Jolis Chevaux: Blackened Beeswax Ornaments

While isolating at home with COVID, I have put that time to good use. Not only did I complete an order of 20 Stablemate haversacks and a set of show drapes for FAMulous, I will be taking Jolis Chevaux to the The Feast of the Hunters' Moon in October and am preparing for that.

To be specific, I have been doing an 18th century German tradition of making blackened beeswax ornaments.

Sorry for the poor photo - it was taken at 5 AM in my kitchen and I did not want to move the ornaments to a place with better lighting as they are still curing. (That odd angle is because that was the only way to keep most of them out of the shadows.)

You start by melting beeswax (which makes my kitchen smell so good) and pour them into molds. As they begin to set, you add hangers to the cooling wax. (That's the hardest part - wait too long and you'll have to throw that ornament back into the pot and melt and pour again.)

After a bit more cooling but while still warm, you pop the ornament out of the mold and dredge it in cinnamon. This is the blackening process.

I learned very quickly to not brush the cinnamon off with my fingers or even a small paint brush - if you do, you will get uneven blackening.

Or leave a big spot like I did on this one here.

You can see the excess cinnamon in this photo. I will shake that off when these have finished curing.

The ornaments are not difficult to make and an added bonus is that the scent of beeswax and cinnamon wafts through the house while I make them.

Interested in trying them yourself? Go to Carolina Honeybees for directions.