Eco-friendly fun at Rochdale Pioneers Museum

Date published: 03 December 2018

Lots of eco-friendly fun was had at the ‘Bee Wish You A Merry Christmas’ workshop at the Rochdale Pioneers Museum on Saturday (1 December).

Eager crafters learnt how to create lavender teacup candles using beeswax: simply measure out your wax pellets, melt and pour into your chosen teacup. Add lavender oil and a wick, and wait for the wax to set.

However, the highlight of the morning was learning how to create an environmentally friendly and reusable alternative to clingfilm, using beeswax-coated fabric.

In the backlash against single-use plastics, wax-coated fabric wraps have quickly become a popular way to store food instead of clingfilm, using pretty waxed fabric to wrap and store food.

Whilst they cannot be used in the microwave, with raw meat or washed in hot water, the wraps are perfect for covering food or wrapping it to take with you, using the heat from your hands to coax it into shape before securing with a tie.

Crafters cut out squares of fabric in a variety of sizes, before dipping them in a bain-marie of melted wax, and simply hanging them to dry.

The wax on each wrap should last for around one year: each one can simply be re-waxed for further use.