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Doing different things...

CANDLEMAKING

Don't you just love candles! I burn some almost everyday. To feed my habit, I learned how to make my own candles.

There is no real "formula" to make a candle correctly. You have to tweak your own recipe to see what works. I would buy wonderful smelling scents to add into the candle wax, and find that when I burned them, they didn't smell. That's called a scent "throw". Another problem that I had was adding too much oil. If you put in too much scent oil, the wax sometimes gets too "greasy" and your candle won't stay lit. As a beginning candlemaker, these are problems you want to avoid.

After experimenting for the past few years, this is the "formula" that works best for me. Keep in mind that to personalize a candle, you can still tweak it by experimenting on your own. Most of the time, I am happy with the way my candles turn out. But once in a while, I still get the candles that won't stay lit, or have no throw. Making candles is a lot of fun, and while making them, the house smells wonderful!

Formula:

  • 1 lb wax - I buy the 11 pound slab at Michael's and break it up into one-pound pieces. I make sure that I always buy the wax with a 40% off coupon that Michael's has fequently.

  • 1oz to 1-1/2oz scent oil

  • Dye     - Depending on what color you want to achieve (light, dark, in between), sometimes just a chip from the dye block, or sometimes a whole section - I buy the color dye blocks from Michael's and also Hobby Lobby.

  • 1 TBL Stearic Acid     - This is needed to make your candles a little harder and be able to burn longer, and you can add more scent oil for more "throw". An absolute "must have" for a steady burning, strongly scented candle!

Equipment needed is:


  • Wax melting pot

  • Bigger pan or metal bowl to be used as double boiler

  • Mold (with wick stick)
  • Sharp knife to cut wax and color dye block
  • Wick
  • Wick pin or wick bar (see below at Lone Star Candle Supply link)

Preparing the mold:

Place a glue dot in the center bottom of the mold. Place your pre-tabbed (metal holder clamped on bottom of wick), wick on you glue dot, and secure. Some people tie their wicks to a pencil and center the wick stright up in the middle. I like to use the wick bars from the Lone Star Candle Supply, it really holds a wick tight, or the wick pin, which is the best option. With the wick pin, you place it in your mold, pour in the wax, re-top the sinkhole (after it's been cooled for a couple of hours), and wait a couple more hours until done. Your candle, when it comes out of the mold, will have a hole in it. You just stick a pre-tabbed wick in there, and you're done. The pre-done hole helps eliminate the whole wick falling to the side situation that occurs when you use the tying to the pencil route. The hole is straight, whereas sometimes, when you use the other routine, the wick can get pulled to the side when cooling down. Always trim your wicks to about 1/4" even when burning, so you don't end up having a wick fall against the glass because it was too long, and then it will break your candle holder.

RECIPE:

Put 1lb of wax into the wax melting pot. Place the melting pot into the water in a pan on the stove, just like a double broiler. (I use a metal bowl as my pan, so that I don't ruin a nice pan. Wax always gets into the water, and I don't want to have to deal with that in a nice pot). Turn the heat on medium-low. Add 1 tablespoon of stearic acid, and how much dye you decide to use. (If you add too much dye, the candle will "smoke" more when burned.) Let it melt slowly. After your wax is completely melted, take the wax melting pot off of the stove and place it on papertowel (absorbs the water from pot). Now add your scent, or combination of scents. (I can add 1oz - 1-1/2oz to the melted wax). Stir the scent into the melted wax, then pour into prepared molds. Save a bit of the melted wax (it will get hard, but can reheat later), so that you can "top off" your candles. After cooling, candles tend to have a sinkhole by the wick (like a basin). In order to fill in that sinkhole and make the top of the candle flat, you remelt the remaining wax that is in the pot and pour it in after the candle has been completely cool for a couple of hours.

My favorite candles are votives. You can use them in so many different settings and arrangements. I've made other candles too. Sometimes I get too many Ball jars from my canning, and use them as a container. I mark them with a permanent marker on the bottom of the jar so I don't use them again for canning. I do clean them out and re-use them again for a candle container. Don't burn the new candles right away. You can if you want, but I noticed they burn better after storing them away for a few months. I put the votives in Ziploc bags, and make sure I put a cover on the ball jars. So, if you were going to make holiday gifts, you may want to start now!

Lonestarcandlesupply.com sells scent oil (the best in my opinion), wicks (you can buy in bulk), glue dots, wick bars, wick pins. The wick bars, wick pins and glue dots are lifesavers to me. I don't make any money from Lone Star Candle Supply (wish I did) - so check them out!