Beware the widespread misuse of the term "Hand Made".
Many wraps suppliers claim that their beeswax food wraps are handmade when they are actually waxed on a machine and then (perhaps) cut to size by hand.
It's also common for suppliers to get pre-cut squares of fabric in bulk (which have been laser-cut on machines) and then (maybe) wax them by hand.
No matter how deep in the bucolic countryside a maker is, how many solar panels its got on its roof or how cute the name of its waxing machine is, unless a maker measures and cuts its fabric by hand and waxes those squares, its wraps are not hand made.
- How do you know if your wraps are really hand made?
- Don't rely on the marketing spin on websites, or even labels. Ask the maker directly whether they (or their suppliers) use any waxing machines, or mixing machines, or whether their fabric squares are laser-cut. Ask if their waxed sheets are hand-cut by them from larger rolls (see 3. below)
- Check out the maker's Instagram posts. They sometimes include clues in their videos, like showing a large roll of pre-waxed wraps that they are cutting or images of piles and piles of neatly stacked pre-cut fabric squares.
- If your wraps come in a 1 metre roll, they have to have been waxed on an industrial machine. It isn't possible to wax fabric squares that are bigger than about 30cm by hand (it would require a warm surface of 1m+ to keep the wax from solidifying in the process). We know because we've spent a year trying to do it. That's why we don't sell XXL bread wraps or rolls of beeswax wrap.
What handmade means to us at Honey Bee Good:
When we say our food wraps are handmade, we mean that:
Every fabric square is measured and cut to size by hand. Andrew is a whiz with the measuring tape, rulers and cutting tool.
We weigh and mix together the ingredients for our wax mixture, then cook it to blend properly, clarify it to remove any bits of hive or bark, and pour it into moulds to set into the golden bars that we use in the waxing process. That's Michele's job.
Each wrap is hand-painted. That's right, painted by hand! No machines, conveyer belts or other mechanisms, only Michele and her wax pot. That way we get to inspect each wrap for evenness even before it goes through our quality control at the folding and labelling stage. Then it's hung to dry - no fans, although if it's a nice day we open the windows!
We fold and label the sets, inspecting each wrap again, so that they're perfect and ready for you.
Feel free to reproduce any/all of this post. Please credit Honey Bee Good with a link to our website honeybeegood.co.uk