing through dormant orchards along Route 31 on a sunny spring-like morning in February with 500 lbs. of wax in the van and an old dog with his snout out the window (for the 569th time), life seemed flush with possibilities. Apple and cherry and peach trees stood in neat and trim rows between bright red barns and shuttered fruit stands. A plethora of radio stations - so many more than one gets in the U.P. - played oldies I hadn't heard in a while, and every little town offered homemade fudge or pies. No, I don't want to live here, I thought, but it sure is fun passing through.

I remembered two years ago, when I made the same trip, but had little idea what I would do with 500 lbs. of beeswax, and I realized that there is still a lot I don't know. Somehow it's the not knowing that makes it possible. I have now purchased 2,000 lbs. of raw wax from the honey farm in Beulah, which, to my good fortune, has recently begun making mead under the name St. Ambrose Cellars. I am enjoying a glass of Dancing Bare Ambrosia now, my first taste proving smooth and sweet.

The Mackinac Bridge Authority broadcasts over AM radio and that's how I first heard of the high winds over the Straits. I never did find out the wind speed, and in the end my eighth crossing of the bridge proved no worse, no better, than any of the other crossings, but the thought of the winds made it a bit more tense. Back in the U.P., pasty joints, unencumbered shorelines, woods, and the occasional small farm welcomed us. I listened to Bruce Springsteen all the way from the bridge to Marquette, then opted for quiet.

Back home, wax melts in a big pot in the kitchen; candles are being made. I've gotten around to updating some of these blog pages. It stayed sunny and fairly warm throughout the week, then a cold west wind blew us fiercely below zero. Never doubt a groundhog. Spring will come, but until then, there is honey and beeswax and mead and warm fires. A world of possibilities.

Bee Mine

2012-01-26T14:07:00.001-05:00

When I first got word that my beeswax candles were getting window space at Zero Degrees Artist Gallery and was asked to share any ideas for the Valentine's "Bee Mine" window theme (going in Sunday, January 29), I was honored, but alas, idealess. Then, something came to me, as something sometimes does. My candles merged with my favorite Valentine's Day cards and suddenly the beeswax owl was asking "WHO's your valentine?" The frog said: "I'll CROAK if you're not my valentine." Then: "I'll be your PRINCE if you'll be my valentine." And still old froggie wasn't done.*

Kiss Me!

I cut out small, heart- shaped cards edged in red and hand printed on the front all the funny (yes! I think so!) plays on words. Each card opens to say Please Bee Mine. I forgot to take pictures before dropping the candles off at the gallery, but here's what some of the others say.

Why Bee SKEPtical?

You ENLIGHTEN me!

I'll cry WOLF for you, Valentine!

You get the idea. The pine cone (there is a new large pine cone) is PINING for a valentine, and the ear of corn admits to being CORNY, but ... Please Bee Mine. The new little bear candle lets your valentine know that life is, indeed, a BEAR without you, and a basket of beeswax egg candles is exactly what it is, Putting all my eggs in one basket for you, Valentine.

If you want a special Valentine's Day candle and card, give me a holler or stop by the gallery. Also, feel free to try this at home with your own candles!

*Thanks, Jen. And thanks to MI Upper Hand for the candle photos.

From the good old days ...

Are there rules?

2012-01-17T12:34:00.001-05:00

I suspect a slight draft.

I can remember only one instance of someone asking me about the rules for burning beeswax candles. I wasn't sure what she meant, so she explained: How long should I burn the candle when I first light it? Should I burn it the same amount next time? Longer? Shorter? I wasn't sure how to respond. I know that there are rules for burning candles, but not all rules are, to be honest, necessary, and sometimes they just get in the way of, shall we say, fun.

Of course, burning a candle is serious business and there are rules about being mindful that there is a flame, and a flame is fire, and fire can spread and destroy. So the most important rule is caution: Watch your candle, keep it away from drafts, don't let it fall over or get knocked over, and keep it clear of anything that might ignite. In short, contain your flame. Then, you can enjoy your candle. (This is not to say, of course, that in certain circumstances, you don't want your flame to ignite, shall we say, romance. And by the way, I dropped off the newest beeswax charmer - for Owl Lovers only - at the Zero Degrees Gallery yesterday. And the Marquette Food Co-op has been restocked with a variety of candles and block beeswax.)

But back to: Rules? Meaning, if I'm not mistaken, are there ways to burn a candle to maximize enjoyment? Ways to control how it burns as well as how long? The answer is yes, to a certain extent. You can find various versions of the "rules" elsewhere on the Web; below are just my observations enhanced by what I've read.

Draft. After wax and wick, draft may be the most important factor in how a candle will burn. Some drafts can be dangerous, some can put a candle out, and others will simply cause a flame to veer slightly one way or another, causing one side of the candle to melt a little sooner than the other. This can lead to wax dripping, which can drain the wax pool, which can increase the size of the flame, which can cause your candle to burn more quickly.

How does the Buddha burn?
First he loses his head,
but his smile lingers on.

Candle Shape. I sell candles in various shapes - the frog (or Mr. Toad), the Buddha, the owl, pillars, balls, and more. (Yes, I need to update my candle page ... ) It is hard to predict how a candle shaped like a pine cone will burn (but I can tell you what to expect), but standard shapes - pillars, votives, tapers - should burn predictably, and the main thing you can do to achieve predictability is this: Each time you burn your candle, burn it as long as it takes for the wax pool (melted wax around the flame) to reach the edge of the candle. If you burn it longer, and / or the flame becomes larger than you like, douse the flame and trim the wick to about one-quarter inch before relighting. If you burn it less time, you will probably get more of a tunneling effect with the candle. Many novelty candles, such as the ear of corn, which is basically a pillar candle, can be burned the same way with excellent results.

Hmmmm ... that's it.

Now for something I learned while perusing rules others had posted. To put out your candle, use a metal rod of some sort to dunk the flaming wick in the wax pool, completely. This douses the flame with absolutely no smoke, as the wick has no opportunity to smolder. I found a site selling special metal gizmos for this purpose, gizmos which looked suspiciously like the metal shish kebob skewers I have but never use, so I tried that, and it works quite well. Remember to use your skewer or gizmo to pull the wick up out of the pool after dousing it, so you can relight later, when you're ready to burn your candle again, away from all drafts and flammable materials, always in sight, for at least an hour or two or however long it takes the melted wax to extend to the rim, or until you find that first owl charm, or until romance has been sparked, or until the lights have come back on after the power failure.

Rules? Do we really need all these stinkin' rules?

Lightening up the holidays

2011-11-29T13:57:00.001-05:00

I may not be hawking my wares at any shows this holiday season (how Scroogey can one get?), but I'm still busy making and selling beeswax candles and lip balm. Locally, look for Northern Michigan Beeswax at the Marquette Food Co-op and Zero Degrees Artists Gallery. Both have a good selection of candles (not all of which are yet up on this site) and lip balm; the gallery also has some beeswax ornaments. In addition, most product can be purchased online through MI Upper Hand (click thru on sidebar). Plus, you can always call or email.

Thanks to all my customers for a great 2011. Whatever you may be celebrating this season, enjoy.

P.S. For those interested in the claim that beeswax candles release negative ions, here's some recent banter on the subject:

http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php/124056-Beeswax-candle-claim

http://www.busybeebeeswax.ca/negativeions.html

home sweet home

Fish & Chips & Andy & Corn

2011-10-02T08:53:00.001-04:00

The van was layered with frost as I started it up yesterday about 6 a.m. for the ride into Marquette for the farmers and artisans market. By the time I drove home I was rueing the last couple of layers of clothing that I could not, in all modesty, shed. The sun came out; it was a beautiful day at the market.

Northern Michigan University alumni were in town for homecoming, an event I was unaware of, though I'm not sure how I miss these things, and during a major wind and rain storm last week many folks around the Marquette area lost power for 10, 12, even 24 hours, so the necessity of candles was on their minds. I'm not sure how I missed the news about the power outages, either (the storm blew through my area, but we did not lose power), but then again, I guess I miss a lot.

I had a long discussion about The Andy Griffith Show with one customer, which segued into a reminiscence of Gomer Pyle, USMC, and how it was Andy who was responsible for Gomer being allowed to stay in the Marines despite his rubeness, and we touched on a couple of contemporary shows, even though at this point I don't even have a TV, just Netflix and a computer, now hulu, too.

From another customer I got a quick recipe for fish & chips that blew in one ear and out the other via my taste buds; later I craved potato chips and chocolate. The recipe uses the same mold I use for beeswax fish, only this woman makes chocolate fish and somehow the potato chips get in there, the wavy kind being the best (this offered by a male member of the group), and she calls the result fish & chips. Which, I think now, would be a great snack while watching Andy Griffith. Now what would Aunt Bee and Clara think?

Only four more weeks of market, and October weather can be so many different things. It's time to be beeswaxing autumn leaves, making extra Michigan Pine and pine cone candles, and this year the turkey and corn cob, fitting for the season. Which reminds me of this - the mascot for Concordia College (Minnesota) athletics is the Cobber - an ear of corn. This I also learned yesterday. Though I think maybe the mascot is called the kernel and everyone else is a cobber.

All for now.

2011-09-26T20:09:00.000-04:00

It's been a busy summer, and we can see that keeping the blog updated has not been a high priority. Alas. Not even pictures of the latest candles - the turkey, the corn cob, and the wild fern ball. And I never did get tealights made.

I did learn a new use for beeswax , though, from one of my customers at the farmers market. When making pretzels, she said, rub your baking sheet with beeswax. This from her husband's family, of Germanic heritage, if I remember correctly. Shortly after, I read an article in The Wall Street Journal online about a chef whose "current fixation is cooking pork in a beeswax crust ... " There have been other interesting news items relating to beeswax, including its status as a hot fashion color. I must say, the stuff sure is versatile.

I'll try to get pics of the newest candles posted soon. Meanwhile, the Marquette Farmers and Artists Market continues every Saturday through the end of October, the Zero Degrees Artists Gallery is open seven days a week, the food co-op has a nice selection of product, and Art U.P. Style on Washington Street in Marquette carries some candles. If you're in Munising, stop by Open Wings Gallery, and in Big Bay check out North Shore Treasures.

Now, back to goofing off ...

beeswax recycled tealights

2011-06-05T15:48:00.000-04:00

When in the space of a few days more than one person asks about beeswax tealights, I think: Maybe it's time to make beeswax tealights.

I snooped around to see if I still had that collection of old tin tealight cups I had from the paraffin tealights I used to burn, and sure enough, there they were, back in a corner on a closet shelf, all ajumble but waiting patiently in an old 1.5 lb. plastic yogurt tub (blueberry). I needed more than one person to mention tealights precisely for that reason - to get me to dig out those old cups. It was the second person, at yesterday's farmers market, who talked about having a bunch of these tins and how one day soon she was going to buy a block of beeswax from me to melt down and pour into these cups in order to have beeswax tealights. Well, my thoughts exactly. One day soon. Or maybe today.

Now I have a couple dozen beeswax recycled tealights. At 50 cents each, we'll see how it goes. Meanwhile, accepting used tealight cups. Please bring to Marquette farmers market or mail to Leslie Allen, P.O. Box 37, Pelkie MI, 49958.

the owl, the sun, and the honeybee

2011-04-23T15:49:00.000-04:00

New beeswax candles!

beeswax owl, $4

The beeswax owl is a little over three inches tall and not quite two inches 'round. He's a good burner ~ doesn't drip much and goes for about 12 hours, wondering who lit me all the while ...

beeswax sun, $4

The sun is one and a quarter inches tall with a four-inch diameter. It will burn for about 12 hours while floating face up in water or just sitting on dry land. It will leave behind its rays; pop a votive where the face used to be and a new candle dawns.

floating bee, $3

The beeswax bee rests on a sunflower and is also designed as a floater. It's about an inch tall with a two-and-three-quarter-inch diameter. It burns about four hours, leaving behind its petals. Reuse by securing a votive in the middle.

who's back?

in my crystal ball of beeswax ...

2011-03-29T09:07:00.000-04:00

... I see the Psychic Beeswax Charmer. Just a small little charmer, maybe half the height of a regular charmer, but packing the punch of a single charm, a single charm that is unknown until it appears. You ask a question, the question, whatever you want, and you light the candle, you smell the beeswax, the honey, the flowers, the sunshine of summer and balmier days, and you watch the flame and ponder:

What's the answer?

A charm appears. What is it? What does it tell you? You have an immediate reaction, recognition, association. The charm you receive is pure chance, luck, coincidence, divine intervention, fate - or - is it meaningless? You fish the charm from the molten wax, keeping it away from the flame. Among the folds of a soft cloth you wipe it clean, hold it in your hands. What does it tell you now?

I make no claims. I do not know what the chance receipt of a Tibetan silver turtle or heart or dancing snowman or ... ? ... embedded in a beeswax candle might tell you, might show you, might reveal only to you. That, at least in part, is up to you.

What's the situation?

What's on your mind?

What's in the wax, underneath the flame?

adding zero

2011-03-08T11:24:00.000-05:00

Take the number 5, add 0 to it, get 50. Take 50, add zero, it becomes 500. Add more zeroes, and the number grows. Just one of the things I've thought about since joining the Zero Degrees Artist Cooperative in Marquette, Michigan.

The cooperative best describes itself, so please visit its Website: zerodegreesgallery.com.

But if you can visit the gallery, please do. I find it to be different from other galleries and shops I've been in. There is definitely art there, but it is at once surprising, accessible, and a bit renegade. Mobiles of driftwood and paper cranes; images on paper cut into strips, woven with thread as if thread; huge forms in metal and wood and small strands of beaded jewelry; photography, painting, ceramics; stained glass, mosaics, and collage; wood cutting boards and wood and clay bowls; furniture; dolls and fabrics and scarves and purses; metal hooks and soup-can fish; art from artists and art from, well, are we truly all artists? There is the art of nature and the art of man, art that is recycled, upcycled, decycled, and, oh my, my head is spinning.

525 Third Street, Marquette
Open every day 11-5
Fridays until 8

Zero Degrees is a very cool place, and I am proud to be part of it. I made a display case from old hive boxes, and that's where you'll find beeswax candles (including all the charmers) and collages and a few ornaments. I hope to display new product as it comes to be.

The gallery is open seven days a week in the heart of The Village shopping district. Throughout March, the gallery has also overtaken the Huron Mountain Gallery inside the Peter White Public Library in Marquette. If you can, stop by. You'll find some incredible stuff.

Gaining the Upper Hand

2011-02-19T11:01:00.002-05:00

If you prefer online ordering, I'm happy to direct you to Michigan's Upper Hand - MIUpperHand.com - and my spot

in their online marketplace. The website started in November 2010, offering Upper Peninsula-made products to the world, a wonderful array of art, craft, coffee, books, snowshoes, trout nets, and even a tug toy for Fido. Now, there are also beeswax candles, including the Beeswax Charmer, North Woods Pillar, Happy Bee, and a couple of beeswax collages. More beeswax will be added in the coming weeks.

Even though I've just begun my association with The Hand, I'm impressed with its model: Local businesspeople come together to create a website that promotes their remote area's creative class, which includes artists, craftspeople, writers, and musicians, and in doing so, offer an outlet and potential income to those same artists, craftspeople, writers, and musicians. The site doesn't just tell you, the visitor, that the Upper Peninsula is this great place with all these wonderful, creative people - it shows you. And I like being involved with a site that has a local stake.

Unless you're from Michigan, the "hand" thing may be escaping you. Michigan consists of two peninsulas, an upper and a lower, both jutting into The Great Lakes, both hand-shaped.

The Handy State of Michigan

Although the Upper Peninsula is sometimes left off maps or identified as the northern reaches of Wisconsin, in my time here, going on seven years, two sitting presidents have visited, the most recent being President Obama, who was here just a week or so ago. He came to speak about innovation and technology at Northern Michigan University.

On the one hand, I'm happy to live someplace that is remote and often left off the map, but on the other hand, one needs to make a living, and that often requires a wider marketplace, and not all of us want to be shopkeepers on such fine sites as etsy and the like. So now, for those of us in the U.P., there's The Hand. Of course, you can still just call or email me to order beeswax.

Cheesehead Beeswax Buddha

2011-02-07T12:10:00.000-05:00

Cheesehead Buddha
watches Super Bowl XLV

I received a report this morning that a certain Beeswax Buddha may be imbued with special powers.

Could the Cheesehead Beeswax Buddha have had anything to do with the Green Bay Packers winning the Super Bowl?

I am simply a conduit and have no opinion, but both the giver of the Buddha (a Chicago Bears fan) and the recipient (a Packers fan) believe the Buddha had everything to do with the Packers' recent wins, and there are some particulars to the story that give credence to their belief. However, with respect for privacy and mystery, I say no more.

Honey & Beeswax Lip Balm: Tube or Tin?

2011-02-05T12:07:00.001-05:00

for tubers

The Marquette Food Co-op now has a supply of honey & beeswax lip balm from my supply of 500 lbs. of beeswax (and a little local honey). The co-op is phasing out their Burt's Bees product, which can be found most anywhere and elsewhere anyway. The lip balm is available in tins as well as tubes.

The lip balm sold well at the farmers market last summer, but I only had it in tubes because, I guess, I am a tube person. (Apparently when it comes to lip balm there are tinners and tubers. I tried tins once; went back to tubes.) Also, I can be lazy, and nobody asked for lip balm in a tin ...

for tinners

Then, the Co-op asked if I could do lip balm in a tin. Sure I could, so now tinners as well as tubers can enjoy honey & beeswax lip balm that's made in the U.P. The silvery tin seemed to call for a different label from the colorless tube, which I'm sure is wrong marketing-wise, but then I realized if nothing's perfect, everything must be imperfect, so be it.

Made with almond oil, Michigan beeswax,
U.P. honey, essential oil of cinnamon.

They eat beeswax, don't they?

2011-01-26T09:30:00.001-05:00

Today is the one-year anniversary of my first trip across the Big Scary (Mackinac Bridge), which I had to brave in order to get to lower Michigan to pick up my first load of 500 lbs. of beeswax. Who knew where that would lead? Well, here we are, and today I'd like to address a question I was asked infrequently, but certainly more than once, this past summer at the farmers market.

Q: Can you eat it?
A: Yes.

People have been eating beeswax as long as they've been eating honey, and people have been eating honey forever. It wasn't until around 1865, though, when someone invented a honey slinger, that the two were easily separated. Until then, to get the honey out of the comb, you had to eat the comb too, or at least chew on it awhile. Now, there's a big difference between eating a hunk of beeswax sans honey and chomping on a slice of comb dripping with the stuff, but still, the comb is wax and the wax is edible. As a matter of fact, two incidents of beeswax-eating have recently come to my attention. First, there was the collage eaten by mice. Second, there was a howlin' wolf wolfed down by a dog.

The collage was one of the very first I made, given to a friend. While doing some renovation he put the collage in a closet for safekeeping. Many months later (and still renovating), he discovered mice in the closet and a collage destroyed, nibble by nibble. Believe me, the mice lived to tell the tale, but not for long.

The wolf candle, destined for someone's Christmas stocking, was intercepted by a golden retriever who gnawed off the poor wolf's head before he was discovered doing this naughty thing. The golden was fine, and the body of the wolf was burned.

So, yes, beeswax is edible.

Bee Tune #8

2011-01-21T10:35:00.000-05:00

Winter

2011-01-14T14:21:00.000-05:00

It's winter. Snow. Cold. The whole bit. Time to relax and experiment with beeswax, come up with new products, go wild with collage-making.

So far, this website is updated, the new Charmer page is up, and I've picked up two bee books to read: "Following the Bloom: Across America with the Migratory Beekeepers," by Douglas Whynott, and "Robbing the Bees: A Biography of Honey - The Sweet Liquid Gold that Seduced the World," by Holley Bishop.

Snow, cold, and lots of ideas in a slumbering hive.

the days are getting longer

2010-12-22T19:15:00.001-05:00

... and now it's about time for the peaceful part of this season to begin ...

For those of you landing here because you received a beeswax candle, lip balm, ornament, or collage for Christmas, welcome, and I hope you enjoy your beeswax and this website. If you have any questions, just email.

For those of you wanting to know more about the Beeswax Charmers, which became somewhat of a hot item this December, check back in January. New charmers are in the works, including "from the Pond," "Celestial," and "Lots o' Luck," and the "Summer" and "Winter" charmers will be slightly different. The "Words to Live By" Beeswax Charmer remains the same with charms for peace, hope and love. (Each Charmer contains three charms and is hand-rolled using a homemade sheet of beeswax ... but more about that in January.)

Thanks to everyone who became a customer this year, who shared a story about bees or beeswax, who let me take a picture of their dog, who walked by and said "Oh, that smells wonderful!", who walked by and said "Oh! Cheese!", who told me of a use for beeswax I'd never heard of, and those who simply shared how they use beeswax, reassuring me that there are indeed such things as didgeridoo mouthpieces made of the stuff and men using it to curl mustaches.

... and thanks to all who've made this (ad)venture so extremely worthwhile ...

2010-11-28T19:07:00.000-05:00

full moon past
howlin' wolf stays

o those negative ions

2010-11-09T12:13:00.001-05:00

Here we go again - another bit about beeswax candles and negative ions, this time from marie clare, which appears to be a fashion mag telling us how to best spend our holiday dollars. I quote:

Candles
Unlike paraffin, soy or palm wax, beeswax is a natural ioniser, meaning it purifies the air of dust, pollen, odours, toxins and mould while imparting a soft, honey scent. And as an added bonus, beeswax burns 10 times longer than paraffin.

Where do they get this stuff? Is it true? It seems to me only a chemist would know for sure ...

The American Chemical Society offers this study on paraffin's toxic emissions and the ever-interesting Captivating Chemistry of Candles, but nothing about beeswax and negative ions. Over on Wikipedia, there is an interesting discussion of ions, but nothing specifically about beeswax, and it seems to raise the question: Even if beeswax candles do emit negative ions when burned, does that purify the air? Ah well, the search continues for just the facts, ma'am, and maybe the beeswax-candle burner is the only one who really knows for sure.

the buddha has landed

2010-10-29T14:23:00.001-04:00

beeswax buddha
minding his own
(with pine cones)

mullin' the candle wick

2010-10-09T18:38:00.000-04:00

So I'm at the farmers market today and a guy comes up and hands me a candle wick made from a mullein leaf. Mullein is a crazy-looking plant that grows like a weed around here. It's got large fuzzy leaves and a tall center spike of tiny yellow flowers. As I'm looking at the wick, this guy grabs a beeswax daisy and with a pocket knife starts digging a hole out of its middle. Soon he's threading the mullein wick through the daisy and into an old wick tab he's pulled out of his pocket and I say, well, if you're going to make a candle of it add a daisy or two, so he does, and soon he's lighting the mullein-wicked, triple-daisy beeswax candle. It burns nicely. He describes for me, once again, the process for making candle wick out of mullein - a process he developed through trial and error - and I make notes, including one about mullein wick standing up to a breeze. Could be next year's hot patio item. For now, just something I'm mullin' over.

mullein-wicked, triple-daisy beeswax candle

By the way, the guy's name is Tom Reed, maker of the dragonfly cat toy sold on eBay.

Free the Beeswax Turtles

2010-10-08T13:45:00.000-04:00

Things are feeling pretty good over here at Beeswax Pond today, so tomorrow we'll be freeing a few beeswax turtles at the Marquette farmers market. If you'd like a free turtle, stop on by. One per customer, please, while they last.

freedom for all!

autumn leaves + beeswax

2010-10-01T10:14:00.000-04:00

trees in upper michigan 9/30/10

Collect some leaves, press them in a book until they are flat and dry, dip them one by one in a pot of melted beeswax, put on a piece of wax paper or tin foil to dry, and that's the recipe for preserving leaves with beeswax. Search the web for even more instructions re: the same.

beeswaxed leaves

Frog Vase

2010-09-18T16:30:00.000-04:00

the famous froggie jar

A farmers market would not be complete without comments and inquiries about my froggie jar - the ceramic vase I use to display my rustic tapers. The jar was made by Allen and Williams Pottery (my sister and brother-in-law) in California. Penny and Jim have been ceramists since 1970 ... well, why not visit their website and discover their wonderful world of pottery for yourself. They not only do neat things with frogs, but with fish, too.

Allen and Williams Pottery - allenwilliamspottery.com

2010-09-17T10:26:00.000-04:00

There's a little more beeswax in the shed today, about 500 pounds more, to be exact. Not much of a tale, really, but if you're interested - click here.

2010-09-06T20:12:00.001-04:00

I've been updating the candle and ornament pages, and I must say, having too much fun, giving the beeswax snowmen their own page.

Michael "Beeswax" Jackson

There are some new ornaments, including the Bee Watcher, and some new candles. Enjoy.

P.S. There is also a brochure listing product and prices and stuff about beeswax, but no pictures. However, if you'd like one, send me an SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope) and I'll mail it to you. I could also email it as a .pdf.

Beeswax & Spice & Wind

2010-08-29T13:13:00.000-04:00

With a strong enough wind your market tent becomes very much like a sail - it moves you, perhaps in a direction you would not like to go. That was yesterday.

Today, the direction I would like to go is toward autumn, with its cooler temperatures, crimson leaves, falling leaves, rustling leaves, dusky evenings, cinnamon smells, hot chocolate, nutmeg and pumpkins, and that occasional light frost that kills mosquitos dead. I know, it's not even Labor Day, but yesterday I got to talking with a customer at the Marquette farmers market about the beeswax & spice ornaments I make (no, they're not on the website except in a collage or two; pictured is a spicy moose on a snowball candle), and I was trying to remember the recipe, which is easy, and it's somewhat embarrassing that I could not remember something as easy as ... well, see below ... but again, it was hot, windy, my tent wished to be elsewhere, and in August I simply flag until that sense of renewal that always comes with the fall.

For beeswax & spice & applesauce ornaments you need:

medium-size pot or double boiler
rolling pin
cookie cutters (optional)
awl or some other pointy tool

1.5 ounces of beeswax (one Queen Bee hexagon)
1 cup of applesauce
1.5 cups of ground spice(s) - cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, any combination thereof
1 tsp. of essential oil (optional)

Melt and stir the beeswax with the applesauce over low to medium heat, just hot enough so the wax melts and the two can be combined.
Add in the spice and stir until you have a nice mudball. (Now might be the time to add the optional essential oil, though I've never done that part.)
Remove the mixture from the pan and knead it until it is like dough and you can roll it out. (I roll it out in sections rather than all at once.)
Cut into shapes with cookie cutters or some other utensil, or roll into little balls, beads, etc. Make a hole for your ribbon or yarn with an awl or some other pointy tool.
Set somewhere to dry for 3 or 4 days. The thicker your ornaments, the longer they take to dry.

I got this recipe from Super Formulas: Arts & Crafts, by Elaine C. White, published by Valley Hills Press in 1993. She calls them Spice Sachets and adds: "The fragrance will last for years."

Pillars, Bees & Prayers, oh my ...

2010-08-27T08:48:00.004-04:00

Soon I hope to update the beeswax candle page with these new candles and as well a couple more, and have available a downloadable brochure with all product and prices.

Soon, soon.

Beeswax, Canteens & Accordions

2010-08-18T08:57:00.011-04:00

There's no mystery as to why selling beeswax at the farmers market is a fine thing to do. Yesterday in Munising, during a pause between customers, I stepped back to take in the view. The bay, a deep rippled blue. The sky, well, a far-flung sky blue. The hills thick with green rising from the bay in gentle waves. Then for a while Colleen, "the soap lady," strummed her guitar, a familiar tune with no name. Later the band started up, their first song being Sonny and Cher's "The Beat Goes On."

I talked for a while with a man who gave me a new use for beeswax: melt it and pour it into your canteen, coating the inside completely to prevent rust. The nice side effect of this application is the light sweetness the beeswax adds to the water, not to mention the pleasant aroma when you take a swig. And it gave me an idea: Beeswax Water. This morning I've put a jar of water with beeswax in it in the refrigerator. In a while, we'll see how it tastes. A beeswax daisy or butterfly might make a very nice addition to anyone's glass of iced tea...

And then there's something I learned at Marquette's farmers market - if you've got an accordion, you've probably got beeswax. I had to research this online to get the exact usage, and fortunately a guy named Ike has an accordion page from which I took this:

Usually the reeds are held in place on chambered wooden blocks using a mixture of beeswax and pine rosin. This material is carefully poured around and between the reeds and when it cools, it grips them tightly in place, so that efficient transmission of the wave vibrations can occur. If the wax has gone bad with age, which is often the case, the wax has to be re-poured when reed work is done.

Now, I don't know about wax going "bad with age," but then again this wax is mixed with pine rosin and transmitting wave vibrations, etc. Which raises the question: If there were no beeswax, would we know how to polka?

Anyway, just another reason or two to have a little beeswax around the house.

Beehive Votive

2010-08-13T14:04:00.005-04:00

At last, something new, the Beehive Votive. In the shape of a skep, an old-timey beehive made of straw. But in this case, made of beeswax.

Not sure of the burn time yet - lit the test skep six and a half hours ago and she's just burned down to the top of the second row of straw, I mean beeswax. Is about 2 inches tall and 2 inches wide at the base. Price: $2 each.

Softens Hands While You Shine Your Shoes

2010-08-11T10:12:00.004-04:00

A customer at the Munising farmers market reminded me that beeswax is good for your skin whether in a lip balm or skin potion or not. He mixes up beeswax with mineral oil for a leather shoe treatment. After he's done applying it, he said, his hands stay nice and soft for a couple of days or more. And his shoes, I suppose, never looked so good.

Marquette Market Dogs

2010-07-31T16:06:00.010-04:00

2010-07-29T11:25:00.007-04:00

By the end of the the Munising Farmers Market market this week, beeswax fish and butterflies had sold out. What do people do with these things? It ain't soap; it's just beeswax. And nine or 39 times a market I answer the question: What would one do with this? (Meaning a beeswax fish or turtle, etc.) Lately, when someone buys a beeswax turtle or fish (etc.) and I ask them, "What do you plan to do with that?" they shrug and smile and say "I don't know."

Good answer.

Another good answer came from a Florida potter in town for the Art on the Rocks show in Marquette this weekend. He bought a beeswax turtle and some butterflies (or maybe daisies), and when I asked him what he was going to do with them, he told me he was going to send them back home to his wife, as a gift, for fun.

Now that's a good answer, too.

beeswax & baseball

2010-07-18T09:31:00.004-04:00

Yesterday's lesson from the market (well, one of them, anyway):

Melt a little beeswax in a pan or bowl in your microwave or on the stove (melting point 150 degrees). Pour the wax (not too hot!) into the pocket of your baseball mitt and rub it in. Or take a soft cloth and do that. To keep the leather supple. Also will repel water.

2010-07-16T17:45:00.003-04:00

Beeswax turtle - floating candle - on its way to Lake Superior.

So much to learn ... so little time?

2010-07-14T12:02:00.010-04:00

Yesterday at the Munising farmers market a blacksmith stopped at my booth and bought a pound of beeswax and explained how he uses it as a finish for the barbecue utensils he makes. A couple of weeks ago in Marquette a metal forger - he specializes in knives and swords and things - had told me pretty much the same, that beeswax makes a marvelous finish for metalwork. And for the past couple of weeks in Marquette I've been set up next to a fellow who makes quivers and baskets and decorative bird houses from birch bark that he laces with a thread he first pulls through a chunk of beeswax and pine resin.

My first visitor yesterday was a kayaker. He told me that a good way to keep hold of your kayak paddle is to rub a little beeswax on the grip. We've all heard the expression "up a creek without a paddle" - imagine losing your grip out on Lake Superior, old Gitchee Gumee, that big, deep lake that they say never gives up her dead. ... And when the end of the world does come, did you know it's only beeswax candles that will provide light? I needed to investigate that one, and did so this morning, finding out about the prophesied Three Days of Darkness, a calamitous time during which only blessed beeswax candles will burn.

I dare say I'm learning a lot at my local farmers markets.

Bee Tune #7

2010-07-14T11:55:00.001-04:00

Beeswax Block #7

2010-06-30T10:40:00.017-04:00

This week I started hacking away at beeswax block #7. This is one of my favorite parts of the process - whacking at a hunk of raw beeswax with a hammer and chisel, the ping - ping - ping of metal on metal. As chunks fall free I fill up my tub to haul inside to transfer the wax piece by piece to a battered old pan, melting it, filtering it, pouring it, molding it, rolling it, helping it to become something new, like ornaments on a beaded garland or a honey & beeswax lip balm.

Sniffin's Free

2010-06-27T16:37:00.001-04:00

One thing I like about selling beeswax at the farmers market is that sniffin's free. A person passes by under my tent by my table and breathes in and maybe pauses and grabs a candle or a block of beeswax and holds it up to the nose and breathes deep and nine times out of ten I see a face relax into a smile and once in a while I can even see the mind behind the face drift, drifting I don't know where, but it must be nice. Sometimes I hear how grandma kept bees or about that house on Halloween that doled out slices of honeycomb. Oh, that honeycomb! And sometimes the person just puts down the beeswax, keeps on walking, and that's OK too, cuz sniffin's free.

2010-06-20T13:59:00.003-04:00

Thought it would be fun to burn my fingers in hot beeswax today. Had a ball making a snowman.

Gives new meaning to yellow snow.

Mustache Wax

2010-06-18T16:52:00.006-04:00

A man walked up to the table at the Munising Farmers Market, picked up two beeswax turtles, asked how much. I told him, he paid. I asked if I might inquire what he planned to do with the turtles. He smiled, turned his nose up a little bit displaying his mustache, and said, "Mustache wax. These turtles will last me all year."

If I had had my camera, I might have asked to take his picture. I'm always telling people about these weird things one can do with beeswax - like wax a mustache - but I have no direct experience with most of the applications - like waxing a mustache - and I like it when someone comes along who has that experience. Makes it not so weird.

For the record, the mustache in question curled tightly into little "o"s at the ends. You just don't see that too often. But if I recall correctly, the Wizard in "The Wizard of Oz" had a mustache like that.

Revisions

2010-06-16T08:36:00.003-04:00

I have just learned how to use Blogger's "Page" feature, and over the next few days will work at turning most of my posts here into pages with the intent of making this blog easier to navigate. But meanwhile, there may be some redundancy and confusion, which sounds a lot like life in general to me.

Market Photos

2010-06-12T18:00:00.005-04:00

Didgeridoos and Mushrooms Too

2010-06-05T16:18:00.006-04:00

Today's farmers market in Marquette was good, the third in a row, cool temps and cloudy, but nevertheless pleasant. Sales have risen a little each week. Beeswax candles have been making their way to yoga studios and romantic dinner tables; blocks of wax have gone off with artists and crafters and cutting board refurbishers; beeswax fish, turtles, daisies, and butterflies have been separating kids from their quarters; and ornaments, candles, and collages have met their destiny as gifts. Then, along came the didgeridoos ...

Late today a woman approached the booth in need of beeswax for a didgeridoo. I have, of course, a plethora of beeswax out on the table, what specifically would she like? Well, she needs it for a didgeridoo her husband recently acquired; they've heard you're supposed to put beeswax around the mouthpiece. I've heard the same. Do you know how? she asks, and I shrug. For some reason, I never thought it would come up ... We discussed the possibilities, she bought a small seventy-five-cent block, I wished her luck and thought I better investigate that didgeridoo thing so that next time I could be more helpful. A half hour later along comes another woman and she says something like "Oh, I use beeswax on my didgeridoos ..." I told her I wish she'd been there a bit earlier, as we needed her help.

In case you're wondering about beeswax and didgeridoos, click here.

Meanwhile, do-it-yourself shiitake mushroom logs were selling like crazy. One could buy a log, drill holes in it, inoculate the holes, seal the holes (in wax, I think, so why not beeswax?), and cart the log home to a nice damp place, await a crop of fungi delight, cook it up, serve at a nice candlelit dinner, beeswax candles, I hope, of course.

Nine Turtles Melting

2010-06-02T09:19:00.006-04:00

Nine beeswax turtles melt in an eight-by-eight-inch square glass baking pan. There is about a half inch of water in the pan. The pan is on a woodstove; the chimney thermometer reads about 160-180 degrees. The water in the pan begins to boil just before I take it off the stove and place it on the kitchen counter. When the water boils, the beeswax can splatter a bit. Better to take it off the stove before boiling.

The melted beeswax turtles are now a hot liquid sheet of beeswax floating on the water. The sheet shrinks as it cools, so I run a knife along the edge to separate the sheet from the pan. Once hardened, the sheet is easily removed. After placing the sheet on Kraft paper over cardboard, I cut it into two pieces with a pocket knife.

With wick cut to size, I roll two beeswax candles. If the wax is too warm, the sheet can be difficult to roll, but molding by hand helps. If the sheet cools too much and becomes stiff, you can warm it with a hair dryer or sometimes just the heat of your hand. Once rolled, stand the candle on its end and push down a bit to give it a level base.

Bee Tune #6

2010-04-08T08:11:00.002-04:00

Now for the rest of the song.

Bee Tune #5

2010-03-23T17:24:00.003-04:00

Bee Tune #4

2010-03-15T09:42:00.003-04:00

Bee Tune #3

2010-03-08T09:27:00.004-05:00

Bee Tune #2

2010-02-26T10:00:00.004-05:00

Bee Tune #1

2010-02-24T13:55:00.002-05:00

How we started

2010-02-24T13:28:00.005-05:00

500 lbs. of beeswax

Close Up

Of course we actually started with a lot less, just 20 pounds or so from a beekeeper friend last year, then another 20, another 10 ... then in January along came this opportunity to pick up 500 pounds of beeswax ...

But the true beginnings of this venture are embedded somewhere in these posts from an upper peninsula journal ...

Bee
Where the honey flows: White Birch Apiary
Beeswax
Getting the Bees out