Mary Allen
Wax is a material that can be kneaded when warm. If you heat it up, it becomes liquid. We know wax from nature above all from honeycombs. They store their honey in these hexagonal chambers.
People like to make candles from this wax. Sheep’s wool also contains wax, as do the feathers of waterfowl. This protects you against moisture.
Many plants use layers of wax to prevent them from drying out. You can feel the wax on the skin of some apple varieties. They feel slightly greasy. Today, artificial waxes with all kinds of properties are produced in factories for all sorts of purposes. Similar substances to wax are stearin and paraffin, which are used to make cheaper candles. The raw material for this is crude oil, which was formed from plants millions of years ago.
What can you do with wax?
Because wax softens easily, you can easily mold something with it. In the past, wax seals were embossed with a stamp and attached to documents. Coats and tablecloths were made of oilcloth. To do this, fabrics were taken and soaked in wax. This is how they became waterproof.
Wax is easy to color, which is why wax crayons are made from it. They make strokes with particularly strong, shiny colors. In addition, these images do not need time to dry like, for example, watercolors.
Wax is easy to polish. That’s why people like to treat wooden floors and old furniture with wax. This makes the structure of the wood even clearer.
Wax is slightly translucent and has a matte finish, much like human skin. For this reason, whole figures were sometimes modeled out of colored wax. Museums show how people used to live. In the wax museum, mainly famous people are exhibited.