Candle Making Instructions
From LoveToKnow Candles
There are many different kinds of candles that can be made in the home, but candle making instructions are basically the same no matter what you are making. While some types of candles are more difficult to make than others, most types of molded candles are very easy to make, whether they are tiny tea lights or huge three-wick pillar candles.
Candle Making Instructions: Preparations
The article on supplies goes into more detail about the things you will need to make candles. Before you get started, you need to collect your supplies: mold, wax, colorant and scent, if you are using them, wick, melting pot, hot plate (if you use one), mold sealer, stirrer and any additives you might be using.
Cover your work surface with newspaper or something else you don’t mind getting dirty. You might also want a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil to place the mold on when you pour the wax. This is a wonderful precaution to take in case your mold sealer doesn’t do the job. The wax will then pour out onto the tray where you can easily clean it up. Just allow it to harden, then peel off the tray and melt again.
(This is also a good trick if you want to make wax chunks for a chunk candle. Just pour the wax into a tray of aluminum foil formed to whatever size you would like your chunks to be, then pour, cool and break or cut the wax into chunks.)
Make sure you have everything you think you will need before you get started, because you never want to leave melting wax unattended, even for a few seconds. It can catch on fire very easily.
Candle Making Instructions: Getting Started
Before you turn on the heat, you’ll want to prepare your mold. You can spray the mold with mold release spray (cooking spray works fine) to ensure that the candle will come out of the mold.
Thread your wick through the hole in the bottom of the mold. If you are making votive candles, the mold does not have a hole, so you will need to use tabbed wicks (you can buy pre-tabbed wicks or buy tabs and make your own), which are basically just a piece of wick with a little metal piece attached so the wick will stand up in the mold.
The type of wick you use will be dictated by the size of the candle you are making. If you buy your candle goods online, the company you buy the mold from will likely give you a recommendation for the type of wick you should use. If you buy from a craft store, you may only have one choice. Using the proper wick makes for a better burning candle, but don’t stress yourself out if you can’t find the perfect wick. The stuff they sell at the craft store is good for most mid-sized candles.
Once you have threaded the wick through the mold, secure the wick to the bottom of the mold using a generous quantity of mold sealer, making sure you cover the hole in the mold well. Press firmly and use more sealer than seems logical. You’ll be sorry if your mold leaks, trust me.
To keep the wick straight in the mold, lay a wooden skewer across the top of the mold. Wrap the wick around the stick and secure the wick to the outside edge of the mold using a little more mold sealer. Make sure the wick is as straight as possible in the mold.
Candle Making Instructions: Wax and Beyond
Now you’re ready to actually begin work on the candle itself. If you have purchased your mold online, you may have seen in the item description how much wax the mold holds (measured in pounds). If you know this, candle making is easy. Just get out your kitchen scale, measure out the required amount of wax, melt, pour and you’re done.
If you don’t know how much wax your mold can hold, there’s more adventure in store. Don’t stress out, just eyeball it. How much wax do you think will fill the mold? You’ll probably be really wrong the first few times, either melting way too much or not nearly enough wax. Neither of these situations is a problem. If you have too much wax, make another candle. If not enough, make a layered candle, or remelt the wax and add more. The great thing about candle making is that you can always melt your mistakes.
Put the wax you want to melt into your melting pot, either on a double boiler on the stove or on a hotplate set very low. As the wax melts you can add your fragrance, color and any other additives.
Be careful when adding scent and color to candles. A little of either goes a long way. Start with just a couple of drops of fragrance (there are all sorts of scents available at craft stores or on the Internet) and a small piece of candle dye (which usually comes in blocks or chips with the consistency of crayons). If you want to see what color your candle is going to be, extract a little of the melted wax with a spoon and dollop it onto a piece of waxed paper. The color it cools to is the color your candle will be.
The only additive I use in candle making is stearic acid. This is a white powder that makes candles stronger and makes the color a little clearer. I usually just add one big tablespoon to the pot as the wax is melting.
Candle Making Instructions: When is it Ready?
There’s a lot of trauma surrounding when candle wax is ready to be poured. Candle making instructions written by experts will tell you that wax should be heated to a certain temperature (usually around 130 degrees) before being poured to make the best candles.
They’re probably right. And you can certainly get a candy thermometer and take your wax’s temperature and pour when it comes to 130 degrees. If you’re paying attention to the temperature, you’ll never set your wax on fire, which is definitely a good thing. But I’ve never measured the temperature of my wax, and my candles turn out OK.
I wait until all the wax is melted, then wait maybe 30 seconds more to make sure there are no solid bits I just can’t see, give it a good stir, turn off the heat and pour the wax into my mold. I have no idea what temperature it is, and that’s OK with me.
Fill the mold almost all the way to the top. Leave a little bit of wax in the pan if you can. As the wax cools, your candle will develop an indentation where the wax has cooled away from the wick. After the candle has cooled for at least a couple of hours, remelt the extra wax and pour it carefully over the top of the candle. You want the new wax to just cover the empty space. Try not to fill the mold higher than it was, or you’ll see a stripe on the outside of the candle.
Candle Making Instructions: Finishing Up
Allow your candle to cool overnight before trying to remove it from the mold. Take the mold sealer off the bottom and side of the mold, and with luck your candle will slide right out when the mold is inverted. If you’re not so lucky, place the mold in the freezer for about 10 minutes and then the candle really should come out easily.
At this point you can buff the candle with a soft cloth to remove fingerprints, or shine up with a commercial candle shine product. Or just leave it the way it is. Trim the excess wick from the top and the bottom (except with votives and shaped candles that have an obvious top, whichever side looks best should be the top, and the wick there should be trimmed to about a quarter of an inch before burning. Put it on a candle plate or in a candle holder and enjoy.
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