Candle Making Challenge

I have been asked by the lovely people at

Homecrafts Direct to try

candle making as a new craft. 

 

 

So they sent me the following products to try on this new challenge.

 

A selection of different wicks in various thickness

candle rods

and wick sustainers 

Different colourants 

a big bag of paraffin wax

 

The challenge was to make some candles without a mold and no instructions!

 

I was working a bit blind really but this is the result

 

 

 

And here's how I did it ......

 

 

Firstly, for safety, you must never directly heat paraffin wax on a direct heat source so I used an old saucepan and a tall metal container in which to melt the wax creating a double boiler.  You add water to the saucepan and heat it on a relatively low setting until the wax melts.  I added the wax to the metal container and melted until it was clear and water like. 

 

The wax should not be melted any higher than 90 degree centigrade because it is highly flammable.

You can buy thermometer to measure the temp from
Homecrafts Direct.

 

 

I purchased some cheap baking trays and poured the melted wax directly into the tray and then I added the colourant. 

I used about a fifth of the bottle. 

Each colour needed a new tray of melted wax.

 

Star Cookie Cutters

 

I allowed the wax to cool until it was still soft and easy to cut and used the star cookie cutters to cut out star shapes in each of the trays of wax colours.  I used the yellow and then I mixed the yellow colourant with the red to create orange.

 

 

 

I then used a thick needle to poke a hole through the centre of each star and used the needle to thread the wick through the metal base and the hole

 

 

I then threaded a number of stars onto the wick to create my candles

 

 

The final piece

 

 

I wanted to make something that was different that would not require a candle mold.  I had seen square stacked candles in the shops and this is what inspired me to make my own version.  I had the star shaped cutters by me and thought I could attempt something for the centre of Christmas table.

 

 

My only disappointment was that I didn't know that you have to dip the wick into wax before threading it onto the stars so that it will burn well.  I only managed to get one of the candles to burn properly. 

 

If anyone wants to have a go at making candles, it is a thoroughly enjoyable craft and it can be absorbing as one can create an enormous variety of candles with basic equipment. 

Starter kits are available from £27.99.

and also good photographic instructions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bee x

 

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