The Forgotten Art of Onion Waxing
An outline of the supplies, materials and preparation needed for decorating an onion.
When you try this old-timey craft, you'll find that
there's more to an onion than waters the eye.
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by Lynn Herion
Onion waxing is an old folk pastime. When I was a child, my
friends and I would gather buttons, broom straws, thread,
glitter, construction paper, and anything else that our
imaginations told us could be used for decorations.
Fashioning our onion creations provided us with many hours
of entertainment, and when the designing was complete, we'd
watch them sprout and grow.
I've continued the tradition of onion waxing with my own
clan. It provides an ideal diversion for a rainy day, and
we use the finished products as decorations, gifts, and
party favors. The cost is right, too, since the only cash
outlay required is that for a few of the vegetables and for
a bit of paraffin. If you'd like to try the art of onion
waxing with your own gang at home, let me tell you how it's
done.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED
First, of course, you'll need a supply of onions. Choose
some that are already sprouting and others that have yet to
put forth shoots, and try to collect a variety of sizes and
shapes. When waxed, onions take as little as a few days or
as long as a couple of weeks to sprout . . . an unknown
that adds suspense to watching your creatures when you've
finished making them.
It'll take about a pound of melted paraffin (or old candles
or crayons) to coat 10 to 20 onions, depending on their
sizes. You can use crayons as a main ingredient of the
melt, or add just a small number of them to color the wax.
You'll also have to round up a metal container large enough
to accommodate an onion and a melted bar of paraffin or its
equivalent. Because wax can be rather difficult to remove
from a pan, I suggest using a two-pound coffee can or a
similar container that you can set aside to be used solely
for this project. In addition, you'll need a saucepan
that's big enough to hold the can in several inches of
water. Never melt paraffin in a container that's
set directly over a heat source, as the wax has a very low
flash point and may catch fire.
