How To Make Your Own Candles Blog

How to make container candles – a child friendly candle making recipe

Kev — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:23:20 +0000

Kids like crafts and, for a while now, we’ve offered child-friendly kits for making candles with beeswax sheets. However, the candles we see all around us tend to be container candles. These are usually created by melting container wax in a “double boiler” and pouring it into the glass jar, tea cup or whatever. This is all very well, and we have some lovely kits for making container candles but until now they’ve not been suitable for children (except, perhaps, older children under very close supervision).

So, we’ve come up with this recipe for creating a jam-jar container candle without needing the double boiler setup or handling molten wax [remember to click the Print button top left to print them out]

What you need

Containers – these should be specifically suited to candle making. You can see our range of candle containers by clicking the link
Wax pellets (standard, paraffin wax – not container wax which comes in blocks). For variety, and a nice sweet aroma, you can also use a mix of beeswax pellets and paraffin. Our Wax Refill Pack is perfect for this job and you’ll get several jam jar candles from one bag.
Wick – see our wick sizing guide to decide which one you should choose. Err on the smaller side if in any doubt
Self centering tab or similar to fix the wick to the bottom of the jar
Blutack or similar
Optional – some candle making dye
The secret ingredient – a hair dryer!
Some oven gloves

How to do it

Important: of course, even though we’re not using a double boiler, a hair dryer is still very hot and the glass will heat up quickly. So this is a recipe suitable for older children and supervision is essential.

Cut the wick to size and pass it through a tab, using a pair of pliers to carefully close the neck of the tab (you may need to help the child with this step)
Attach some blutack to the underside of the tab and fix it to the bottom of the jar/container with the end of a pencil if your fingers don’t reach. Make sure it’s nice and tight
Pour the wax pellets into the jar, keeping the wick roughly central. You might want to try having alternating layers of beeswax and paraffin wax. Fill it to just beneath the neck of the jar – don’t overfill – as I did in this picture, resulting in the pellets going everywhere when I turned the hairdryer on!!
If you’re using dye, break it up into small pieces and sprinkle around the wick on top of the wax pellets
Put on your oven gloves, turn the hair dryer up to maximum and point it onto the wax. It will take some time to begin melting, make sure you move the head of the hair dryer around to distribute the head evenly
What will happen is that the paraffin wax will melt and seep down the container. You can keep going until you get the effect you’re after: some people prefer to see the pellets further down, some prefer it to look solid.
You might want to heat the outside of the glass if you find an area that looks uneven
Top up the wax if it sinks too far and quickly melt it to form a plug at the top to seal the candle
Leave it to cool – make sure you don’t touch it until it has cooled down.

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How to make Egg Shell Candles

Peta — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:25:17 +0000

We had Ham, Egg and Chips for dinner last night and instead of throwing the egg shells in the bin I kept them to make cute little Easter candles in. I washed the shells and put them to one side to dry. Then I sat them upright in the old egg carton.

Meanwhile, I melted some Container Candle Wax but you could try recycled wax from used candles if you wanted to, although I haven’t tried this. There is probably only around 10g wax in each egg shell but they do vary as I didn’t take great care when cracking the eggs.

I didn’t add any dye to the wax but poured it carefully straight into the egg shells when melted, not quite to the top though. And I kept a little of the wax in the pan which I will come back to later.

After a couple of minutes, as the wax was just starting to set, I dropped a Tealight Wick and Tab into the centre of each egg shell. One of them refused to sit up straight and I realised that the egg membrane had lifted up inside the shell when I poured the hot wax in so I gave it a poke with my stirring stick to break it.

Once the wax was set I melted the remaining wax in my pan along with quite a high concentration of Yellow dye. Once the yellow coloured wax was fully melted I gave it a stir and poured it very slowly and carefully over the wick to create a small puddle of yellow, representing the yoke.

My candles were complete! I can’t decide what to do with them though, I don’t want to burn them, although I am a firm believer that candles are for burning not for decorating a room! Maybe we’ll just keep them here until Easter and set them alight when we’ve eaten all the other eggs….the chocolate ones! Now there’s another idea, perhaps we’ll have Egg Mayonnaise sandwiches tomorrow and then I can make some chocolate coloured, chocolate scented egg candles too!

If you would like to purchase any of the materials referred to in this post here are some money saving Coupon Codes for you! Enter ‘EASTER’ to reduce the price of our Container Candle Wax by 25%. To buy our Tealight Wick and Tabs at half price use the coupon code ‘EASTER1). If you do want to use some Easter scents we have Chocolate or Hot Cross Bun available at a reduced price using the coupon code ‘EASTER2′. Happy Candle Making!

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How to make a spring bulb container candle

Kev — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:58:24 +0000

Making this container candle with a twist is pretty simple, as long as you follow the steps! This candle is actually two in one: a flower tart embedded within a container candle and you can experiment by adding one scent to the flower tart and a different one to the container.

Here’s what you need to make this (note- links are given to our shop for convenience, you can use your own supplies if you have them) :

A glass container – we bought ours from Wilkinsons in a pack of 6. You need to be careful if the container was not specifically designed for candle making (as in our case) as it’s possible it will shatter if the glass comes into close contact with the wick. So, if you’re using a pudding dish, for example, drop the wick size by one so that the heat is more gentle.
Container wax – Use our guide to calculating the amount of wax to use to help you work out the amount.
Wick and tabs – use our guide to calculating the wick size to work out which one to use. This is the right wick for a teacup width container. If you don’t have tabs you may be able to get away with using white tack instead.
Flower tart mould
Paraffin Wax for the flower tart mould
Dye and scent as required.

Procedure

Work out how much container candle wax you’ll need using our guide.
Using your double boiler (a smaller saucepan resting inside another containing one third hot water) melt the container wax
Cut your wick to length and drop it into the wax, pull it out immediately and lay it to one site to cool and solidify – you now have a waxed wick
Slide the wick through a tab, trim it and stick a little white tack to the bottom to fix it in place in the centre of the bowl
If you’re using dye add it now, once mixed in, add any scent
Pour the wax into the container so that it ends up at the right level – it needs to be low enough so that when you place the wax tart on top, it’ll still be below the lip (see figure 1 below)
Use a wick holder, or a pencil with a blog of blutack, to hold the wick upright while it cools
While it’s setting, use a second pan to make your flower candle using these instructions alternatively, you could use a tea light of a contrasting colour to the main container
Once the flower candle has set, but while it’s still warm, drill a hole for the wick to pass through
IMPORTANT: place the flower candle/tea light into the fridge- it must be cold to the touch before you carry out the next phase
Once the container candle has set, thread the flower candle onto the wick (see figure 2)
Now, reheat the remaining container wax and, very carefully, pour it around the flower/tea light – leaving it slightly proud of the surface. The coldness of the flower candle should prevent it from melting as it comes into contact with the container wax.
Leave it overnight before lighting.

Figure 1

Figure 2: ready for the second pour

The finished candle

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How to make waxed wicks

Kev — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 20:02:49 +0000

You’ve probably noticed that many of the candles you buy in the shops have a wick that’s been prewaxed. This is because the vast majority of them are made on an industrial scale without a wick. They’re either made in a mould containing a spike which leaves a hole up the middle of the candle or the hole is added later.

When creating candles at home, it’s not necessary to use waxed wick but the effect can be very nice and, fortunately, it’s dead easy to achieve. All you do is melt the wax for your candle in the usual way and, before adding any dye, drop your cut length of wax into the pan and hoick it immediately out again. It will cool and solidify almost instantly and you can now attach a tab to it. One benefit of this approach is that the wick is stiffer and easier to get perfectly straight and this, along with the fact that it looks appealing, is why all of our new kits use wick that’s been waxed in this way.

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How to choose the right candle making kit

Kev — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:53:36 +0000

MakingYourOwnCandles offers a range of candle making kits – how do you choose which one to buy?

Here are a few questions that might help you decide:

1: Do you want a great general introduction to candle making?

If so, our Professional Candle Making kits are a good choice. With these kits you can make 10 “votive” sized candles with a 15 hour burn time. What’s a “votive” – it’s a candle often used in churches (hence the name), somewhat similar to 4-5 tealights stacked on top of each other. Looked at another way, they’re like mini-pillar candles. By using a Pro kit, you get 10 scented, coloured candles and you get to develop your skills using moulds.

Alternatively, our Flower Tart Candle Making Kit allows you to make 25 delightful flower shaped candles.

2: Are you interested in making container candles?

We have a range of container candle making kits: including mini jam-jars, plain glass and “supply your own” kits where you can use any heat-proof and non-flammable container. Container candles are a little simpler than moulded candles and the containers can be reused. Container candles can include scent and dye.

3: Do you want to make LOTS of candles? Do you want to make them for the lowest possible cost per candle?

Our bulk candle making kits have proven extremely popular since we introduced them in 2010. These kits allow you to make up to 40 container candles either using the glass containers we supply or you can provide your own. Tea cups, mugs, jars and tins make excellent containers and all our kits contain complete instructions.

4: Do you want the easiest to make candles? Kid safe?

Then choose our Beeswax candle kit. This kit includes pure beeswax sheets made in the UK which you simply roll up tightly around a wick and decorate.

5: Do you want to make Pillar Candles?

We have an easy to use pillar candle kit that creates candles that are 4 inches wide by 6 inches high. The kit uses eco-soya wax which gives a lovely lustrous finish and burns beautifully. Perfect for the mantelpiece.

6: Do you want to treat yourself or someone else?

Our Deluxe Candle Making Kits are the ultimate candle making experience. They include everything from the professional kit plus extra bits and pieces including a thermometer, extra scent and dye and containers. It doesn’t get better than that!

7: How about experimenting?

If you want to have a go at making your own candles either using home-made moulds (for example our pumpkin recipe) or by pouring into your own containers, we have a range of wax and wick kits to suit.

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Welcome Candle Maker!

Kev — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:47:44 +0000

I’d like to welcome you to our Candle Making website. This site contains recipes, instructions, advice and information about candle making aimed both at experienced candle makers and newcomers to this creative craft.

We also feature news about promotions and new products on our shop site MakingYourOwnCandles.co.uk which supplies professional-quality kits and materials that can’t be found anywhere else.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Peta & Kev Partner

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Christmas Candle Scent

Kev — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 03:31:42 +0000

30ml of scent – enough to scent around 600g wax

Click here to see our despatch and delivery policy

Article source: http://www.makingyourowncandles.co.uk/christmas-candle-scent/

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Deluxe Candle Making Kit: Chocolate and Vanilla

Kev — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:10:29 +0000

Make 2 flavours of candle with one kit!

This kit contains everything you need (except basic kitchen equipment) to make 10scented and coloured votive candles with up to 15 hours burn time each. You can then reuse the moulds to make further candles using our low-cost refill kit.

Whichever you select, you can look forward to a home filled with a pleasant, relaxing aroma from a candle with a gentle, warm flame.

What’s different about our kits?

We’ve developed these kits by using them to create candles ourselves. Because of this, we know that all of our kits work reliably in the real world, producing excellent, consistent, results whilst being easy for beginners to use.

Our kits arenotmass-manufactured, plastic toy kits: this isrealcandle-making equipment and ingredients aimed at people who want to learn how to do it properly. They also make theideal giftto introduce a loved one to the creative world of candle making.

Unlike any other supplier, we include beeswax in our kits because this hardens your candles and makes them burn longer. It also makes the scent of the candle a little sweeter. Just add 10% beeswax to your paraffin wax to get the ideal mixture.

Clickhereto see the instructions we include with our kits.

Each kit contains:

2 x metal moulds
450g Blended Paraffin Wax
50g Beeswax (hardens your candles and makes them burn longer)
1.5m Wick (plenty to spare in case you want to experiment)
12 metal tabs (for fixing the wick to the bottom of the mould: includes 2 spares)
Pipette for measuring scent oil
Wick pins for keeping the wick straight while the wax dries
Blutack for sticking the wick to the wick pins
2 x Glass votive holders
2 x candle dye: Chocolate and Cream
2 x Scented Oil: Chocolate and Vanilla
A Candlemaking thermometer for precise measurement
Full illustrated instructions

What’s the difference between this and the Professional kit?

This kit includes 2 candle dyes and 2 scents so you can make a combination of variations. There is plenty of each to enable you to go on and make another ten candles just by buying some more wax, wicks and tabs.

The kit also includes a candlemaking thermometer so you can get the temperature exactly right for perfect results and 2 glass votive holders to display your finished creations.

This kit is packaged in a brown box containing fushia tissue paper

DESPATCH: We aim to despatch all items on the working day following any orders placed by 4.30pm.

Questions? Email us at peta@makingyourowncandles.co.uk

Article source: http://www.makingyourowncandles.co.uk/deluxe-candle-making-kit-chocolate-and-vanilla/

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Christmas Candle Scent

Kev — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 10:29:45 +0000

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Article source: http://www.makingyourowncandles.co.uk/christmasmas-candle-scent/

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BULK Flower Tart Candle Making Kit

Kev — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 10:29:42 +0000

This kit contains enough materials to make at least 50of these cute little flower shaped candles, also known as wax tart candles. They can also be made without the wick and used in oil burners as Wax Tarts.

Select your favourite colour to make your perfect flower candles. These candles make a beautiful table decoration – unscented candles are best for the dining table so that you can savour the flavour of your food! They also float.

This is a bulk version of our Flower Tart Candle Making Kit which allows you to make 25 scented candles. It is perfect if you want to make a lot of candles in one go, or for groups to use, perhaps in schools or clubs.

Find out how easy they are to make by taking a look at the instructions.

What’s different about our kits?

Our kits are not mass-manufactured, plastic toy kits: this is real candle-making equipment and ingredients aimed at people who want to learn how to do it properly. They also make the ideal gift to introduce a loved one to the creative world of candle making.

Each kit contains:

10 x metal moulds (reuseable)
1kg Blended Paraffin Wax
60 tealight pre-assembled wick and tabs
10g Dye
Full illustrated instructions

This kit is packaged in a plain brown box.

DESPATCH: We aim to despatch all items on the working day following any orders placed by 4.30pm.

Questions? Email us at peta@makingyourowncandles.co.uk

Article source: http://www.makingyourowncandles.co.uk/bulk-flower-tart-candle-making-kit/