A couple times a year, Anna and I take some time to produce our Beeswax Petites for the shop. Recently, we made a whole bunch – including a couple new sizes and styles for those who can’t get enough of the good stuff!
These delectable morsels of 100% pure soft, supple, enticingly aromatic beeswax are ideal for strengthening thread in various embroidery and sewing applications. We use all cap wax (no brood comb or the like) that’s been quadruple filtered.
It is not a brittle beeswax – it doesn’t flake and break off like the pale yellow or white cakes you buy on the notion aisle at a sewing or craft store. You know it’s good stuff because it smells divine, it feels wonderful, and it’s dense but softens beautifully for applying to thread.
In hand embroidery, beeswax is used to coat the thread used to apply goldwork wires, spangles, bullions, and the like. Beeswax strengthens the thread against the abrasive metal. It’s also great for strengthening thread for sewing down beads.
And – wonder of wonders! – if you’ve ever lost a button because of broken thread, you will understand the sheer magnificence of beeswax-coated threads for sewing on buttons. Coat buttons especially benefit from beeswax as a strengthener.
We make the Beeswax Petites at my house, in my garage-gone-workspace. You might remember this space. It used to be “the studio” once upon a time. It was the first expansion space of Needle ‘n Thread, when I moved my “studio” from my bedroom to the remodeled workspace in the garage.
I grew out of the garage space eventually. From there, I rented this duplex apartment, just catty-corner from my house on the same street.
After about four-ish years in that space – during which time, I took on Anna, my full-time accomplice – we outgrew it and moved into our commercial space in the little historic downtown of St. Marys, Kansas, which I showed you here. (The space has developed a bit since then, but the essentials are the same!)
That’s where we are now and likely will be for a while.
The Beeswax Petites bring us almost full-circle in our studio growth and expansion. Why? Because we make them, as mentioned, in my former studio, and they have become an important part of our work in the present studio.
We use Beeswax Petites all the time! We use them in kits (like Plique รก Jour) and we use them for our own embroidery work.
On this altar cover that we finished back in 2023, we used them right and left!
We use them on every goldwork project, and we often use them for bead embroidery as well.
The Blue Shelf
One of my Favorite focal points in the Studio is a very strange and spontaneous purchase I made off Facebook Marketplace last year: this Blue Shelf.
It’s strange because everything in the studio is white or a light, natural wood. Any color in the room is supplied by fabric, embroideries, the gallery wall, and the like. But definitely not by the furniture … until The Blue Shelf arrived, that is.
The Blue Shelf is controversial. Just ask Anna.
Still, I like it.
When we are in Beeswax Production Mode, with the warmer set up and filled with wax and all the beeswax stuff out, I take the opportunity to make a variety of candles, too. These, I use for gifts throughout the year. We also use them in the Studio (especially in winter). And I use them at home, too. I enjoy burning a good beeswax candle! Not only is the smell sumptuous, but the candle itself lasts much longer than most standard candles today, because beeswax has a higher melting point and is significantly denser than other currently popular waxes.
After a bout of Beeswax-Petite-Making, there’s nothing I like better than populating The Blue Shelf with whatever candles happen to materialize at the same time. This year, there have been many candles, primarily because I’m working from home, anyway. I can do quick candle pours between computer work and dad care. It works out well!
That was a long, meandering journey to get to the point – but here’s the latest batch on The Blue Shelf.
If nothing else, The Blue Shelf serves my candle-making efforts well. The colors complement each other deliciously, and it gives the studio a very cheerful, warm, and eye-catching splash of color.
I just finished this small batch of candles at home, and they are patiently awaiting their deliverance to The Blue Shelf. I can’t wait to add them to the collection! There’s a certain feeling of satisfaction when the Shelf is abundantly full.
And that, my friends, is another glance behind the Needle ‘n Thread scenes. While we don’t make wax products in the current studio, we still enjoy them in the studio. They’re beautiful to see on the Shelf, and it’s just lovely to have a candle or two burning during our work hours.
I hope you a lovely weekend! And a very Happy Mother’s Day to all you Moms out there!
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