I have been giving some thought to the letter writing logistics. I know I, and several others are excited to play with Wax Seals, but I also know that the letters will be opened by staff and forwarded. So I’m trying to think of a way to utilize a wax seal while still giving the staff a way to open it. Maybe I will do an envelope in an envelope with the bottom slit open?
Anyone have thoughts?
If you don't want to make your wax seals yourself, I can vouch for the peel-and-stick wax seals this Etsy seller makes. I got the peacock ones in teal!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/smithrj18?section_id=7748899
Wax noodling day one: wax is surprisingly forgiving with mistakes. I didnt have a crucible so i used an old metal spoon. Re: cleaning off the hell wax from a crucible: heat the spoon or crucible up, take off the flame, carefully wipe with a tissue. Ouila! No more hell wax!
ETA: no seal pictures included bc they are a surprise. Will post after ppl get them in mail. I did marbeling with sparkly wax and matte wax and it was fabulous.
For my early seals, i just remelted them down on a spoon and reused the wax again :) i dunno if that makes the wax more birttle or not. We shall see. So far, seems to be just fine :)
These just came in the mail and I am squeeing with joy. Trying parchment paper method. Will report back :)))
Not the best picture, but Violet's seal!
Check this out yall!!! How cool is this?????? https://twitter.com/letterlocking/status/1366692616423768065 Made me think of yall because it involves historians using new technology to find ways to read historic letters without breaking their seals!
Question that may be covered but I cannot find it- if we want to do a envelope to put our letter and little gifts in to keep it in character but leave it blank, do we add an extra envelope to the one I send to PO Box? (Example: want to decorate an envelope for someone in stamps, I send normal envelope with PO Box address, and inside has an extra envelope that’s been decorated, with letter and little gifts. Thoughts? Was this answered?
Skip to about 1 minute in! Seems to be a 'don't hold it still' technique!
Alternately you can cut off chunks of the stick and melt them in a metal spoon like wax beads.
This is wax seal adjacent, but I thought you brilliant minds might know.
I have wax sticks (of the older style of stiff wax, not the newer flexible stuff) that is designed to be warmed over a flame and then pressed into paper.
I have yet to figure out the trick with that, as it drips *into* the flame, or gets set ablaze, or hardens as I'm trying to smear it onto the paper, before I can press the seal into it.
But then I tried to shear some off and use a crucible, it adheres itself to the metal interior of the crucible.
Does anyone have tips for properly using wax sticks?
And does anyone have tips for cleaning this kind of hell-wax out of a crucible?
I LOVE that everyone else already had this concern too and has figure it out <3
Not pinging Athena on this -- but does anyone know if our seals need to be on wax paper or should they be off? I only did three so far, and peeled them off the wax paper?
@Athena Peters A question along these same lines - ought we to include extra postage when we send in our letters for the purposes of mailing them to their final destination?
I used wax paper and it came out perfectly imperfect. I'm not using envelopes because I'm folding in Austen's style so I'm planning to include a little baggy with the number of seals that matches the number of letters I'm sending. Also, my seal will be a peacock.
You could also add the seal to the back (depending on how you fold the actual letter) or put it with your signature like a royal seal!
I did the wax paper method. I'm also looking for my non-stick mini muffin top tin that I used in the past for this application. (The only thing I ever used for, actually). it had the unintended, but lovely side effect, of ensuring the seal shape was always round!
I asked about this, and was told:
"You could also press the seal onto some wax paper and include that in your letter. We can then just rewarm the back of the seal or use glue to attach it when it goes to it's final destination. We just want to make sure we are doing as little damage to your intended presentation when we open it to scan for content and code of conduct before sending it along!"
I was tentatively planning on just affixing the seals to the letter itself for convenience.
I'm planning on either pouring the wax seals over some circle stickers I have, or using glue dots after the seals are made if that doesn't work. So the staff will need to apply my seals like a sticker, basically.
You could also put something the wax won't stick to under the flap of your envelope/paper so that it looks like it's sealed, but is actually not.