DIY Wax Seals from Buttons
Wax seals made from buttons, metal buttons are shown next to seals
Easy-ish Seal Stamps from Vintage Buttons
Of course, they don’t have to be vintage buttons, a new one will do just as well as long as they have certain traits.
I bought a small batch of buttons on eBay specifically for the purpose of trying this. I bought this particular set because I noticed it had a fleur de lis button, a dragon button, a heraldic crest button, a ship and a Scottish thistle.
Perfect for a medieval collection!
First off, if you’ve never used a wax seal stamp before it takes a little trial and error in getting the amount of wax, the consistency and the ‘drop’ correct.
I have done wax sealing before and it’s still almost never perfect.
That said, I’m sure those who were sealing and sending back in the middle ages didn’t get it perfect all the time either, so imperfect is actually more historically accurate IMO.
But, we do strive for at least pretty good, right? And if you do happen to get it exactly perfect, it’s a happy moment.
The basic supplies and steps for wax sealing are these…
Supplies:
Sealing Wax
A Stamp (in this case, a metal button (Not sure if plastic would work or not - might melt?)
Some sort of heat - a candle, lighter, match, stove top etc
Something to melt your seal onto, usually a paper item, like a letter
Sealing Wax
Sealing wax quality varies.
I haven’t tried enough of them to give a recommendation outside of this - get the little beads instead of the stick, if possible.
The wax made today is a little more flexible, which makes it easier going through the mail without breaking.
Lower quality wax also smokes a lot. I found the sticks with the wicks to be the biggest offenders. If I was buying a stick, I would get the kind without the wick in it.
However, there’s obviously a trade- off in convenience.
If you aren’t melting the end of stick with a lighter, match etc, you need something to melt it in. I used my stovetop. I put a ceramic stovetop proof safe ramekin in a shallow fry pan and surrounded it with simmering water 1/2 up and gently melted the wax this way.
I used the beads and it worked well.
Note: if you’re sealing one letter every so often, obviously, the sticks might work better and you just let it drip directly onto your envelope. The stovetop is good for batch sealing.
Dropping the Wax…
I used both a spoon and chopstick to drop my wax.
It really depends on how large your ‘seal’ is. You may want to google the best method for getting a good drop of wax - there are folks out there who are experts, this post is more about making the seal out of a button.
That said, I found getting the amount of wax correct was really paramount in how the impression came out.
Too much and it just got gloppy and didn’t create a clean impression.
I had best results when dropping, letting it set for 7 seconds, then pressing my button seal into it fairly hard, waiting 10 seconds, then pulling it up. Again, it varies on how much wax you’ve put down.
As you can see from my images, it’s a work in progress, but I do have high hopes, because they really turned out better than I thought they would.
The right amount of wax was a drop just a bit larger than the button, try not to get it too thick.
Luckily, buttons have the little vertical piece that you put thread through, so there is something to grab onto when you’re placing it down and when you’re pulling up.
You can also mount them on a wine cork, which makes the placement easier as you can see what you’re doing without your fingers in the way.
Note: There are silicon sheets that have perfectly little round molds for dropping wax on to, and since its silicon, the seals remove easily (or so I’ve read, I haven’t tried it). If you’re making a lot of seals that you will later use with a glue gun to attach rather than the melted wax, this could be the way to go if your button will fit in the form. You can also buy glue gun wax.
Best Button Tips…
I loved, loved, loved the little Scottish thistle button.
Unfortunately, it just would not turn out. I’m not sure if it was because it was too shallow or because it had a lot of texture surrounding it.
The heraldic crest is also shallow, but that turned out better.
The large dragon gave a good impression, but it’s hard to see what’s going on. Perhaps too busy. The ship was the one that turned out the best, and the little fleur de lis worked pretty well too.
The more pronounced the design, the better it will stamp - I don’t think that’s big news, fairly obvious, but just something to keep in mind if you’re shopping for buttons for this purpose.
Mostly, I would say, just spend an afternoon practicing. See what works best and buy a few buttons to try. I rarely had wax stick to the button after picking it up, but it did happen once or twice. If that does happen, get the wax out or you’ll not have a good impression the next time you use it.
I used the end of a corn cob holder as a convenient little picker:)