Many years ago, in fact too many to remember, I used to play about with making candles. Indirectly heating wax in a saucepan of water. Mucking about with Stearin and colours. Occasionally adding scent. Trying to get the wick sizing right. Looking for good containers to uses as moulds.
More recently, as in the last 20 years I have made further candles for Ruth. Right up to date and we’ve being using candles as low power heaters where the heating isn’t quite necessary but where there is a bit of chill on the air. Also, its very relaxing have those flickering flames.
So I’ve invested in a better melter, using a temperature controlled hot plate, a pouring jug, a digital thermometer and various other equipment to assist in the hobby. I’ve got a couple of new moulds, some new wicks and am also experimenting with environmentally friendly “Soy” wax.
Anyway, here are some of my recent creations.
This was a glass candle which was bought complete but which was burnt down. I simply cleaned the glass and poured a Soy replacement candle. One advantage with Soy is it doesn’t shrink quite as bad as Paraffin wax as it cools. This candle was not topped up as it solidified so there is a slight slump but never as bad as Paraffin would present.
This was another pre-loaded glass candle, which was Soy based and scented with Orange. An attempt to burn it caused the wick to burn out. The wax was too soft and needed Stearin adding to raise its melting point. So I melted this white wax, tainted it Orange, added Stearin and topped up the wax. I then added a new, thicker wick and re-poured. It looks the part and still has the scent.
Now this is a Yankey Candle that was burnt out. Yankeys are Paraffin waxed based and I poured this one using the same. It proves the Paraffin makes a better candle. Lots of colour for a rich, deep red. This one is scented with Lemon Grass. Okay, the colour doesn’t match but we’ll see how it goes.
This is the result of a solid mould giving a good size candle with the ability to burn the majority of its fuel. The blue and purple candles are Soy and were a right pain to get out of the mould. I had to heat the mould in a warm oven to cause the surface of the solid candle to start melting and then eject the candle using compressed air. I also tried cooking oil to lubricate the mould, which stained the purple candle. Don’t do that again. On the other hand the red candle is Paraffin wax and just fell out the mould. So easy.
These are rose cluster candles made using a flexible silicon mould. The purple ones are Soy and the red one is Paraffin. In this case it seems the Soy works better, but it is important to chill the curing candle in the fridge until very cold so that the mould ejects successfully.
And there we have it for now. I have some more glass containers to experiment with and I am looking for nice silicon moulds to try. Sadly it seems that the most pushed moulds are of the naked female figure. I’m not interested in this design as quite simply it won’t burn well. Another one I found was one of Jesus. Now they didn’t think this through, clearly. You make a candle of your Lord and Saviour, and then set his head on fire….
