As part of our “crafty Christmas” Pan and I decided to make some homemade candles. Now we have seen a host of this DIY craft on other sites and in books. But we wanted to kind of go out on our own and do something we had available to us and that intrigued us. So about a month ago we headed to our local craft supply and bought the following:
- Microwaveable soy wax
And then got together a clothespin, a microwaveable measuring glass/cup, some wood from our land and about 1 hour of time.
Before we could begin though Pan set about finding just the right wood from our land that she felt would make good candles. We decided to make both cylindrical “candlesticks” as well as bored out candle chunks. Once she got the wood, she used her 1-inch chisel and stripped the bark off. Using 180 grit sandpaper she smoothed the surface and gave it a very artistic look rather than a “rustic country cabin” look. The last prep step was to rub linseed oil on all the wood and allow it to dry completely.
Once the wood had completely dried we took them all inside and laid them out on paper towels with the holes upward ready to receive the wax. Before melting the wax though we measured and cut the wicks to there would be right at an inch of wick for each candle.
Following the directions on the soy wax packaging Pan and I broke off some chunks of wax, put them into the microwaveable measuring cup and allowed it to melt. We then carefully poured the wax into the holes of the candles. Lastly we put the wick down into the wax and secured them in place with the clothespin.
After letting the wax cool for about 10 minutes we removed the clothespins and beheld our new, homemade, decorative (and functional) candles.
