Thursday, June 4, 2009

Using sealing wax: a step-by-step photo tutorial

2-part letter with wax seals

One of my wonderful fountain-pen correspondents sent me this 2-part letter, both envelopes sealed with sealing wax and a different seal. He warned me in an email that a letter was coming in 2 parts, and I'm glad he did, because of course part 1 arrived the day after part 2.

Step-by-step photo tutorial on using sealing wax

In his marvelous letter, he gave a detailed explanation of using sealing wax, along wit all these wonderful photos documenting the whole process. I have still never used sealing wax myself, but I took photos of his photos just so I could share them with you all. They're marvelous photos, and I'm not sure if my photos of the photos are doing them justice.

Step 1: lamp and melting spoon
Step-by-step photo tutorial on using sealing wax, step 1

Step 2: cutting the wax stick
Step-by-step photo tutorial on using sealing wax, step 2

Here I'll note that he said in his letter he was initially loathe to try J. Herbin sealing wax because it was exponentially more expensive than the other brands, but he went on to explain exactly why it's exponentially better in quality, too.

Step 3: melting the wax in the spoon
Step-by-step photo tutorial on using sealing wax, step 3

Step 4: melted wax in spoon
Step-by-step photo tutorial on using sealing wax, step 4

Step 5: stirring with a match
Step-by-step photo tutorial on using sealing wax, step 5

Step 6: the wax before the seal
Step-by-step photo tutorial on using sealing wax, step 6

Step 7: Voila!
Step-by-step photo tutorial on using sealing wax, step 7

My meta-fancy was tickled that I got a photo of my letter, in my letter. This is probably a big part of why it came in 2 parts/2 envelopes... though it was nice and fat!

Thanks so much to the wonderful guy who sent these photos. I'll keep him anonymous unless he asks to share.

Isn't all his fancy equipment COOL?? (Yes, I'm very, very tempted...)