This is where I found my inspiration. My friend brought home these lovely wax sachets she purchased at Santa Maria Novella in Florence, Italy. Off to the kitchen lab I went! I began gathering flowers and leaves mostly from my own property but others from the neighborhood. I dried them, pressed them and in some instances cut them up into shapes. I found 100% natural beeswax, added essential oils or fragrance oils and began experimenting. My interest grew to try different waxes, soy and paraffin and adding coastal features since I live at the coast and I have such an appreciation for it. Here are a few examples of some of them. They smell amazing and add a little visual feature for any room, closet or in a gift box.
Below I used white soy wax from top left clockwise, homegrown, handpressed, young hydrangea; california pink pepper berries and ponderosa pine needles; mature hydrangea petals dried and cut into confetti; rose petals dried and cut into confetti.
Below are 100% Pure Beeswax with wild mustard; California pink pepper berries (aka pink peppercorns); Privet and hydrangea.
Below I worked with some paraffin wax, primarily because I wanted to experiment with a more translucent material. I used starfish and sand dollars that I was able to get from Florida and I added some fresh sand from Redondo Beach. Interestingly, the sand in Southern California looks so light but when you examine the granules up closely there is are a lot of black granules, I'm assuming it's because it's volcanic rock. I had to add a little colloidal oatmeal to lighten it up a bit ;)
Winter themes are coming!