Recycled Candles
2010-Mar-29, Monday 05:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chebeCandle making is very relaxing. There is absolutely no pressure. If you make a big mistake all you have to do is melt it down and start again. That's what candles do afterall; melt. Consequently there is very little waste. So eye up all those boring odds and ends of candles that never get burnt, you can make something extraordinary from them. (I find this works best with unscented candles, as you only have to worry about colour, and maybe wax hardness, not whether three or four scents are going to work well together. I'll confess though, I'm very much an unscented candle person at the best of times, my sinuses just can't take the heavy perfume.)
My Dad a while back rescued some seasonal candles from work. Large, white, pillar candles, decorated on the surface with silver script wishing holiday greetings in various languages. They had been lit for maybe four, five hours. And then consigned to the rubbish bin. All I needed was a sharp craft knife with a long straight edge, and I simply scrapped the decoration off. Somewhat reminiscent of peeling a carrot. Oddly relaxing as well. Leaving pure white, nice quality wax candles behind. Now I can decorate as I wish, restore the smooth finish with over-dipping, or just a hot spoon, or go all out and melt the whole thing down* and store the good-as-new wax for future use. All the stuff I scrapped off ended up in little curls and spirals, like chocolate will do.
So, I decided to grab a square column mold, put a wick in place, and fill with these curls that reminded me of newspaper. I melted some plain wax and poured it over. The curls collapsed in on themselves and shrank to half the volume, mostly melting, leaving the ink, and a nice texture behind. When cooled I topped up with more curls and darkened the wax with a chunk of left-over black wax from a previous project, to a stone grey. Which is exactly what it looked like in the end, a strange kind of rough granite. I like the appearance, a dirty and smooth recycled look. Which is what it is. Everything bar the wick was just left over from other candles. But now it's beautifully unique.
(With flash)
When the curls melted a large portion of the ink fell, which means there's a dark grey spot surrounding the top of the wick. It'll be interesting to see if the burning is affected.
The extent to which the curls melted surprised me. Next time I think I'll try chilling the curls in a freezer before use. Also, this candle was hard to get out of the rigid mold, I forgot to grease the mold with release agent/vegetable oil before use. That'll teach me.
*(Be extra careful the wick doesn't catch fire. Just as the wax turns liquid you should be able to take the wick out whole. I find this is much easier than cutting the candle into pieces (especially as you're likely to cut the knife through the wick as well). If you think the wax is dirty (with flecks of sulphur or whatnot) I hear running it through a sieve lined with tissue paper, like kitchen roll, does the trick.)
My Dad a while back rescued some seasonal candles from work. Large, white, pillar candles, decorated on the surface with silver script wishing holiday greetings in various languages. They had been lit for maybe four, five hours. And then consigned to the rubbish bin. All I needed was a sharp craft knife with a long straight edge, and I simply scrapped the decoration off. Somewhat reminiscent of peeling a carrot. Oddly relaxing as well. Leaving pure white, nice quality wax candles behind. Now I can decorate as I wish, restore the smooth finish with over-dipping, or just a hot spoon, or go all out and melt the whole thing down* and store the good-as-new wax for future use. All the stuff I scrapped off ended up in little curls and spirals, like chocolate will do.
So, I decided to grab a square column mold, put a wick in place, and fill with these curls that reminded me of newspaper. I melted some plain wax and poured it over. The curls collapsed in on themselves and shrank to half the volume, mostly melting, leaving the ink, and a nice texture behind. When cooled I topped up with more curls and darkened the wax with a chunk of left-over black wax from a previous project, to a stone grey. Which is exactly what it looked like in the end, a strange kind of rough granite. I like the appearance, a dirty and smooth recycled look. Which is what it is. Everything bar the wick was just left over from other candles. But now it's beautifully unique.
(With flash)
When the curls melted a large portion of the ink fell, which means there's a dark grey spot surrounding the top of the wick. It'll be interesting to see if the burning is affected.
The extent to which the curls melted surprised me. Next time I think I'll try chilling the curls in a freezer before use. Also, this candle was hard to get out of the rigid mold, I forgot to grease the mold with release agent/vegetable oil before use. That'll teach me.
*(Be extra careful the wick doesn't catch fire. Just as the wax turns liquid you should be able to take the wick out whole. I find this is much easier than cutting the candle into pieces (especially as you're likely to cut the knife through the wick as well). If you think the wax is dirty (with flecks of sulphur or whatnot) I hear running it through a sieve lined with tissue paper, like kitchen roll, does the trick.)
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Date: 2010-03-29 07:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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