Despite the development of modern postal technology, there has been a real revival of the use of wax and stamps in correspondence. I think everyone can agree, there is just something so appealing, personal, and downright exciting about receiving a letter sealed with wax. It’s the closest you’ll ever get to feeling like you’ve just been accepted into Hogwarts and that’s as good a reason as any that I chose to make them and add them to the range.
There are a few different ways to create wax seals, you can use a glue gun (on a low heat setting) if you’re making a lot of seals in the same colour, or you can heat the wax on a metal spoon over a candle if you want to mix colours.
The little time-lapse video above demonstrates the spoon option, plus the inclusion of a tiny gold leaf star. A bit of a fiddly process as you have to hold your breath at certain points, not because you’re so damned excited in anticipation of what it will look like but purely because the gold leaf is wafer thin and very delicate and if you breathe in its direction it will disappear onto the floor, into a cup of coffee, onto the cats head, you get the point.
Using a small bag of ice, place your wax seal on top of it to cool the base for a few minutes (this stops it sticking to the wax). When using it have a tissue or small towel to hand to wipe off any moisture from the base.
Melt 1-2 sealing wax beads or roughly 1 inch of a mini glue gun stick in your spoon.
Pour the wax onto your envelope (or onto a heatproof non-stick surface if later applying adhesive backings) in a circular motion.
Press your chilled wax stamp in the center of the hot wax. Leave for 10-15 seconds.
Gently peel your wax seal away from the cool wax. If sticking occurs let your wax cool more, or use more ice when chilling your stamp.