Introduction: How to Make Candles

About: Getting Crafty up in Canada and hopefully not hurting myself..Hopefully some more recipes and things coming soon!!
I decided to make my own candles kind of on a whim after I was too cheap to spend $22.50 on a candle from a fancy bath store. I bought the most basic of basic supplied. This is the steps I followed on how to make the candles. If you want more instructions, or information on where I got the items check out my original article http://scotthoughts.net/blog/?p=133

Step 1: What You Need

You need to get all the raw materials first. I opted for the easiest option, I purchased the following:

1lb Premium Candle Wax
Scent Oil
Extra Long pre waxed wicks
Candle Dye Block
Jar

From your house, the things you need to be able to make the candles are  a small pot, a bowl, a spoon, a funnel and a chopstick. Which is probably the most random list of ingredients ever, but you need the pot and bowl to create a double boiler, spoon to stir, funnel to well funnel, and the chopstick to secure the wick. All will be revealed, so just trust me!

Step 2: Chunk Up the Wax

With a knife, or as I found towards the end of my chunking, a cheese slicer, to get the wax off the block and into as small pieces as physically possible, this will speed up the melting time.

The cat assistant is optional.


Step 3: Melt the Wax

Once chunked up, you need to put your wax into your bowl. Then using the bowl and pot you create a double boiler. Basically half fill your pot with water, and place the bowl on top of it, the bowl should sit nicely on top of the pot. It is the same technique you would use if you were melting chocolate.

Step 4: Add Colour and Scent

Once the wax is melted, you need to add your colouring. I had a full bowl of wax, and i added 1 or two little flakes of colouring. You really dont need much of the colouring to get it coloured. I just dropped it in and mixed it, then added in a decent amount of the scent oil. I put in tonnes. Maybe I went to far, I do not know, but my candle smells amazing. I would say about 1/4 of the bottle is the amount I used. Put this all in while your wax is still sitting in the bowl and warm to ensure it all mixes together properly, stir it with a spoon to help it along.

Step 5: Pour Into Jar

Before pouring, I put my wick into the jar, and secured it around a chop stick so that it would lay flat and centred while I poured in my wax.

 I then set up the funnel into the top of the jar, as I knew I would spill the wax everywhere if i poured it direct from the bowl to the jar. For some extra added pizzaz I added some glitter into the funnel before I poured the wax to give the candle a nice girly shimmer.

Step 6: Set and Done!

I then put the whole thing in the fridge to set, I left it in there about an hour before I checked on it, by this point it looked like it was set but still felt warm so I left it overnight to solidify more before I decorated it.

The candle kind of sunk down around the wick whilst it was setting, but if you burn the candle then let it set, it sorts itself out.

The candle cost $6 to make (ill spare you the calculation, its on my blog if you care).

I found it really easy to make and I am very happy with the results!