If you want to add wax seals to your journaling, wedding invitations, and any crafting projects, choosing the right kind of sealing wax can make all the difference. If you are new to the world of wax seal, the options out there can be overwhelming. Wax sticks with or without a wick? Sealing wax beads? Glue gun wax sticks? And what about all these spoons and furnaces everyone seems to always get? Rest assured, just like anything else, things do not look as complicated once you get to know them a little better. We are here to guide you through this decision process step by step.
Decide on Your Project
The first question you need to ask yourself is the type of project you are going to be needing wax seals. If you want to seal off a good number of wedding invitations, you are likely looking to create a larger quantity of wax seals with a single color. Glue gun wax sticks paired with glue guns are a no-brainer for us here. Although there would be a limitation on only using one wax color per glue gun, the perk is that it gives you melting wax quickly, effectively cutting down the preparation time so you can go straight to stamping and move on to other wedding tasks.
On the other hand, if you are getting into wax sealing as a hobbyist, we highly recommend going for sealing wax beads or wick/non-wick sealing wax sticks. That’s because you would most likely enjoy being hands-on and playing around with the techniques, wax colors, and materials to achieve one-of-a-kind results. These are perfect for small-scale projects where you only need a couple of wax seals and enjoy putting in the time to make them your own.
The Complexity of Your Desired Wax Seal
One thing we love about wax seals is that you can either be a minimalist or a maximalist with them. While simple plain wax seals allow you to admire the design itself, you can definitely get creative with different materials and techniques.
You do need to know that the more complex the resulting seal requires more attention in the preparation process. If you are going for a 3 colors marbled wax seal effect, glue gun wax sticks would be too much of a hassle, but sealing wax beads is perfect here because it allows you to easily measure out the amount of wax you need in different colors (3-4 beads is generally the ideal amount for a seal with 25mm stamp size). With the help of a sealing wax spoon, it would also be easier to control the melting temperature while giving you the sweet time to maneuver the marbling before pouring it out for stamping.
Sturdiness of the Sealing Wax
Any kind of sealing wax is all good when you are only using it for decorative purposes. However, if you are thinking of mailing out your wedding invitation with an elegant touch of wax seals, you are putting them out into the real world. Through the mailing procedures and the brutality of the sorting machines, it requires your sealing wax to be sturdy with a good level of flexibility so the seals hold their shapes better through it all. In this case, definitely skip the traditional brittle sealing wax and ones that are soft like our quick melt formula, although they do offer an exquisite soft matte touch.
Stepping outside the realm of sealing wax, we also recommend inquiring your local post office about whether they offer hand sorting services for mail with wax seals beforehand so you would not face any surprises when you drop off the invitations. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.
Accessories to Consider
Any kind of sealing wax you encounter will require some kind of tool because it needs the means to melt the wax. As wax seal users ourselves, we understand the number of tools requires to create a wax seal can sometimes be a deal breaker when you wish for something quick and simple. We are here to conclude the necessary accessories for each type of sealing wax.
If you are only looking at the result and don’t mind being high maintenance, we highly recommend sealing wax beads and non-wick wax sticks paired with our melting kit. This combination yields the most stable results while also allowing you to be creative with every seal.
As for glue gun wax sticks, they are meant to be paired with a glue gun. This combination is perfect for those who only need a single color of sealing wax and want to create wax seals in large quantities.
The lowest maintenance of them all would have to be wick wax sticks, which only require a lighter to light the wick. It does have a bit of a learning curve getting used to rotating your wax stick so it melts evenly without dropping the ashes from the burnt wick into the wax. We would also recommend using them only with mini wax seals because the slow melting would mean you only have a short amount of time where you can still make a seal out of the melted wax before it cools off and harden completely.
All in all, we would definitely agree that wax seal requires a lot of delicate handling and consideration through the process, but that also makes each seal so special and close to heart. Although they are not for the faint-hearted, we hope you would give wax sealing a chance and experience it for yourself. Hopefully, by the end of the session, you would understand how we and many others out there have come to love this art of wax and stamp so much.
