Wouldn’t it be great if the beautiful blooms someone has sent you could last forever, especially if there’s a special sentiment attached to them? There are a few ways that you can preserve and re-purpose your flowers, allowing you to enjoy them for much longer than you would think! There’s drying and pressing, but one of my favorite methods of preserving flowers is waxing. I’ve written about waxing flowers in the past and loved all the feedback and questions the post generated, so I thought I’d let you know about my recent find that makes waxing flowers even easier to do!
This Wilton candy melt machine is literally a “plug & play” dream. Below are a few simple steps on how to use it to preserve your blooms.
It comes with 2 silicone pots (one divided and one not) that make clean up a snap! I used the full pot and shredded soy wax.
- Fill the pot to the top with the wax.
- Plug in and turn on high to totally melt the wax. You can continue to add new wax as it melts down. You want to be able to dip your flower all the way in to totally cover it with the melted wax.
- Here’s where the easy-to-clean part comes in! When you’re done waxing, simply turn the machine off and let the wax cool completely. Once it’s a solid mass, it can easily be removed by pushing on the bottom of the silicone pot and the wax will pop out. Store in a plastic zip lock bag or another container until you’re ready to wax again.
- Using soy wax also makes it eco-friendly, and there are no issues or problems using the machine for actually melting candy as well!
- Here are a few of the flowers that I waxed using my new machine:
Hardy flowers with smaller blooms such as dianthus, rice flower, leucadandron and waxflower tend to hold up well to waxing.
Full blown roses are the best, especially spray roses, which are smaller and have multiple blooms per stem.
Look at how beautiful this pink spray rose looks after it’s waxed!
I had such a good time working on this post and getting to know how best to work with the candy melting machine. It was so easy to be able to just unplug it when I needed to move on to other things. Then when I had a little time again, I’d just plug it in and was good to go. I could just keep waxing all day!
Before trying for yourself, here are a few helpful tips to keep in mind:
- Be prepared to test your wax a few times before waxing your final blooms.
- Follow the directions for melting candy—melt on high heat and then turn to medium to keep warm.
- I continued to dip flowers for at least 20 minutes after turning the machine off.
- Make sure to hold your flower over a paper towel or scrap paper to allow all the excess wax to drip off. The less wax that remains on the bloom the better.
- I used a tall plastic, recycled takeout container so that I could work the excess wax off by twirling the flower between my fingers while holding it down in the container.
- Just have fun with it!
Here are some creative ideas for enjoying your blooms in their new form. I have many more ideas that I will photograph and share with you soon. Once you get going with this stuff, it’s hard to stop!
A single rose in an unexpected place is always a treat.
Use a shadow box style frame to keep your preserved Valentine’s bouquet along with the card that accompanied your special gift from that special someone!
When I was working on this Valentine’s keepsake, I remembered my mother-in-law’s bride and groom from her wedding cake. I had been planning to create something with it for so long. I love the way it looks with the preserved flowers and their wedding photo. I can’t wait to give it to her. I know she’s going to love it!
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