Letter Writing - Wax Seals

I have always had a love affair with letter writing and journalling and as you will know I often talk about my dream of owning a little writing bureau for all my writing and correspondence ephemera and nik naks. Oh the though of those little draws filled with yummy things does excite me greatly! I have had pen pals on and off for most of my life and more recently I have been writing lots of letters.

When we got married we decided to send out gorgeous letter press invitations with the thickest linen paper, they were trully scrummy, I wish I had a photo to send you but I am afraid that I don't, you will just have to take my word for it, they looked gorgeous. They were sealed with a ribbon and a gold wax seal. We had a seal made with our initials J&A especially for it. I cherish that seal although I knew exactly where it was, it was just sitting there unused and unloved since 2007 until recently.

At the end of April, as you know I went to the London Stationery Show. I saw quite a few wax seals and sealing wax there (along with gorgeous fountain pens and inks, if anyone wants to send me any of those for review.......he he!!) and I was admiring them lovingly, reminiscing of the hours spent sealing out wedding invitations up. It was a great labour of love that was and a memorable evening doing all 200 of them!

When I went into Hema later that day I was pleasantly surprised to see a trio of lovely coloured wax seals at a very reasonable price of £2. I decided to purchase them as they were just so pretty and after oggling wax seals all day I so wanted to use mine badly!

I had a few letters to write and so I decided that everyone was going to get a wax seal on the back of it.

Using sealing wax is very easy. You just light the wick and let it burn and melt the wax. You then tilt it over the position you want it on your envelope and let it slowly drip down. I find that it is easy to put a few drops in a circle shape rather than letting it all mount up in one area. It is very therapeutic to just watch the wax drip. When you have enough just blow out the flame and press your seal down hard into the wax.

I love the imperfections that it makes. All the bubbles and drip splodges are just so appealing to me. I could quite happily create wax seals over and over for no reason at all!

The wax itself whilst is a beautiful colour isn't of the highest quality but then that is to be expected from the low price tag. It is really fun though and a great addition to your everyday mail so I will definitely buy them again. I looked the Hema website and sadly they don't have this trio online but they do have a red / gold / silver set again for £2. It was gold that we used for our wedding. We had cream paper, brown ribbon and gold wax seal (an Autumnal wedding).

So if you have never used a wax seal, why not get one and have fun using it on your next letter!





p.s. I am not currently looking for any more pen pals.