The problem with using petrochemical derived products like Vaseline in lip balms is it seems to actually dry your lips out. And it needs reapplying very frequently. And in my experience it might form a greasy layer which may smell or taste nice but it’s not long before you’ve licked it off and your lips are no better for using it all day!

So the biggest switch for me was to base the balm around an alternative – beeswax. Readily available, cosmetic grade beeswax is relatively inexpensive, costing around £3 for 100 g. And its lovely to work with – fills the kitchen with the scent of honey as soon as the bag is open! You need to buy it in beaded form so you can measure out accurate quantities, down to the nearest gram.

The magic thing about using beeswax for lip balm is that it smoothly glides onto cracked and sore lips, forming a waxy, rather than greasy, long-lasting protective coating. Each application literally lasts hours. A natural barrier against the British weather – and you can’t lick it off!

So the base is beeswax, to which you add a combination of plant, vegetable or flower oils, essential oils and other natural ingredients which carry the healing properties you want to be in the final balm.

Then pot it up into small 5ml or 15ml jars – I would advise using cobalt blue or amber glass jars as these protect the important essential oils against ultraviolet light. Label, share out to your friends, and enjoy!

Ingredients.
For 100mls of basic lip balm I use:
30g cosmetic grade beeswax
68mls vegetable or plant oil eg calendula
2mls essential oil for scent and flavouring eg peppermint

Equipment.
Glass bowl to make the balm in and a saucepan it will rest over to make a double boiler ( water simmering in the saucepan but not touching the glass bowl).
Balloon whisk.
Measuring spoon or syringe.
Scales that weigh down to 1 gram.
Jars to pot up the final product.
Labels and ribbons to decorate.

Method.
In a double boiler, gently melt the beeswax and vegetable oil together. Take off the heat, whisk briskly with a balloon whisk and add the essential oils, still whisking.

It will start to cool very quickly and you need to pour or spoon it into jars before it sets!

Don’t reheat it once you’ve added the essential oils because they will denature and may start to smell awful! (been there, done that!). Depending on the properties of the vegetable oils you use, and the accuracy of your measuring, you may find the consistency of your balm varies from batch to batch. If you have a disaster and it sets so hard you can’t get any out of the jar without digging your fingernails in, don’t despair! Use it as a learning experience. Empty out and reuse the jars, and make your next batch with a slightly different ratio of oils and waxes – bring the beeswax down by a few grams and put the oils up a few mls and try again. Just aim to have the total number of mls and grams added together as 100 and with a little trial and error it’ll all work out!

Remember to research your ingredients to get the healing properties you want.

My current favourite is:
30g beeswax
45mls calendula oil
20mls jojoba oil
1ml calendula essential oil
2mls arnica tincture
2mls peppermint essential oil

Smooth water.

Flat. Mirror shiny.

Underneath gloomy and cold.

Fish moves along.

Catches the sunlight through the reeds

drawn upwards

swims faster

- rocketing –

and with an explosion of glassy droplets smashes the surface and is momentarily free.

Glistening in the sunlight

it sparkles

then falls back downward to its own world

copyright Debbie Donovan. Published in Poetry Now,1990 Anthology, South East Vol.1.

Blue seed bead snake mounted on a silver-plated bookmark

One of the easiest seed bead bookmarks to make is a snake. I make these in a variety of colours, patterns and lengths and use a jump ring to connect the snake to a silver-plated or Tibetan silver style bookmark, so it dangles prettily down the spine of the book when it’s being used.

To make a stripy blue 8cm long seed bead snake you will need:

■50cm silver-plated copper beading wire, 0.315mm diameter.

■2 bright red seed beads for the eyes

■15 dark blue seed beads

■40 light blue seed beads

■One silver jumping and one silver bookmark.

■Pliers for opening and closing the jumpring.

■Sharp scissors or beading wire cutters.

 Time needed: 20-30minutes depending on your experience.

Make me!

Start by folding your wire in half and giving it a couple of little twists to hold the loop in place. This is the loop at the head end of the snake that you will attach to the bookmark later on. If your snake is going to be a free-roaming creature you can snip thought the tip of the loop at the end to give him a forked tongue!

 Row 1:                 2 light blue

 Row 2:                 red, light blue, red

 Row 3:                 4 light blue

 Row 4:                 3 light blue

 Row 5:                 2 dark blue

 For the next 19 rows, use 2 beads for each row and build up a pattern of stripes:

 Rows 6,7,8: 2      light blue

 Row 9:                 2 dark blue

 Rows 10,11,12:   2 light blue

 Row 13:               2 dark blue

 Rows 14,15:        2 light blue

 Row 16:               2 dark blue

 Rows 17,18:        2 light blue

 Row 19:               2 dark blue

 Rows 20,21:        2 light blue

 Row 22:               2 dark blue

 Rows 23,24:        2 light blue

 Row 25:               1 dark blue

 Row 26:               1 light blue

 Row 27:               1 dark blue

 Row 28:               1 light blue

 Row 29:               1 dark blue

Now twist the wires tightly together after the last bead to close the beading. Cut the ends to 3 mm long and push them up between the last two beads in the design so they don’t stick out.You should now have a long, patterned, beautifully straight snake! Give him a bit of life by bending in some sideways zigzags just below the head and a further down the body so he looks wriggly, then attach home to the silver bookmark using a jump ring. Nicely done!

I hope you will find it a useful source of information as I spend the next few months writing about crafts that I enjoy doing and showing you how you can do them too.

I plan to show you a variety of techniques, to give you lots of ideas and some specific designs, and to signpost the way to new areas that you can discover.

Enjoy the journey!