I mentioned in my post about my shrine that I make my own beeswax candles. The process really isn't difficult and with a few tricks it's not too time consuming either, it is pretty messy but newspaper or a dedicated work area can compensate for that.
A word on measurements and temperatures. I don't measure anything for this, it's all strictly eye balled and it works pretty well for me. Feel free to take notes for your own reference the first time you do it :) I recommend keeping a notebook in your work area for such things. I've got tips and tricks I've picked up from the internet and my experimenting in mine.
Tools:
A cutting board or surface you don't mind beating up (or best of all both).
A knife and/or a grater
A double boiler
Stove top or hot plate (I use a double hot plate I picked up from Walmart)
A soup can
Mold for your votive (you can get these on ebay for pretty cheap, most large craft stores probably carry them as well. I use the very basic mold but you can find some that will let you run a wick out the bottom etc)
Clothespins
Heat proof gloves/oven mitt
Consumables/Supplies:
Water (for both the bottom and top of the double boiler)
Beeswax (I bought raw unrefined beeswax from a local supplier, I was charged a bit much as it was the middle of winter but I love the smell of raw beeswax, I'm pretty sure the larger craft stores will have beeswax available as well but it will almost certainly be refined.)
Wicks (please do use actual wicks, ebay is, again, a great source for these you can also get them from craft stores but they can be pricey. If you use anything other than a wick it likely won't burn well and will smoke etc.)
Note: If your beeswax is not pre-bought in beads or, like me, you bought blocks from an apiary/beekeeper you're going to need to either grate it or dice it into much smaller portions. The largest I would recommend is 1" but really think metric here and go for centimeter sized cubes, best of all is grating it but grating takes an ENORMOUS amount of time. Remember the smaller the pieces, the more surface area exposed to the heat source, the faster they'll melt. You can remove most of the wax from your tools by putting them in boiling water for a minute or two, or you can just accept that they're going to be covered in beeswax for the rest of their lives with you. :)
Dicing, or grating, the wax is a total pain in the butt up front but well worth it. Be careful as the wax is dense and can be slightly sticky and hard to work with, you might want to use a heavy blade like a cleaver to break up the large pieces initially.
1.
Prepare the work area. Put down newspaper or prepare to be anal retentive or sacrifice your work area to the wax. Beeswax, unlike paraffin wax, will not only cling to everything and cool to opaque but can be slightly sticky (mine certainly is but again it's unrefined so there's a fair bit of actual honey in it too) and in my experience almost never pops up in one clean piece, thus cleanup can be a complete nightmare if you don't take precautions.
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| An example of a double boiler, yours doesn't need to be nearly this nice, in fact the cheaper the better |
2.
Set up your double boiler. Fill the bottom portion about halfway with water, remember that the water is going to boil so leave room for the movement or be aware there's going to be spitting and spilling. I also put water in the upper portion to help conduct heat to the soup can. I've found that by adding water to the top portion of the boiler I cut the time to melt the wax in half. Yeah, in
half.
2.
Start heating up your double boiler.
3.
Place your soup can in the center of the top of the double boiler (or an even a smaller can depending on how many molds you've got and how many candles you're going to make).The can will probably float, adding wax will keep it stable.
If your double boiler has a lid go ahead and put it on, this will help trap heat and speed things along. I'd recommend a glass lid so you can keep an eye on the wax. My lid didn't come with the double boiler but I got both at a second hand shop and paid I think $1 for the glass lid (bonus of purchasing together; I was able to make sure the lid fit safely and reasonably securely).
4.
Wait for the wax to liquefy. Stick around and don't leave the room, I haven't had wax boil over or do anything else dramatic but it's helpful to stir the lumps as it start to melt to spread the heat around. Also safety first, remember you've got a hot burner, boiling water, and soon to be melted wax all in one place so walking off is probably not the best idea. Small children and pets
will find it, one of my cats has nearly sniffed liquid wax a few times, bless his little flat head.
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| An example of the super basic molds I use |
5.
Cut and place your wicks in the mold/s. This is again a process of eyeballing but I generally go for a length a little over 3" or so. I'll dip the wick in wax really quickly then let it harden enough to handle. Then I straighten it out and use a clothespin to hold the dipped wick vertically in the center of the mold (the clothespin sits on the top edges of the mold with the prepared wick dangling from it). You can set this up for several molds at once as long as you have enough clothespins. I usually do five molds in a row.
6.
Use your heat safe gloves to pick up the can of wax and carefully pour liquid wax into the mold (I use garden gloves with rubberized palms and fingers for this but I would HIGHLY recommend a test run with anything you plan to use as it's possible that similar gloves to mine could get warm enough to melt etc and severely injure you, that said I prefer the garden gloves as the oven mitts lack some tactile grace). I like to flick the mold a few times to chase out air bubbles, you still may get them but it's not the end of the world if you do. You can always re-use the wax in another candle. I keep all my tailings etc to reuse.
You don't need to wait until all the wax in the container is melted, you can pour as it liquifies, but I would recommend leaving a good portion of liquid wax in the can in between pouring as the liquid wax helps spread and radiate heat and improves the speed of the melting process, bit like the water in the top of the boiler.
7.
Rinse repeat until your molds are full.
8.
Wait. You can carefully move your molds to a cooler area or simply leave them as is. Whatever the case it is going to take probably 3-5 hours for the candles to fully harden to a point where you can pop them out of the molds.
My work area is in our utility room which opens directly onto our fenced middle yard area so I usually move the full molds onto a small bench/table right outside the door. This is mostly to keep my clumsy self from knocking them over etc but the outdoors is usually cooler than the laundry room/work area even though I usually have the door open to let steam from the double boilers out.
Part of the reason I work there - aside from being the only really feasible location in the house to do so - is because of it's proximity to the outdoors. If something goes hugely wrong I can chuck the whole setup outside and grab the fire extinguisher by my knee and douse things down. So far I haven't needed to do either :D
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| BAM finished product! |
9.
Free your candle from the mold! Once you've given the molds plenty of time to harden there are a couple ways you can pop the finished candle out. Like I said I use the cheapest most simplistic mold possible, think ice cube tray for wax, only the individual trays are separate. Sometimes I can press my thumb to the edge of the candle in the mold and apply pressure inward toward the wick and loosen it enough that flipping it over will free the candle. Other times thwacking the bottom of the mold with one hand while holding it with the other will work, and occasionally I've had to kind of squash/roll the mold between both palms with a fair bit of force to get them loose enough to fall out. If all else fails leave it alone for a day and try again sometimes it just needs to harden a little more.
So far I've never had to resort to greasing the molds or forcing a tool between the candle and the inside of the mold to get the candle out but it's a possibility. I've seen internet sites recommending the use of vegetable oil or spray oil to prepare molds, I won't recommend it 'cause I've never tried it.
10.
Trim your wicks. You can do this with a pair of scissors but I prefer to burn them off. I just light the wick and allow it to either burn up the excess or burn through it so that the excess falls off. If you have pets or small children around you may want to just snip it rather than give them ideas :D
That's it you're done.
Bare in mind there may be color variations in the candles if you're using raw unrefined beeswax. The top of the candles may also crack or be uneven or lumpy but this has never bothered me as it doesn't effect it's functionality:).
I prefer beeswax candles because they smell better, burn WAY longer, (seriously if you're trying to do something where you need to burn the candle completely go get a paraffin birthday cake candle 'cause you're going to be hating life with beeswax) and they burn with less soot than paraffin candles.
Happy candlemaking! Feel free to post any questions/concerns/observations etc as I'm always willing to learn. :)
