Last year we went to this Harvest Fall Day at a Nature Center in our town, and we had an outright blast. They had scarecrow making, a big fire pit with s’mores, an apple press where you can take tastes of fresh pressed cider, and our favorite thing: candle making. The hilarious part about it though was you would stand in this long line, dip your cotton thread in, the go to the back and wait all over again. But for some reason it was totally worth it! The kids seriously loved it. And they had more patience than I did! I was the one asking if we could go to the next booth and they were determined to make their candles, until my Dad and bonus mom became literal saints and said they would wait in the line and dip the kids’ candles while we went and saw the rest before the day was done. (THANKS GUYS!!!)
The kids never stopped talking about making the candles. With the set up that the event had, (a slow cooker! Brilliant!!) I knew I could conjure up something that might work. I had a brick of beeswax in my craft drawer that I’d been holding on to for about 3 years. (Hello over achiever Kate, when I thought I wanted to make my own scented candles with my essential oils 3 years ago… fyi, it never happened.) Luckily, I found it in our tower of boxes in the basement that we haven’t gotten to unpacking yet, and probably won’t for another 3-4 years. Marie Kondo, can you come over?!
Also in my possession was an antique taper candle mold that my nana had in her collection. I kept it all these years dreaming of when I could make my own candles. Isn’t it sad that it took me so many years to get up the gumption?? I especially think that now knowing how easy it is.
The Chef *ahem* co-craft master, helped me figure out the best way we could go about it, by putting a large pot of water on the stove, and a large mouth mason jar in the center that would hold the melted wax. I wish we could’ve found something that would work even better, but the amount that the beeswax gave us, we needed a tall cylinder heat resistant container to be able to have the kids dip their cotton wicks. Ok. Let me just type it out like a recipe because that’s what I’m most comfortable with.
Homemade Candles
Difficulty: Easy20
minutesIngredients
Beeswax or Soy Wax- it’s far easier if it’s pre-chipped, but a block will work
A large pot
Water
2 Large Mouth Glass Mason Jar- or other tall heat resistant cylinder
100% Cotton String
Taper Candle Mold (Not necessary. You can just dip them if you’d like)
Directions
- For Hand Dipped Candles
- Pour water into the large pot until it’s almost to the beginning of the mouth. Bring to a simmer.
- Add in the wax until it’s just below the mouth of the mason jar.
- Wait for the wax to fully melt. Taking your cotton string, cut it to the length desired. Dip into the wax and wait 30 seconds – 1 minute to make sure the wax has fully seeped in between all of the fibers. Pull up and let cool for 30 seconds or so until hardened.
- Dip your waxed cotton string into the wax again quickly. Don’t leave it in for to long or the wax might melt off. Let it cool for about 10 seconds and repeat until the desired width.
- To shorten the cooling time, take the second mason jar with cool water and dip the “candle” into the water in between wax dippings.
- For Taper Molds
- Melt wax as desired above.
- Prepare your molds by feeding the cotton string through the taper mold. Tie tightly onto a pencil, chopstick or other device to make sure the string stays centered in place of the mold. *Also be sure to tie a knot at the tip side part of the mold if it’s the kind that has a hole going through*
- Pour melted wax into a pourable container. Quickly and carefully pour the wax into the mold being careful not to move the string out of place. As is cools, the wax will sink into the mold more, so top it off so the wax is at the very top of the mold. This may have to be done a couple times.
- Let it cool completely. At least a couple hours or overnight.
- To release, cut off the knot at the tip of the taper mold so the string can slide through. Cut or untie the string off of the pencil/chopstick, but make sure you leave yourself enough string to be able to pull out the candle from the mold.
- Run the mold under hot water for about 20-30 seconds. Try pulling the string to release the candle from the mold. If it’s taking to much effort, put it back under the water for a few more seconds.
- Cut off any excess string, cut off the bottom, or melt down slightly and press onto a cold counter top to square off the bottom. You have just made yourself taper candles!!!
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