A New Mold

I realized after I typed the title to this post that many of you would think it referred to a new Breyer mold. It doesn't - it refers to a new beeswax ornament mold. (Actually, it is a mold for making soap, but it works well for beeswax, too.)

The mold depicts Pegasus and Hawkeye Daughter Sarah sent it to me for my birthday. 

One of the last minute Feast prep items on my list was to make a final batch of blackened beeswax ornaments so I set aside Saturday morning for the process. I was really excited to try my new mold out.

It takes three plus hours to melt and pour the ornaments, but it is relaxing and I enjoy it. Best of all is the lovely smell of beeswax and cinnamon that wafts throughout my home. I pour five or six molds and then melt more beeswax while those harden.

They are still warm and a bit soft when you remove them from the mold and you never know just how they will look when you remove them - sometimes there are bubbles that create holes. (Easy fix; just remove the string and melt and pour again!) 

This is the first Pegasus and I love it! The brown in the wing is the twine peeking through the wax but that doesn't matter - when I blacken the ornament, it will not show.

Blackening them is done by dredging them in cinnamon. I fill a pie plate with cinnamon and then dredge the soft, warm ornaments in it. 

Sarah wanted to see the process so I made this video for her. It's not the best - my hands were covered in cinnamon and dredging the ornaments is hard with one hand, but it will show you how I do them.

It is hard to get a good photo of the Pegasus; I'll try again later and will replace this one if I do. It actually turned out to be very pretty.

Yesterday's batch. I am still experimenting with how much cinnamon blackening I like. 

The lion in profile almost always turns out well.

As does the horse in profile.

The roaring lion is really neat but very difficult to pour and blacken. He has so many tiny crevices that you have to be sure the wax and then the cinnamon get into.

Cross one more thing off my to-do list!