Look At What I Made....!!

I have had a very creatively quiet few weeks here.  Obviously, because I normally post every few days with some new fun thing I'm working on, but not this month -- I usually have about 15-20 posts a month.....I think I have 9 for January.  Hmmm.....that is going to have to change!!

Part of it is that I'm spending alot of time with my neighbor as she goes through her healing.  She will be starting chemo soon, and actually it should be easier on her because it is once a month for 6 months.  I think that's GOOD news!  She's also looking seriously at changing her eating, and adding herbs and vitamins, and raw fruits and vegetables.  So I am helping her with making new foods, and shopping and looking things up on the internet, just small helpful things.  I haven't been thinking of my house or my projects, or anything like that.

But this weekend, I got a little bee in my bonnet (haha!) about something I've been wanting to try for quite awhile -- homemade beeswax polish!! :-D  Tinted dark brown, of course!
The reason is that everyone talks about Briwax being able to give a most amazing aged finish to their wood furniture, so I've been searching everywhere for it!  I finally found it at Ace Hardware, but it's $19!!!!  And the cheapest online has been $20!!  That's OUT of my price range for something like that, so I've been intent on making it myself! :-D

I already have blocks of beeswax (for another project that I will talk about whenever I decide to do it!), and according to formulas online, all I need is turpentine to go in it......so I finally found some this weekend, on a dusty shelf at Lowe's, and today, me and Brian made the polish!!! :-D

First, I gathered my supplies.....

That's my beeswax block, and I have two wax dyes, one is brown and the other is black.  I wasn't sure which one I would need, so I had them both ready.

Next, Brian cut about 1/4 of the block off, and grated it for me (he's so much stronger than I am, it goes alot quicker! :-) ).......

Then, I put the shavings into one of my (many) saved tin cans, and put the can into hot water on the stove.....

(this is also where I pointed out to Brian that it's a pretty good thing that I save cans!)

It melted in just a few minutes!!
I dropped in the brown dye.....

.....and stirred it in.  It looks pretty dark in the can, but we put a few drops on a white paper plate, and it wasn't nearly as dark, so I added a little more of the brown dye, but it was still too light for what I wanted......

.....and actually, this picture shows the drops as much darker than they are in real life!  You can see how the lower drops got darker after I added more brown dye.

It was time to take out the big guns.....

I only needed a little corner of one of these diamonds, because the package says that one will color a whole pound of wax!
In it went, a few stirs of the stick and look at what I got.....

That was dark enough for me!! :-D
Keep in mind, of course, that I have NO IDEA how any of these tints might look actually rubbed ON something!  You can't know, because it has to be dyed before the turpentine is added, thereby making it a polish!!  SO.....forward I went with what I THINK is a great, dark color!!!

To add the turpentine, we took it outside because of the poisonous fumes.  I also didn't take any pictures OF the turpentine, because I was giving it my full attention while I was adding it!
First, I poured the melted wax into the container I am storing it in.....

.....I'm saving the melting can for my next wax project! :-D.....

I added about 4oz. of turpentine, which I measured in another saved can I had, a smaller one!  And then we just left it to cool.  I wanted to stir it and mix it around as it cooled, because I thought it might harden in places, but the wax would clump together on my stirring stick when I did, so I finally gave up and just left it alone!

Here it is, about 1 1/2 hours later, completely cooled.....

Now look what happens when I squeeze the sides of the container.....

VOILA!!!  It's a softened wax polish!!! :-D

You would think I had used it already, just to see how it looked, but I actually haven't yet! LOL
I just forgot about it, after getting dinner started and cleaned up, and then getting Brian's work things together for tomorrow (sniff! sniff!).....and when I did remember, I didn't want to try it at night when I can't see it's real effect!
So I'm going to try it out first thing tomorrow morning, and I'll be sure to report back!! :-D
It looks like it's going to be perfect, so I hope I'm happy with it!  It does smell AWFUL, though.....I wonder if real Briwax smells bad too....?  

It was actually really fun to make it, and now to have it!  And working with the wax was so easy -- I feel confident to try other wax projects now! :-D
Oh, but first I have a few other fun things I want to do this week!!  Tomorrow morning, I'm going over to my neighbor's house for an hour or so, but when I get home I want to tackle another fun project.....it shouldn't take me long, so I have no reason NOT to!

You'll have to come back to see what it is.....!! (and to see how the polish works!) ^-^