So as many of you know I have been struggling, just like 98% of the population, with a significant loss of income. As the holidays draw near I found myself trying to come up with creative gift ideas, and last week I decided I would try candle making. Seems simple enough right? I get to play with fire and hot wax and dyes and scented oils. 
So I purchased some wax and a candle making kit and some various scented oils and colored dyes. My package arrived last week. Today I finally took the time to make my first candle.
Now keep in mind, I am NOT the type of person who can make any first project simple. Nope so I figured screw votive candles I'm jumping right into pillar candles, and I will do multiple pours, with multiple colored wax, and then I am going to look into doing some engraving on the sides of the candles, and maybe even try to figure out how to fill the engravings with different colored wax.
Yep that's me in a nutshell. I don't like to start simple. When I was living in Spain and learning Spanish, I decided my first book that I would tackle in Spanish would be The Fellowship of the Ring aka Senor de Los Anillos: La Comunidad de los Anillos and you know what I finished the fucker. I call it the fucker with fondness mind you, but it was a bitch to read.
Sooo I roll out of bed around 10am this morning, it's a beautiful warm up to 85 degree day, I open all the windows in the house, I open the sliding glass doors to get a nice ocean scented cross breeze, I turn on some music, I make myself a pot of sumatra, I scramble two egg whites and one full egg, with scallions and smoked salmon, I have a lovely breakfast and start reading up on how to make my Christmas gifts of molten joy. I start breaking up the 10lb slabs of paraffin and start the double boiler around 11 or so this morning. Wax gets melted, I add the color chips that came with the candle making kit (I use 2 lavender color chips because I don;t want any stinking pastel colors in my candles!) and I decide to use the Sugar Plum Berries scented oil mainly cause it was one of my least favorite (aside from the downy fresh, seriously who the hell wants candles that smell like dryer sheets???!!! This was one of the scents that came with the kit, not my choosing) I am very picky about scented oils. I like natural smells and anything that is overly flowery or fruity that smells chemically is nasty in my opinion. The Sugar Plum stuff wasn't bad, just not as delicious as the lavender oil or lilac oil or red clove oils I got, which is why it got put in the status of the test bitch smell.
So I pour my first pour into my 3" x 6.5" candle mold (no I couldn't make a small pillar either. Like I said I'm an all or nothing kinda gal.) And I wait for the son of a bitch to cool enough to form a "surface"
and I wait
Then I poke relief holes around the wick, to allow for proper cooling. You do this to allow the candle to have vents as it cools and contracts, and to prevent air cavities from forming, the wick to get off center and/or deformed walls of your candle. And you have to repoke them and repoke them and repoke them and repoke them. It's like a doctor trying to keep an infected wound open to drain it
only it looks and smells much nicer 
And as you check and repoke the relief holes you wait for the son of a bitch to cool to room temperature.
So the damn thing finally cools off, and I get to reheat the leftover wax and do the second pour, and then you wait for it to cool.
I finished my candle around 6:30 tonight
No engraving yet.
But here is the finished product!
(It's the purple one in front) It smells nice, looks pretty, I'm going to do some engraving with a hot pointy metal skewer, and if I can figure out how, pour some black wax in the engraving to make it all fancy!
So needless to say, I'll be getting some more pour pots and molds, so that I can pour 3-4 candles at a time next time, and I have a whole new found respect for candle makers and their patience!!
Oh and I started candle no 2 tonight, but won;t finish it til tomorrow. It's going to be a creamy color on the bottom and purple on top and will be vanilla/lavender scented!!!
So I purchased some wax and a candle making kit and some various scented oils and colored dyes. My package arrived last week. Today I finally took the time to make my first candle.Now keep in mind, I am NOT the type of person who can make any first project simple. Nope so I figured screw votive candles I'm jumping right into pillar candles, and I will do multiple pours, with multiple colored wax, and then I am going to look into doing some engraving on the sides of the candles, and maybe even try to figure out how to fill the engravings with different colored wax.
Yep that's me in a nutshell. I don't like to start simple. When I was living in Spain and learning Spanish, I decided my first book that I would tackle in Spanish would be The Fellowship of the Ring aka Senor de Los Anillos: La Comunidad de los Anillos and you know what I finished the fucker. I call it the fucker with fondness mind you, but it was a bitch to read.
Sooo I roll out of bed around 10am this morning, it's a beautiful warm up to 85 degree day, I open all the windows in the house, I open the sliding glass doors to get a nice ocean scented cross breeze, I turn on some music, I make myself a pot of sumatra, I scramble two egg whites and one full egg, with scallions and smoked salmon, I have a lovely breakfast and start reading up on how to make my Christmas gifts of molten joy. I start breaking up the 10lb slabs of paraffin and start the double boiler around 11 or so this morning. Wax gets melted, I add the color chips that came with the candle making kit (I use 2 lavender color chips because I don;t want any stinking pastel colors in my candles!) and I decide to use the Sugar Plum Berries scented oil mainly cause it was one of my least favorite (aside from the downy fresh, seriously who the hell wants candles that smell like dryer sheets???!!! This was one of the scents that came with the kit, not my choosing) I am very picky about scented oils. I like natural smells and anything that is overly flowery or fruity that smells chemically is nasty in my opinion. The Sugar Plum stuff wasn't bad, just not as delicious as the lavender oil or lilac oil or red clove oils I got, which is why it got put in the status of the test bitch smell.
So I pour my first pour into my 3" x 6.5" candle mold (no I couldn't make a small pillar either. Like I said I'm an all or nothing kinda gal.) And I wait for the son of a bitch to cool enough to form a "surface"
and I wait
Then I poke relief holes around the wick, to allow for proper cooling. You do this to allow the candle to have vents as it cools and contracts, and to prevent air cavities from forming, the wick to get off center and/or deformed walls of your candle. And you have to repoke them and repoke them and repoke them and repoke them. It's like a doctor trying to keep an infected wound open to drain it
only it looks and smells much nicer And as you check and repoke the relief holes you wait for the son of a bitch to cool to room temperature.
So the damn thing finally cools off, and I get to reheat the leftover wax and do the second pour, and then you wait for it to cool.
I finished my candle around 6:30 tonight
No engraving yet.
But here is the finished product!
(It's the purple one in front) It smells nice, looks pretty, I'm going to do some engraving with a hot pointy metal skewer, and if I can figure out how, pour some black wax in the engraving to make it all fancy!
So needless to say, I'll be getting some more pour pots and molds, so that I can pour 3-4 candles at a time next time, and I have a whole new found respect for candle makers and their patience!!
Oh and I started candle no 2 tonight, but won;t finish it til tomorrow. It's going to be a creamy color on the bottom and purple on top and will be vanilla/lavender scented!!!
VIEW 19 of 19 COMMENTS
emma1:
Happy Holidays!
tunnel_vision:
Thanks