Scented Crafts

It's always nice to give handmade candles as gifts.
One of the challenges can be trying to mail candles
to friends or relatives that weigh under a pound in
order to make it possible to send candles off to as
many people as will fit within your candle shipping
budget! Of course, if you have a sufficient budget,
this does not apply to you ... but, if you do have one,
then creating fun candles on the smaller side can
have its advantages. Since wax is heavy, this may
leave you feeling that you have very limited options.
But, with creativity on your side, you can easily
make pretty candles on the small side, without
simply sending plain votive candles.

This candle design is actually an "embellished
votive" in a sense ... it's a votive candle dressed up,
and it shines in a very unique way ... with an inner
color that softly lights up behind a curtain of "lacy"
wax and dripped wax. You may be familiar with
ice candles, but if you are not, then here is your
first experience with how to make these on a
small scale.

Ice candles are typically seen in a large design
with lots of holes in the outer wax layer ... they are
typically made with a pillar candle in the middle and
an outer shell of wax, with the outer mold being
either round (using a candle mold), or square ...
often using a tear-away recycled mold, such as
a half-gallon paper milk carton. On these lines,
the votive candle design can be used with a
quart milk carton (or cream container) ... votive
in the center and the outer mold a square.
In this design, I've gone with a round outer mold,
using a plastic sour cream container as the mold.
Of course, if you have molds for these, you are a
step ahead, but for a "on the fly" candle design
with on-hand materials, you can use this for your
candle, with a paper cup as your votive mold.
If you haven't had a chance to invest in molds yet,
then here are a couple you most likely can find
fairly easily.

The finished result of this candle weighs about
7 ounces, and if you use a soy-paraffin wax for
your votive, the burning time is about ten hours.
A nice little gift ... very pretty while it's burning too.
Of course, you can come up with plenty of other
design ideas, but for this candle, I went with a
"snowy" or "icy" theme. My finished candles
are a light blue in the center, but my first practice
candle ... the one I initially took photos of during
the process, was not colored, but the candle
scent was amber, so it turned the wax yellow.
This is one thing you will need to watch out for,
by the way ... so, for my blue candles, I will be
using a fragrance oil with minimal to no color.

Here is the process ... first for the votive.
I used a "Dixie Cup" for this candle, poking a
little hole in the bottom of it with a poultry lacer
(thin metal pick) and threading a pre-waxed wick
through the hole. Sufficient extra wicking is left
available at both ends of the candle ... this will
make more sense later. Once the wicking is
through the hole, if you pour just a little wax in
the bottom and allow it to harden around the
base of the hole, it should seal up adequately
enough to be able to pour the candle without
any wax dripping through.















Once this candle has molded, it's time to make
the ice candle. For my outer shell mold, I have
also poked a hole in the center bottom, however,
this hole needs to be poked through with the tip
of a knife or the like.










When this is done, then the votive is set inside
the mold, with the wicking threaded through the hole ...
you may need to play with this a bit to get it right,
but if you left yourself some extra wicking, it's not
difficult to do. Remember that the top of your votive
is going to go into the "bottom" of this mold.
If you string the wick through this way, then
you will have a cleaner finish when your candle
is coming out of the mold.
















At this time, you will want to be melting your
wax for your outer layer. It can be a bit tricky
to determine how much to melt, but a basic
guideline would be as much as will loosely fit
into the outer mold ... this should be an adequate
amount, with some left over for over-dripping.


Making sure your votive is well centered, small,
broken pieces of ice can be set within the container.
Ideally, the pieces should simply be randomly
scattered ... it should not be too thick with ice, as
you must remember that wherever there is ice, there
will be no wax and for burning purposes, you want there
to be as many areas of wax as possible, with just small
holes here and there. In bigger ice candles, with a
larger center core candle, large holes may be desired,
but in this little candle, it's best if we give the votive a
bit more support. In this way, your candle will burn
without losing it's wax as much through the holes.
















However, ice candles normally do tend to drip through
the holes, so they must be placed on a plate or candle
holder when burning. While on this note, if you want
your votive to be a bit thicker, or if you want to give it
a frosted look, dip it in wax a few times before mounting
it in the outer container mold.

This part can either be done at this point or later ...
the clipping of the wick for the bottom of the candle.
I used a square wick tab that sets into the wax.
If you do not have these types of tabs, you can simply
leave it without a tab.














Now that the ice is arranged, it's time to pour the outer
layer. Make sure you have colored (if wished) and scented
your wax. This wax was not colored, but some stearic
acid was added to give it a little more opaque quality.
Simply pour the wax around the votive and onto the ice
pieces until the level reaches just to where the bottom
of the votive is ... make sure your candle is sitting on a
level surface while it cools.

















When hardened, it's time to see what happened ...
always the fun surprise part of candle making. Take
the candle out of the mold (or tear the mold away if
using a milk container, etc.) For finishing touches,
place the candle on an old plate or pie plate that you
don't mind pouring over, and do a bit of over-pouring.
















Final wax touches ... wax was lightly poured all
around the edges of the candle, with excess wax
"mopped up" from the spilled wax with a small metal
spatula, smearing the wax along the sides of the candle.
During this process, I also "topped up" the center of
the candle, pouring over the votive so there was a
clean, smooth surface on top.
















Now is a good time to mention embellishments that
may sit on top of the candle. Certainly, you can come
up with many ideas of your own ... mine, for this candle
was a snowflake. A snowflake candy mold was used
to create these, with some glitter placed in the mold
ahead of pouring. Although this got a bit covered up
when I dripped wax over the candle near the completion
of the candle, the glitter made its presence known while
burning, which is a pretty effect.

To place the embellishment on top of the candle, heat
a thin metal rod to poke a hole in the center of the
wax embellishment, then string the wick through it
and center it on top of the candle. There should still
be sufficient "additional" wicking available for you at
this point ... enough to raise the wax embellishment
up off of the candle just a bit so you can pour just a
bit of hot wax underneath it. Press down immediately
to form a bond between the wax embellishment and
the top of the candle.
















You may wish to finish up with a few slow drips
of wax around the edges and some glitter (I used
clear glitter) sprinkled along the outside edge.
If you let your wax cool down a bit in your
melting pot, you can drip wax down the sides of
the candle that will create a true drip effect
(in other words, the wax won't run down as quickly).

















Once all is cooled down, your wick can be
clipped and your candle is ready for wrapping
and sending off ... but, remember, for your first
one, it's very important to burn it yourself as a
test burn so you know for a fact that all is well
with your candle design.


















(After I make some more of these, I may post additional
photos.)
A nice place to start in your search for candy molds ...
Candyland Crafts



It's a great time to make some ice candles !!