BeeLoved Wraps – keeping ‘food fresh, naturally’

Rachel Kroeger

Staff

January 5, 2026

WESTBORO – Following a tenured career in accounting, Denise Johnson said she decided to take her creative passions full-time into retirement.

“I was an accountant for probably 45 years, [but] I’ve always been an artist,” she said. “I’ve been creating for 35 years.”

Operating under the name “ArtfulEarth,” Johnson said over the years, she’s created and established several product lines – including her all-natural, reusable, beeswax-based food wraps, BeeLoved Wraps.

Following a conversation with a friend of hers – “she makes soaps and a lot of natural products” – Johnson said the reusable beeswax wrap idea “kept popping up” in her brain.

“[I thought to myself], ‘You should look into that’ – so I did,” she said. “Next thing you know, I’m knee deep in fabric and beeswax, because I’m an artist. That’s what I do, and I enjoy doing it, so that is why I do it. My motto since retiring in 2017 is, ‘if it ain’t fun, I’m done.’”

Johnson said she turned to the “University of the Internet” to research and teach herself how to create reusable food wraps.

“I just started researching – finding different perspectives, different recipes and people were doing it all different ways,” she said. “I honed in on one company that was making them, and they put little video shorts out there [demonstrating] their process. So, I picked through those, and that was the rabbit-hole beginning.”

After perfecting her personal, handmade technique, Johnson said she obtained the necessary equipment and began experimenting with different brands of beeswax.

“I found local beeswax after many attempts [ordering] on Amazon,” she said. “[When] I ordered it off [Amazon], there were some that I don’t even think were beeswax, but I was fortunate to find a local supplier.”

Now, Johnson said she’s excited to have officially established BeeLoved Wraps as the newest creation in her ArtfulEarth brand.

Reusable, washable, traditional

The process of handcrafting beeswax food wraps, Johnson said, is fairly involved.

“I pick up 20-30 pounds [of beeswax] at a time,” she said. “I use organic, cold-pressed jojoba oil that I order online – but it’s made in the U.S. – and pine rosin, which is basically sap from pine trees that I also get [in] the U.S.”

After melting and mixing all the above ingredients together, Johnson said she then rolls the mixture onto 100% cotton fabric.

“I take an actual paint roller, and I roll it on the cotton fabric that is already cut to the size that I need,” she said. “So, that process would make a wrap. I’ve also started making bags, which involves cutting the fabric and then sewing it.”

Johnson said the beeswax bags cost more than the wraps because the process of making them not only calls for more material, but more effort as well.

“I’ve managed to master the art of making a bag,” she said. “You have a double layer of wax you’re dealing with, and you have to pull the bag apart so it doesn’t cool and stick together. So, the process, too, is a little more labor intensive, and that’s why they cost more – there’s double of everything.”

The food wraps, Johnson said, are washable for up to one year of use – keeping “food fresh, naturally.”

“This is a process that’s been used for thousands of years,” she said. “We’ve just gone the way of plastic and disposable everything.”

Food wraps, Glow Lights, more

Johnson said BeeLoved Wraps’ products have been a hit at the local markets and events where she does most of her non-ecommerce business.

“The beeswax wraps I’ve been selling at farmers markets and craft shows [are] crazy popular,” she said. “I get customers who are familiar with it – some of them own them and use them – [but] others have no clue what they are at all.”

Johnson said her offerings don’t stop there.

In addition to beeswax food wraps and bags, Johnson said she has expanded her offerings to include beeswax Glow Lights.

“I take that same [beeswax-food-wrap] recipe and the same fabric, wrap it around a glass – a tall, glass, [cylindrical] hurricane vase – set that on an LED base, and it lights up,” she said. “The beeswax just gives it this beautiful glow.”

At artfulearth.com, Johnson said she offers an even wider range of products, including prints of her artwork on mugs and apparel, as well as handmade Corian cutting boards sold under the name “Cutting Boards Wisconsin.”

“The ArtfulEarth website I consider [to be] my business card, basically,” she said. “That [website] has links to everything, because I also have a YouTube channel [where I post an] online teaching course, too.”

Johnson said the online course covers a drawing method she developed herself called L.O.V.E – “Lines Of Vibrational Energy” – NeuroArt.

“It’s a therapeutic drawing method,” she said. “It’s really helping people cope with stress and lots of problems in their lives.”

Recently, Johnson said she discovered a new way to combine her mediums and began painting with beeswax on Corian boards – a venture that’s led her to additional community-based art opportunities on top of those she’s already an active participant in.

“I started creating encaustic art – which is painting with beeswax – and I’ve been invited to do a two-month art exhibition starting in January at the Chestnut Center for the Arts in Marshfield,” she said. “I’ve [also recently] started to do the farmers’ markets through the summer and some craft shows for this holiday season.”

‘Feels like my time’

Available both at nearby retailers and online via her website, Johnson said customers don’t have to be local to enjoy her products.

“I’ve got five or six stores that [BeeLoved Wraps is] in, and I’m looking at maybe [pitching] a few more stores over the winter,” she said. “I ship [my products, as well], and… I’ve got some wholesale accounts, but I don’t want to get too many [of those] because, again, if it ain’t fun, I’m done.”

Living with her husband, Coby, on a 33-acre hobby farm “in the boonies” of Westboro, Johnson said all of their products are manufactured on site at their property.

“We’re on this little lake, I have my own art studio, [and] it’s just heaven here,” she said. “I’m really grateful for that.”

As a retired creative, Johnson said she enjoys the freedom of being able to create what she wants when she wants – as well as selling them however and wherever she wants.

“It feels like my time,” she said. “It’s freedom to have my own schedule and live life the way I want to.”

For more on BeeLoved Wraps, Glow Lights and more, visit ArtfulEarth’s aforementioned website.