None of your . . .

Yesterday I ended up at the Union Square green market, as I somehow often end up at when I don't know where I'm going, and I ended up buying some small holiday gifts from the apiarist there. We've got more honey in this house than we can eat before the end of the world in 2012 (ha ha, I'm kidding, joke people). However, I was recently looking for some specific candle type of things and decided to try the 100% beeswax candles they sold as a byproduct of keeping bees. (And now, enter Eddie Izzard's voice in my head as he does his "I wanna keep bees" routine.)

Basically, I'm just doing etsy plugs today and that's my little meandering intro into why I started searching "beeswax"on etsy.

Besides the warm honey-ish smell of real beeswax candles, I also love the handmade and natural honeycomb look and texture of this style of taper.

No other etsy seller caught my attention in this field quite like Sunflower Candles. All of their candles are handmade from 100% natural beeswax.

Besides your standard, natural color beeswax tapers (pictured left) they offer a wide variety of heights, widths and shapes. ("Teensy Tapers" to "Tubby Tapers" as well as square, pyramid and even solstice tree shapes.) But their variety of colors and patterns is what really set them apart. She shop shows 14 different pattern variations (13 and 14 and pictured to the right.)

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Of course, if you prefer a more sculptural candle made of dense, solid beeswax, then PeaceBlossom's Pure Beeswax Candles would be my top recommendation. These candles might be too pretty to burn! And the variety of shapes and sizes is really amazing. Most of their designs fall into two categories, shaped candles with sculptured details (like the pillar with a phoenix on it pictured to the left) or a free formed sculpture that stands alone without any candle shape underneath (such as the cat candle to the right).

And if you're an animal lover, don't worry, they've got dogs, mice, rabbits, elephants, frogs, and I could keep on going.

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I had also wanted to feature another use of beeswax, besides candles, I even bought one from the stall yesterday, but I cannot remember the name of it, so I'm having a hard time finding any on etsy. They are solid molded beeswax, and are fairly large (4-6" in diameter), and flat. They are almost like giant beeswax Christmas tree ornaments, except the woman selling them said you hang them in windows, where the light of the sun can warm them up a bit, and they release the natural smell of the beeswax and make the room smell nice.

If someone knows the name of these things, or if someone on etsy is selling them, feel free to leave a comment and correct me on this bit.

Otherwise, go browse these shops, or search etsy for other handmade beeswax goodies (I didn't even touch the huge bath/body market that uses beeswax!)