Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Deck the Halls...

Today I fished the gargoyle out of the garage and placed it on the mantle. I figure if I add one little Halloween item a day -- starting with leaves and working my way up to bats -- the place will be spooky looking by the 31st.

We actually tried dipping leaves in beeswax the other day (thanks Martha). Of course, first we had to find beeswax; our instructions from Our Lady of Gilt said to use bleached beeswax, but we only were able to find the regular kind at an art supply store. It yellowed the leaves only a little, and the "control group" leaves that didn't get dipped look less lustrous -- I think the wax conducts light. Other than that, the color between the two groups looks more or less the same; I suppose we'll have to see what the waxed leaves look like in a month.

Considering that cleaning a layer of formerly melted wax out of a pan took about as long as melting it in the first place, I'm not sure waxing leaves is worth the effort -- unless (as Mark pointed out) you want nice looking leaves in January.

Uh, no; we won't be dipping bats into wax to preserve them as house decorations.

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